{"id":407260,"date":"2026-01-14T19:55:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T19:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/407260\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T19:55:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T19:55:07","slug":"ian-mckellen-to-star-as-ls-lowry-in-documentary-revealing-trove-of-unheard-tapes-ian-mckellen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/407260\/","title":{"rendered":"Ian McKellen to star as LS Lowry in documentary revealing trove of unheard tapes | Ian McKellen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fifteen years ago, Sir Ian McKellen<\/a> was among the leading arts figures who criticised the Tate for not showing its collection of paintings by LS Lowry in its London galleries and questioned whether the \u201cmatchstick men painter\u201d had been sidelined as too northern and provincial.<\/p>\n

Now, 50 years after Lowry\u2019s death, McKellen is to star in a BBC<\/a> documentary that will reveal a trove of previously unheard audio tapes recorded with Lowry in the 1970s during his final four years of life.<\/p>\n

The interview is the longest the artist ever gave and was recorded in his living room, his \u201cprivate sanctuary\u201d. The tapes are said to reveal Lowry\u2019s authentic voice, which McKellen will lip-sync on screen.<\/p>\n

The Lancashire-born actor described the role as a \u201cunique privilege\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese tapes reveal an intimate insight into the artist\u2019s thoughts \u2013 his ambitions, regrets and his humour. Anyone like me, who admires his paintings and drawings, will be intrigued and delighted that the artist is brought back to life through his own words,\u201d McKellen said.<\/p>\n

LS Lowry in 1960 in Middleton, Greater Manchester. Photograph: Robert Smithies\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Lowry is admired for his unique depictions of working-class urban life, mill scenes and industrial landscapes, peopled with his distinctive matchstick men. He learned his craft in the evenings at Manchester\u2019s Municipal College of Art and then at Salford School of Art while working as a rent collector by day.<\/p>\n

The tapes offer personal insights as he reminisced about his life, discussing experiences that shaped him from his childhood. The film-makers noted the \u201csurprising exchange\u201d between the enigmatic artist and a young fan \u2013 Angela Barratt \u2013 whose interviews \u201ccapture Lowry in his most intimate, reflective moments\u201d.<\/p>\n

The documentary, titled L.S. Lowry: The Unheard Tapes, is also billed as a portrait of urban life in the north of England in the 20th century, exploring the transformation of Salford and Greater Manchester<\/a>, the region Lowry depicted so prolifically and whose shifting industrial landscape profoundly influenced his work.<\/p>\n

Richard Grossick, representing the Lowry estate, said: \u201cIt is good fortune that these compelling recordings of interviews have survived and are being used in this way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of McKellen, he added: \u201cIt is hard to imagine any other actor better equipped to channel the rhythmical allure of Mr Lowry\u2019s distinctive bygone Lancastrian tones.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael Simpson, the director of visual arts at the Lowry, a theatre and gallery space in Salford which now holds the tapes, said they reveal \u201can artist of wit, contradiction and perhaps surprising depth, far removed from the myth of the \u2018simple man\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n

In 2013, Tate Britain finally staged a large Lowry exhibition, which was billed as the first of its kind held by a public institution since the artist\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

Going to Work by LS Lowry depicts factory workers outside Mather and Platt engineering firm in Newton Heath, Manchester, 1943. Photograph: IWM\/Imperial War Museums\/Getty<\/p>\n

Longstanding admirers of Lowry include Julian Spalding, who staged exhibitions of his work as the director of galleries for the cities of Sheffield and Manchester at a time when he said the artist was \u201cexcluded\u201d from London galleries and dismissed as a provincial northerner.<\/p>\n

Spalding has long accused the art establishment of displaying a snobbish elitism towards Lowry because he was from the north of England and popular with the public. He added: \u201cLowry wasn\u2019t allowed in the picture at all. But he\u2019s one of the big figures of British art of the 20th century \u2013 and he was totally sidelined.\u201d<\/p>\n

The role of Angela will be played by Annabel Smith, who is appearing at the Royal Court theatre in The Shitheads.<\/p>\n

The BBC Arts Arena documentary L.S. Lowry: The Unheard Tapes will be released on BBC Two<\/a> and BBC iPlayer soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fifteen years ago, Sir Ian McKellen was among the leading arts figures who criticised the Tate for not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":407261,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[88,206],"class_list":{"0":"post-407260","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-movies"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}