'60 Minutes' Segment on John Mortimer Features Comments By Jeremy Irons
by Morley Safer, CBSNews Transcripts
December 12, 1999
[Webmaster's Note: The acclaimed CBS News program "60 Minutes" featured a segment on the author John Mortimer, for which Jeremy, an old friend of his, was interviewed. Mortimer is most famous for writing "Rumpole of The Bailey," (which starred Leo McKern, who also co-starred in "The French Lieutenant's Woman,") "A Voyage Round My Father," (which starred Lord Laurence Olivier, a featured player in "Brideshead Revisited,") and the television adaptation of "Brideshead," which brings Jeremy into all this. Herewith follows a transcript of Jeremy's portion. I am told he was wearing a very sharp beige jacket and filmed seated:
(Footage of Mortimer's house and gardens)
Mr. JOHN MORTIMER: . . . And--I think about [my father] a lot. You know, I never--we never mentioned the fact that he was blind. Nobody ever said it in our family. And--and he never said it.
Mr. MORLEY SAFER: Very English.
Mr. MORTIMER: Very, very English.
Mr. JEREMY IRONS: John is absolutely English. He represents, for me, everything that I'm proud of about England. He's eccentric, he's slightly bizarre, he's his own man.
(Footage of Irons in "Brideshead Revisited")
SAFER: (Voiceover) Jeremy Irons is an old friend. His big break came in Mortimer's television adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's "Brideshead Revisited."
(Excerpt from "Brideshead Revisited")
Mr. IRONS: He loves actors, because I mean, I think both professions use the same juices, to a certain extent, and I--I think he's never happier than when he's on a stage.