An interview with actor Christopher Lee who was in Ireland for the filming of ‘The Face of Fu Manchu’. The actor talks to Des Keogh about his career.

Lee explains how over 13 years he has played many parts but recently has become known for playing villains. He puts this down to playing the Marquis Evremonde in the film ‘A Tale of Two Cities’.

Lee goes on to explain that when he plays villains or monsters, he likes to show the audience the loneliness of evil. Talking about audiences for horror films Lee says they like to be thrilled and that film offers an outlet for a range of feelings and being frightened is one of those emotions.

The interview was broadcast as part of the ‘Newsbeat’ programme on 24 February 1965.

‘Newsbeat’ was a halfhour feature programme presented by Frank Hall and ran for 7 years from September 1964 to June 1971. ‘Newsbeat’ went out from Monday to Friday on RTÉ television and reported on current affairs and issues of local interest from around Ireland. The final programme was broadcast on the 11 June 1971.