Thanks to Sue at The Leaky Cauldron for sending in this gem!

SECTION: TV CLOSE-UP

LENGTH: 844 words

HEADLINE: Jason Isaacs

BYLINE: Eirik Knutzen

BODY:

The entire cast, crew and production team of "Brotherhood" got behind the imminent arrival of Jason Isaacs' second child last summer.
Around the due date, he was in hourly cell phone contact with his wife, former BBC documentary producer Emma Hewitt, from the show's set in Providence, R.I.

Finally, late into the night, Mrs. Isaacs called to report that she was having contractions, but they were far apart and nothing to worry about. She was taking a nap. When he reported her condition to the co-executive producers of
"Brotherhood" - Nicole Yorking and Dawn Prestwich - they couldn't believe his a) stupidity and b) ignorance. In unison, they screamed, "Get out of here!"

As Isaacs absorbed their subtle hint and stormed off in the middle of a scene, the director slid a reasonable facsimile of the darkly handsome actor into the frame and shot him in silhouette. Isaccs raced to their rented digs in Barrington on the outskirts of Providence in minutes, roused his drowsy wife and timed her contractions, now 3 1/2 minutes apart.

There was barely time to call Hewitt's midwife ("Emma is into natural childbirth") to have her meet them at a hospital some 45 minutes away under the best of circumstances. Isaacs "drove like a banshee through the night."

Unfortunately, he didn't know the way and got lost about halfway there.

"We set off quickly, driving with a road map spread all over the windscreen in uninhabited areas, with no lights or passing cars, I had to pull over in order to get my bearings," recalled the British actor, who still sees very little humor in the situation. "That's when my wife's water broke, while sitting
in the back seat."

Suddenly, the actor in Isaacs took on a life of its own.

"I had wound the movie forward in my head, where I delivered the baby in the back seat, with one of my legs stretched over the front seat while beeping the
horn so that neighbors would come out with hot water, blankets and a cup of coffee. Then I was cheered by those people in a pub. Only my wife's screams brought me back to earth."

After several fits and starts that took approximately forever, the expectant parents pulled up to the emergency entrance at Pawtucket Memorial Hospital at 2:15 a.m. on Aug. 26. While his wife and the midwife went to work,
Isaacs was held up filling out forms at the front desk.

"At 2:33 a.m., I sprinted to Emma's room and burst through the door just as Ruby's head appeared," he said. "If I had a middle name to fill in, I wouldn't have gotten there."

The following day, he was back on a "Brotherhood" location to polish off the initial 11 episodes of the dark, nasty series revolving around brothers Tommy and Michael Caffee set in a fictional Irish neighborhood called The Hill - a tightknit community operating almost independently from the rovidence
metropolitan area.

Isaacs portrays Michael, a career criminal and stone-cold killer when the occasion arises, who crops up in his old stomping grounds after a seven-year absence - with the FBI in hot pursuit. Australian actor Jason Clarke plays Tommy, an idealistic (but not above backroom dealing) state
representative on the opposite side of the law. Careerwise, each would benefit from the other's death.

"As much fun as I have doing big movies - including several in the Harry Potter series - made for teenagers, I jumped at the idea of doing a cable television series as a tortured, haunted character with rich dialogue," said the 43-year-old Isaacs, laughing, "and I can't imagine filming it anywhere
but in Rhode Island, an unbelievably small and incestuous place where everybody knows everybody.

"The criminals, police and everybody in between either went to school, church or played sports together," he continued. "Or somebody married or lived with someone ... the web never ends.

"You can be in the same restaurant with the speaker of the House and a bookie celebrating getting out of jail and a local surgeon celebrating his wedding anniversary. They all know each other and say hello."

The third of four brothers born in Liverpool, England, to a jeweler and a homemaker earned his undergraduate degree in law from Bristol University in 1985, but decided to "unlearn everything" by graduating in 1989 from London's Central School of Speech and Drama - where he met his wife, ever so
briefly an actress.

Isaacs started out with modest guest shots on British shows, including "Taggart" and "Inspector Morse." He recently wrapped the BBC miniseries "The State Within." His film credits now include "Armageddon" and "Blackhawk
Down," plus "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" and the upcoming "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" as Lucius Malfoy.

He hopes to see his new house - under construction for a year - in London any day now and just stay home for a month or so with his family.

"There is nothing in this world that compares with being greeted with uncontainable excitement by my two girls," he said softly. "I'm heads over heels and get it back in an unqualified way."