Eddie Redmayne celebrates veteran for helping him prepare for The Day Of The Jackal
A Parachute Regiment veteran-turned-military technical adviser to film and TV has been praised on The Graham Norton Show for helping Eddie Redmayne accurately portray an elusive assassin in Sky Atlantic's new series The Day Of The Jackal.
Paul Biddiss, who has worked on films such as The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare and The Beekeeper, as well as TV series The Gentlemen and Trigger Point, was also the adviser on the upcoming blockbuster Gladiator 2, the stars of which – Denzel Washington and Paul Mescal – were also on the chat show.
Mr Redmayne, who portrays the Jackal, was bristling with enthusiasm about his work with Mr Biddiss, saying: "He genuinely is an amazing man and I have a huge amount to thank him for.
"His job description is espionage expert, military expert, which I think must look great on a business card."
Speaking to BFBS Forces News, Mr Biddiss explained the kind of training he gave Mr Redmayne, star of films such as The Theory Of Everything and Fantastic Beasts.
Mr Redmayne and Lashana Lynch, known for her roles in Captain Marvel and No Time to Die, both underwent the same training with the military adviser.
This included skills such as surveillance, lock picking, close-quarters weapons training and dirty fighting techniques used by Special Operations Executive agents during the Second World War.
In addition to this, Mr Biddiss took Mr Redmayne to Ash Ranges to receive sniper training from another Parachute Regiment veteran who is a master sniper.
The actor learned to hit a target at 1,000 metres and impressed Mr Biddiss by successfully achieving a bullseye.
While speaking with BFBS Forces News, the military adviser elaborated on the story Mr Redmayne told on the BBC chat show, adding an amusing detail.
The actor talks about a day of training that took place in Covent Garden in the centre of London which involved him following someone – Mr Biddiss' wife took on the role – all while receiving messages from Mr Biddiss claiming there are intelligence reports of people following him.
He said: "I had an operative, he was another veteran, he was following him and [Mr Redmayne was] changing his appearance all the time and he's trying to keep an eye on my wife, but then he's trying to see if he's being followed.
"He didn't do too bad though. He was changing his appearance a lot."
Mr Biddiss' wife decided it would be funny to make Mr Redmayne follow her into Superdrug and watch her buy pile cream.
He said: "He came out the shop and said, 'She's bought some haemorrhoid cream' and I tried not to react because I knew she'd do something like that.
"Anyway, so I just looked at him and said: 'That must be a clue'."
Mr Redmayne explained on The Graham Norton Show that he thought he was doing a really good job but it turns out training to be an assassin is quite difficult when you're a very famous film star.
He said: "There was this moment where I walked past one of those human statues and I took a moment of that in and then a group of tourists from China turned around and asked for selfies."
Despite his cover being blown, Mr Redmayne really enjoyed the time he spent with the military adviser learning how to walk through streets while surveying the area using windows and wing mirrors and how to use 'old school gadgets' such as cameras in buttons.
And the admiration between the two goes both ways.
Mr Biddiss said: "I don't say this a lot, but [Eddie] is probably one of the nicest actors I've ever worked with, without doubt.
"Never saw him get flustered if there was something he couldn't do.
"He listened to your advice... he doesn't just dismiss you or anything like that."
You can watch The Day Of The Jackal from 7 November on Sky Atlantic or NOW.
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