Will Self

Known for Acting

9/26/1961(Age 64)

Westminster, London, England

Biography

William Woodard Self is an English television personality, journalist, political commentator and author. Self is the author of eleven novels, five collections of shorter fiction, three novellas, and five collections of non-fiction writing.

Known For (23 credits)

9.0

Movie

Clockwork Orange: The Prophecy

2023

Examines and re-evaluates the 60-year history and cultural impact of A Clockwork Orange, as a novel, movie and stage play, with the help of archival content and interviews with important creative figures.

Movie

Jake Chapman's Accelerate or Die!

2023

As one of the highly provocative British art duo The Chapman Brothers, artist Jake Chapman is no stranger to challenging his audience. In this new film, he poses the question, “why is it easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism?” Perhaps the answer is ‘Accelerationism’, which emerged 50 years ago and predicted the reality we’re now living: A frenzied stasis of rapid technological advancement coupled with cultural and political stagnation. Capitalism – Accelerationism claims – is breaking down our society, our humanity, and our planet. But the only way forward is not to run from it, but to dive deeper into it. Regardless of where that takes us… As befitting for an artist as visual and extreme as Jake Chapman, this film is also part-artwork – playfully and uncompromisingly distorting the idea of how a documentary should look and feel.

Movie

Clay & Bone

2021

Clay & Bone is an experimental documentary film, constructed from the film archive that was created during the building of Crossrail, the new railway under London.

6.6

Movie

Dorian Gray: A Portrait of Oscar Wilde

2019

The Picture of Dorian Gray, the seminal work of Irish writer Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), continues to find new readers and inspire artists and creators around the world more than a century after its publication in 1891, because it was endowed with all the elements necessary to make it an undisputed heritage of world literature.

5.5

Movie

The Secret World of Lewis Carroll

2015

It's a timeless classic of children's literature and the third most-quoted book in English after the Bible and Shakespeare. But what lies behind the extraordinary appeal of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland to generations of adults and children alike? To mark the 150th anniversary of its publication, this film explores the life and imagination of its author, the Reverend Charles Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll. Journalist Martha Kearney delves into the biographies of both Carroll himself and of the young girl, Alice Liddell, who inspired his most famous creation. She discusses the book with a range of experts, biographers and distinguished cultural figures - from actor Richard E Grant to children's author Philip Pullman - and explores with them the mystery of how a retiring, buttoned-up and meticulous mathematics don, who spent almost his entire life within the cloistered confines of Christ Church Oxford, was able to capture the world of childhood in such a captivating way.

9.0

Movie

The One and Only Mike Leigh

2014

In a revealing documentary, Mike Leigh, director of Secrets & Lies, Vera Drake and Abigail's Party among many others, talks to Alan Yentob about a unique body of work and a lifelong struggle to make films on his own terms. On day one of a Mike Leigh film, there is no script, no story and the actors do not know if they will even be in the final film. It is a process that has yielded some of cinema's most celebrated performances, and Leigh's new film Mr Turner is already winning critical acclaim. Actors including Jim Broadbent, Eddie Marsan, Sally Hawkins, Lesley Manville and James Corden give fascinating insights into the director and his distinctive method of working.

7.0

Movie

The London Perambulator

2009

Leading London writers and cultural commentators Will Self, Iain Sinclair and Russell Brand explore the importance of the liminal spaces at the city's fringe, it's Edgelands, through the work of enigmatic and downright eccentric writer and researcher Nick Papadimitriou - a man whose life is dedicated to exploring and archiving areas beyond the permitted territories of the high street, the retail park, the suburban walkways.

Ian Rankin Investigates: Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde

8.0

Movie

Ian Rankin Investigates: Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde

2007

Crime writer Ian Rankin investigates The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Starting with Robert Louis Stevenson's nightmare in September 1885, Rankin traces the roots of this story, which stretches back to Stevenson's childhood. Grave-robbers, hallucinatory drugs and prostitution all play their part in the disturbing account of Henry Jekyll's double-life, as Rankin's journey takes him into the yeasty draughts and unlit closes of the city that inspired the tale - Edinburgh.

Movie

The Double Life of Saki

2007

Drama-documentary which explores the life and work of the writer Hector Hugh Munro, better known by his pen name Saki, whose short stories satirised Edwardian society and culture.

6.3

Movie

Karl Pilkington: Satisfied Fool

2007

Karl Pilkington, best known for his podcasts with Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant and his travel show An Idiot Abroad goes on a quest to find out if intelligence really makes you happier.

7.2

Grumpy Old Men

2003

Series giving a voice to 35- to 54-year-old men, very probably the grumpiest sector of our society.

5.0

Movie

100 Worst Britons

2003

Channel 4 (UK) ran a poll, in 2003, for viewers to nominate their "worst Briton". The nominations had to be people who were living, not in prison and British.