Last Year’s Guests

MARK GATISS

Mark has had a long and varied career as an actor, writer, director and producer. He is best known as a member of the League of Gentlemen, and as the co-creator and executive producer of the multi award-winning BBC series Sherlock, in which he played Mycroft Holmes.

He both wrote for and appeared in the modern revival of Doctor Who, and was the writer and executive producer of An Adventure in Space and Time for its 50^th anniversary celebrations. He also co-created the BBC and Netflix drama Dracula, and has written and directed several BBC ghost stories, including Count Magnus, The Mezzotint, Martin’s Close, The Dead Room and The Tractate Middoth. As an actor, screen work includes Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Parts 1 & 2, Operation Mincemeat, The Father, The Favourite, Christopher Robin, Gunpowder, Wolf Hall, Coalition and Game of Thrones, and on stage, Coriolanus (Donmar Warehouse), The Boys in the Band (Park/Vaudeville Theatres), Three Days in the Country (National Theatre: Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role), the title role in The Madness of George III (Nottingham Playhouse), and Jacob Marley in his own adaptation of A Christmas Carol (Nottingham Playhouse and Alexandra Palace). He has recently directed Steven Moffat’s debut play The Unfriend for Chichester Festival Theatre, which has transferred to the Criterion Theatre in the West End.

ROSALYN LANDOR

At the age of nine, Rosalyn Landor appeared in one of Hammer’s most acclaimed films The Devil Rides Out (1968). Four years later, in 1972, she co-starred in the film The Amazing Mr Blunden, and almost fifty years later was to appear in a new adaptation of the same story, written and directed by fellow Festival guest Mark Gatiss! In the 1970s and 80s she made many appearances on British and American TV, her credits including several that will be of particular interest to Festival attendees, such as the Hammer House of Horror episode ‘Guardian of the Abyss’ (1980), The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1984), and Star Trek: The Next Generation (1989). In addition, she has appeared in such acclaimed and fondly remembered series as Z Cars, C.A.T.S. Eyes, Rumpole of the Bailey, ITV Playhouse and MacGyver. Her further film credits include Divorce His, Divorce Hers with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, and Bad Influence (1990) opposite Rob Lowe and James Spader.

JEFF LIEBERMAN

Born in New York in 1947, Jeff Lieberman made his feature film debut as the writer and director of the much-acclaimed horror film Squirm (1976). His next film, Blue Sunshine (1977), which screened at the Cannes Film Festival, the London Film Festival and the Edinburgh International Film Festival, followed a series of murders caused by a rogue strain of LSD. In 1981, Lieberman wrote and directed the slasher film Just Before Dawn, about a group of campers stalked by a killer in the backwoods of Oregon. Next up, in 1988, was Remote Control, which Lieberman again wrote and directed, a science fiction film about a videotape which brainwashed its viewers. In 1994 he wrote the screenplay for The NeverEnding Story III, and in 2004 wrote and directed the satirical horror comedy Satan’s Little Helper. Outside the horror genre, he has directed But… Seriously (1993), a documentary juxtaposing the events of the 20^th century with the commentary of stand-up comedians, and the television film Sonny Liston: The Mysterious Life and Death of a Champion (1995).

NEVE MCINTOSH

One of the UK’s most acclaimed and respected actors, Neve McIntosh has appeared in dozens of movies and TV productions, among which is an impressive list of genre credits. Perhaps best known for her recurring role as Madame Vastra in Doctor Who, a Victorian adventuress and consulting detective, who also happens to be a lizard woman from before the dawn of time, Neve has also appeared in the movies Salvage (2009) and The Small Hand (2019), TV adaptations of The Hound of the Baskervilles (2000), Gormenghast (2002) and Dracula (2013), and supernatural/horror series such as Sea of Souls (2007) and Ripper Street (2013). She was also part of an excellent ensemble cast in Jed Mercurio’s award-winning hospital drama Bodies (2004-2006), and has appeared in many other major TV productions, including Low Winter Sun, Law and Order: UK, Single Father, Doc Martin, Marple, Death in Paradise, Shetland, Critical, Inspector George Gently and All Creatures Great and Small.

JAKE WEST

Jake is best known for his feature film work primarily in the horror, fantasy and science-fiction genres. These include Razor Blade Smile, Evil Aliens, Pumpkinhead: Ashes to Ashes, the zombie comedy/horror hit Doghouse, The ABCs of Death, Midnight Peepshow, and his latest, the acclaimed feature documentary Mancunian Man: The Legendary Life of Cliff Twemlow, which will be released on Blu-ray in the US & UK in the Autumn of 2024. He’s currently working on a 4k restoration of his debut film Razor Blade Smile for re-release soon!

A passionate film connoisseur, Jake also owns Nucleus Films, a UK-based independent distribution label he founded in 2003 with film researcher and author Marc Morris. Nucleus Films produced and released the highly acclaimed documentaries Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship & Videotape, hailed as “a comprehensive telling of national vigilantism run amuck” (DVD Talk), and the sequel Draconian Days, which was described as, “a brilliant reminder of how far the UK has come, and a revealing time capsule that should prove a cautionary example against future reactionary insanity.” (Eye For Film)