Greg Wise Actor

EMMA THOMPSON'S FEARS OF GOING BLIND

Her most recent television performances have been “sitting down, dying, and dotty” and the mother of double Oscar-winner Emma Thompson clearly enjoys playing the eccentric. Yet there is nothing remotely scatty about her work with Fight For Sight which is the leading charity funding research into the prevention and treatment of eye disease.

One in 50 people over the age of 40 has glaucoma and although effective treatments are available it can lead to blindness if not detected and treated early enough.

“It’s not a dramatic thing and it’s not really very sexy but it’s so important that people are aware of it,” says Phyllida, 79, who recently appeared in Midsomer Murders.

Her greatest concern is that her daughters Emma, 52, and former EastEnders star Sophie Thompson, 49, as well as her grandchildren, are also at high risk of developing glaucoma.

“It is so important they are tested. But they’re good, they all go to the opticians for check-ups. I tell them you have to look after your eyes the way you look after your teeth with regular check-ups.”

Although she adds: “It’s not like the dentist, they don’t remind you. I wish they would.”

More than 500,000 people in the UK are affected by glaucoma. There are a number of forms, with the most common involving a gradual build-up of pressure inside the eyeball which causes irreversible damage to the optic nerve.

“It’s so insidious because you don’t feel it happening,” says Phyllida. “I am one of the lucky ones because I had it diagnosed relatively early.”

Her mother Meg or “Megsie” was not so fortunate. She suffered irreversible damage to her sight before the condition was finally picked up when she was in her 70s. Her vision was so badly affected the family had to use luminous duct tape to mark the path from her bedroom to the toilet and on one occasion she tried to get out through a window instead of the door.

“Fortunately it was on the ground floor,” Phylllida adds.

She has been thinking about Megsie a lot recently as her latest project is a book detailing her mother’s life and idiosyncrasies.

“I wrote a book a while back about my mother-in-law for my oldest daughter, for her birthday. Notes To My Mother-In-Law is just about living with an older person,” she says with almost flippant understatement.

Greg Wise (actor, 1966) | Celebrity Update

Trained at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Greg Wise shot to international fame when he swept Kate Winslet off her feet in Sense Sensibility. This was quickly followed by roles in Judas Kiss, starring Alan Rickman and Emma Thompson, as well as Merchant Ivory’s Feast of July.

Other credits include a host of top TV dramas including, Tales From The Crypt for HB0, Alice Through the Looking Glass, The Riff Raff Element, Taggart, Covington Cross, and more recently, Wonderful You.

Article source: http://www.filmbug.

Madame Bovary at the movies, adaptation, ideology, context

Los Angeles Magazine

Contemporary British and Irish film directors, a wallflower critical guide

Entertainment Celebrities

The ultimate guide to chick flicks, the romance, the glamour, the tears, and more