The Buckley Sequel

The other day I wrote about Jessie Buckley here when she appeared at the age of 18 on a British TV competition show called I'd Do Anything 17 years ago where actress/singers competed to play the role of ‘Nancy’ in a West End production of Oliver!  I mentioned that I first noticed her in a small role in the HBO mini-series Chernobyl and was so impressed by her performance that I even recommended her to a producer friend for a starring role in the production he was developing.  So, I've been intrigued by her climb since then.  Anyway, I came across three videos that complement that earlier article. 

To begin with, in the piece I noted that she has since won an Olivier Award for starring as ‘Sally Bowles’ in a recent London revival of Cabaret, and also starred in a small film, Wild Rose, (not shockingly, it's completely unrelated to my own screenplay and novel, The Wild Roses...) about a lower-class young woman in-and-out of trouble whose dream is to be a country music singer.  She got a BAFTA nomination as Best Actress, and I noted that at the 2020 awards ceremony, she sang the song, “Glasgow,” which had a bit of success in the U.K. 

Here it is --

​I also found a wonderful and fascinating 10-minute featurette that that TV competition show, I’d Do Anything, put together for the journey the two finalists took to reach the last episodes.  It’s very well-done with some great behind-the-scenes footage, as well as competition material.  You can see how important the competition was to her, how emotional it was for this 18-year-old, how she faced a fair bit of criticism (especially from two judges) – some for sort of funny reasons (like her challenge with a cockney accent, and her being a bit of a tomboy growing up, so when doing plays in school, she usually got the male parts, and so she has some difficult moving ladylike, which she has to work at) – and also seeing how Andrew Lloyd Webber early on got how tremendously special she was, and was a major champion of hers throughout.
 

​Finally, in that featurette, Andrew Lloyd Webber talks about how her performance of the song “The Man Who Got Away” (written by Harold Arlen and Ira Gershwin for Judy Garland to sing in the movie, A Star is Born) was “The greatest performance I’ve ever heard a young girl give.”  I tracked down that number. 

Okay, just for you, I’ll throw in one bonus video.  In that 10-minute featurette, we see a brief glimpse of her singing “One Night Only,” from the musical Dreamgirls.  It’s a song that I like a lot – but also, I saw the show on Broadway with Jennifer Holliday, so it’s particularly memorable to me.  And the short clip in the featurette was so good, I tracked down the full version.
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