Catherine Cookson The Gambling Man Cast

Robson Green in The Gambling Man The Wire in the Blood, Grantchester actor is almost a national treasure - but before then, he played Rory Connor, a down-on-his-luck Geordie with a bit of a habit. Jul 14, 2010 Catherine Cookson's The Gambling Man Based on one of Catherine Cookson's most beloved works, this made-for-TV drama revolves around slick cardplayer Rory Connor (played by Robson Green), a rags-to-riches gambler faced with a life-changing decision.

The Gambling Man is a British three-part television serial, or long TV movie, first broadcast in 1995, starring Robson Green, directed by Norman Stone, based on a novel by Catherine Cookson.

Norman Stone

Outline[edit]

Rory Connor (Robson Green) is a rent-collector on Tyneside with a passion for playing poker for high stakes, while Janie Waggett (Stephanie Putson) is the woman who loves him, standing by him through many troubles. Charlotte Kean (Sylvestra Le Touzel) is Connor's employer, and she too finds him attractive. He gets into bad company in the dark world of gambling, and is so sure that poker is his way to riches that he makes a terrible decision.^[1]

The plot may be partly autobiographical, as Catherine Cookson’s own father was a bigamist and a gambler.^[2]

Production[edit]

Producer Ray Marshall bought the film rights to several of the period works of Catherine Cookson, beginning in 1989 with The Fifteen Streets, which had been turned into a successful stage play. These productions, sponsored by Tyne Tees Television, were very popular and drew between ten and fourteen million viewers each.^[3]

Trevor Bowen

Cast[edit]

• Robson Green as Rory Connor
• Stephanie Putson as Janie Waggett
• Ian Cullen as Paddy Connor
• David Nellist as Jimmy Connor
• Sylvestra Le Touzel as Charlotte Kean
• Bernard Hill as Frank Nickle
• Sammy Johnson as Victor Pittie
• David Haddow as John George Armstrong
• John Middleton as Mr Buckham
• Frank Mills as Mr Kean
• Ron Donachie as Alec McLean
• Peter Marshall as Chief Constable
• Alan Mason as Mr Dryden
• Richard Franklin as Gambler
• T. R. Bowen as Mr Arden
• Jean Southern as Mrs Tyler
• Paul Colman as Gambler
• Max Smith as Bill Waggett
• Anne Kent as Lizzie O'Dowd
• Dennis Lingard as Little Joe
• Allen Mechen as Dan Pittie
• Ron Senior Jr. as Sam Pittie
• Amber Styles as Ruth Connor
• Margery Bone as Maggie Ridley
• Lyn Douglas as Grannie Waggett
• Sarah Finch as Mrs Buckham
• Joe Ging as Dr Munday
• Johnny Caesar as Mr Grable
• Jan Gordon as Woman at Wedding
• Tony Hodge as Oakshott
• Jim Killeen as Man at Gaming House
• Anissa Ladjemi as Widow's Child
• George Lavella as Look-Out Boy
• Peter Marriner as Police Sergeant
• Nick Nancarrow as Nipper
• Bryan St. John as Older Policeman

Notes[edit]

1. ^5 REASONS WHY YOU MIGHT NOT ROOT FOR ROBSON IN THE GAMBLING MAN at uktv.co.uk, accessed 8 May 2020
2. ^16 facts about Dame Catherine Cookson on her 110th birthday in Shields Gazette, 27 June 2016, archived here
3. ^Julie Anne Taddeo, ed., Catherine Cookson Country: On the Borders of Legitimacy, Fiction, and History (Routledge, 2016), p. 172

External links[edit]

• The Gambling Man on IMDb
• The Gambling Man (Part 1) full episode at dailymotion.com

Rory (Robson Green) is a young man in 1870's England. He has a lovely girlfriend, Janie (Stephanie Putson), and a regular job collecting rent with his best friend John George (David Haddow). He lives at home with his extended family, not getting along with Lizzie (Anne Kent)- and we will soon find out why.
Rory is also very good at playing poker. His cockiness gets the better of him, and he gets game fixer Little Joe (Dennis Lingard) to set him up in a higher stakes game. Life for the characters quickly goes downhill. John George, who has been pilfering small amounts of money from his employer, is arrested for stealing a very large amount. Rory is beaten half to death after his big card game, at the orders of crooked businessman Frank Nickle (the always excellent Bernard Hill). Rory's brother, Jimmy (David Nellist), planned to buy a small shipyard, but Rory was supposed to help out financially. Rory and John George's boss dies, and the business falls to his plain spinster daughter Charlotte (Sylvestra Le Touzel), who becomes embroiled in the lives of her new employees.
Like a novel, I cannot give away too many more plot points without ruining the ending. I am not familiar enough with Cookson's books to know if this film was faithful to the page or not. Looking at the film is grand, but watching it started frustrating me.
The look of 'The Gambling Man' is nothing short of miraculous. The costuming, the set design, the cinematography- all of it looks like it cost a fortune, and you can feel the cold humidity envelop you. The musical score is a little maudlin, but this is not a happy picture, so I feel it is appropriate.
T.R. Bowen's screenplay is another matter, or maybe I should be blaming Cookson's story. While the gambling angle of the tale is eventually subsided, the film is sprinkled with giggle-worthy soap operatics that would make Telenovela fans blush. I cannot get specific, but there is one sequence in the film (who's that knocking at Jimmy's door?) that had me roll my eyes and throw my hands in the air. The film does a u-turn from a Dickensian life story into 'The Bold and the Blimey,' and it will make you mad. Also, many storylines, which I invested a considerable amount of interest in, are dropped or not clarified.
The cast, made up of mostly television actors save Hill, is excellent. Green does an outstanding job playing Rory, who is not your average hero. Rory is downright hateful at many points, and Green completely occupies his role. Another special mention should go to Sylvestra Le Touzel as Charlotte. It wasn't easy being an independent businesswoman in Victorian England, but Le Touzel doesn't turn Charlotte into some ancient women's libber with an axe to grind.
Director Norman Stone does okay. He brings you into this world, but could not film a fight or action sequence to save his life. He also repeats the old 'face coming out of darkness into light' one time too many.

I realize this 1995 film was not made for me; Cookson fans can seek this out as well as about half a dozen other television adaptations done at the same time. At two and a half hours, I invested a lot in these characters, and felt a little let down when it ended. 'The Gambling Man' breaks even.