Vote for your favourite older character for The Roses

Gransnet is delighted to be supporting The Roses, media awards for the portrayal of older people. Back in July we had a thread for nominations for the special Gransnet Award  - Best older person's character in a film, TV or radio drama.

GNHQ has now compiled a shortist and gransnetters' votes will decide the winner.

The nominees are: *puts on special Oscar voice*

• Michael Caine for Alfred in The Dark Knight Rises
• Judi Dench for Evelyn in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
• Judy Parfitt for Sister Monica Joan in Call The Midwife
• Maggie Smith for Violet, Dowager Countess in Downton Abbey
• Tom Wilkinson for Graham in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

The bit where you normally see a clip

Michael Caine - Alfred, The Dark Knight Rises

At the age of 79, Sir Michael Caine this summer reprised his role as Alfred the butler and father-figure in the Batman blockbuster, The Dark Knight Rises. As Alfred, Caine plays Bruce Wayne's guiding conscience and, as he has explained, the audience's handle on reality: "When you get into the fantasy, suddenly you've got the butler there saying exactly what you're thinking - 'You can't do that! You can't go flying up in a bat suit in here! What are you, nuts?!'"

The Dark Knight Rises the film is the third and final instalment in director Christopher Nolan's Batman film trilogy. It was released in the UK on 20 July, 2012.

Judi Dench - Evelyn, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Dame Judi Dench plays recently widowed housewife Evelyn, forced to sell her home in London and move to India to cover the huge debts left by her late husband. Once at the hotel she gets her first job, advising the staff of a call centre how to deal with British customers, and finds happiness in a relationship with Doug, played by Bill Nighy. 

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is a 2012 British comedy-drama film directed by John Madden, based on the 2004 novel These Foolish Things, by Deborah Moggach. The film features an ensemble cast playing a disparate group of British pensioners who move to a retirement hotel in India. It was released in the UK on 24 February 2012.

Judy Parfitt - Sister Monica Joan, Call The Midwife

Sister Monica Joan in Call The Midwife was born into a titled family and became one of the first women in Britain to qualify as a midwife. Judy Parfitt plays her as a woman in her nineties, retired and living full time at Nonnatus House, where she is cared for by her fellow sisters. Despite her advanced age, she remains a vivid and mercurial personality, obsessed by cake, astrology and knitting. 

Call The Midwife is set in East London in the 1950s. The first series of six episodes premiered in the UK on 15 January 2012 and was BBC1's most successful new drama series since 2001. A second series of eight episodes of the show has been commissioned and is expected to air in mid-2013, with a 2012 Christmas Special.

Maggie Smith - Violet, Dowager Countess, Downton Abbey

Dame Maggie Smith, who has been acting for 60 years, has won two consecutive Emmys for her portrayal of the haughty, beady and imposing Violet Crawley, the dowager Lady Grantham in Downton Abbey. 

Created by Julian Fellowes and Gareth Neame, Downton Abbey follows the fortunes of the  aristocratic Crawley family and their servants in post-Edwardian Britain. The third series is currently airing: the previous series was the most watched television series on both ITV and PBS in the US.  

Tom Wilkinson - Graham, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel 

Tom Wilkinson plays a high court judge who abruptly retires and returns to India, his boyhood home, to search for the love of his life, an Indian boy whom he abandoned after they were discovered together. It is a moving performance, demonstrating a range of emotion as he develops from uptight lawyer through passionate lover, and as he experiences relief and loss and finds wisdom.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel was released in the UK in February 2012.
 

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