The inimitable Noodle Snake recorded an amusing podcast which all began with her purchase of a Showmasters poster featuring our own dear Rupert.
Listen in to all the confusions of her Quest to work out why the poster credits Rupert with work in both Merlin and Doctor Who! This very website receives several honourable mentions!! I feel like we’ve punched through to the next level of fame!!! (Or was that infamy?)
Thank you kindly, Noodle mate! I was in need of cheering up today, for sure. ♥
The wonderful actor Ian McNeice has been a great friend to Rupert for many years. Here’s a lovely shot of Ian with the Dear Evan Hansen cast, that he shared on Twitter after enjoying a Great Night at the theatre.
Thanks to the DEH New Year’s message generator…
I was browsing through the Dear Evan Hansen programme, and as usual paid close attention to Rupert’s bio. What new treasure might I unearth here…? Wait, what! “Koala Singing” in the television credits? What on earth is that…?!
A quick Google turned up no reasonable results, so I asked The Man Himself at the stage door – and Rupert confessed to occasionally including a made-up credit in his bio as a shout-out to one of his friends or family members. He said he hadn’t done it for a while now, but of course once I got back home to Oz I fished out my old theatre programmes.
This is what I found:
There are a couple of entries in the Company programme for which I don’t have any further details. One is for a legit production (Feeding Time at the Battersea Arts Centre) and the other might be true (Three’s a Crowd at Shepherd Churchill Hall). However, the three productions listed above seem to be fakes, so I decided to leave the two Company listings on my “more research needed” page.
Well played, Rupert!
We already knew that Rupert attended Pangbourne College in Berkshire during the academic years 1991-96, with mentions of his skills in (field) hockey and acting. Delightfully, though, the College has now digitised its annual magazine, The Log, and made it publicly available online – and so we are gifted with some more lovely details about our favourite young man.
If these magazines only provided a few dry facts, I would probably not cross the line and share them here. However, there are a couple of absolutely adorable anecdotes included – and while Rupert earned himself a negative remark or two early on, the whole story ends very happily indeed.
So, in the hopes that no one will mind too much, I hereby present the relevant excerpts.
[The following “Young” may or may not be our Rupert, but chances are that he would have been in the Chapel Choir, and it does feel rather irresistibly like him! There was another student as well as a teacher or housemaster named Young, hence the need for disambiguation.]
What a wonderful idea; combine a choir and brass group tour with a little culture in the company of some Lower Sixth Art Historians. Seduced by thoughts of Vivaldi, Gabrielli and Purcell blending with Botticelli, Brunelleschi and Michelangelo, a troupe of some 47 musicians, culture vultures and camp followers set off for Dover and parts foreign. …
The electric keyboard sounded more like a harpsichord as the evening progressed with La P doing her stuff and McVittie, Young (the thin, beardless, musical variety) and Gummer were in equally fine voice. It was especially good to hear Simpson finally being supported by the tenors he had abused, cajoled and at last convinced to open their mouths when singing and not just when eating.
Volti Subito
[That pseudonym is divine in this context. It’s a musical direction meaning “turn the page quickly”.]
After such a successful and enjoyable season it would be more fitting to look back at the players involved with the glory of a happily balanced side than to reflect on the highlights of autumn. …
Now looking forward we see a pack seething with spirit, keen to block, keen to drive, and always keen for ball. In the front row we had a specialist hooker in C. Young (we will not mention fine-outs) who was propped up by two valiant players in R. Young, the captain, and Davidson, both of whom would have preferred to play in the back row. They were very obviously worried about looking like a familiar Scottish biologist but were reassured when told that it took years to end up like him and that one term would do them no harm. …
This [a miracle transformation] is actually true of the whole side. After they had got down to basics and learnt how good discipline can be effective they became a stylishly professional side which deserved the success it enjoyed.
Well played!
T.J.C.R. / P.G.S.
Alexander Vlahos (the older Mordred in Merlin) posted this to Twitter. They are attending MCM Comic Con in Birmingham this weekend, along with Tom Hopper (Percival) and Asa Butterfiled (the younger Mordred).
Could he be any more adorable…?
Tom Hopper posted this image of the BBC Merlin peeps to Instagram on 18 January 2019. From left to right: our Rupert (Leon); Bradley James (Arthur); Eoin Macken (Gwaine); Tomiwa Edun (Elyan); and Tom (Percival).
Eoin Macken also posted it to Instagram, in black and white:
Bradley also posted the image to Instagram, with the message “You can tell this was taken having just eaten as @tom.hopperhops is smiling. Always a joy getting the squad back together”.
It also appeared on Tomiwa’s Instagram account, with the message, “Gettin’ the band back together. Feel the #magic!”
