Gavin Millar, the film director, critic and television presenter, at one time a frequent contributor to Sight and Sound, died in London from a brain tumour on 20 April 2022. He was a man of great intelligence, learning, wit and generosity of spirit, who came from a working-class Glaswegian background to achieve a respected position in London’s cultural world, but always preserved his democratic dislike of authority and fierce sympathy with the underdog.
He will be best remembered for his 1985 film Dreamchild, about Alice Liddell, the original inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s 1865 Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, but he was a distinguished critic for many years, and his career had an extraordinary range. On TV, he interviewed figures including Gene Kelly, Jacques Tati, Jean Renoir, Luis Buñuel, Howard Hawks, Federico Fellini, Powell and Pressburger, and François Truffaut. As a director he worked with writers like Alan Bennett, Dennis Potter and Victoria Wood, and an extraordinary list of actors including Julie Walters, Judi Dench, Jeremy Irons, Glenda Jackson, Brian Cox, Kristin Scott-Thomas, Peter Capaldi, Peggy Ashcroft, Claire Bloom, Ian Holm, Jeanne Moreau, Dawn French and Stockard Channing. He got a startlingly brilliant performance from a young Christian Bale.
He was born on 11 January 1938 in Clydebank, Scotland, to Rita (née Osborne) and Tom Millar, workers at the local Singer sewing machine factory, who moved south to the Midlands when he was nine. He went to King Edward’s School, Birmingham, did national service in the RAF, then read English at Christ Church, Oxford, from 1958 to 1961, where, notoriously, he was Stefano in what he called a “justly neglected” version of The Tempest alongside Melvyn Bragg.
He then went to the Slade School of Fine Art at UCL where he studied film under Thorold Dickinson, director of Gaslight (1940) and The Queen of Spades (1949), the one other student on the course that year being Charles Barr, later a pioneer of film studies and a great Hitchcockian. (I first met Gavin when I co-edited a book on Dickinson, Thorold Dickinson: a world of film (2008), to which he contributed a touching reminiscence.) After the Slade he became a critic not just of film but also of books and general culture for, among other papers, The Listener, Sight and Sound and (later) the London Review of Books. In 1966 he married Sylvia Lane, whom he had met in 1962. She died in 2012.
As a critic Gavin was entertaining, wry, questioning, sensitive, perceptive. Reviewing Lindsay Anderson’s If…. for Sight and Sound in 1968, despite his friendship with the director, he judged it fell short of being a masterpiece because it was uncertain about its targets: “If…. is a film concerned with revolution, but about anger.” He appreciated more François Truffaut’s Stolen Kisses the following year, in a way which anticipates his own later strengths as a director: “By dozens of tiny clues the larger theme emerges: the circle of life involves death, just as the night’s tragedy can turn into farce by the morning.”
Similarly, the same year in the Listener, he praised Claude Chabrol’s unobtrusive exactitude in La Femme infidèle: “These and a thousand similar details are exact and telling.” He liked the complexity of Chabrol’s double attitude to the bourgeoisie: “this sure-footed, finely acted and spellbinding film is not ruffled, but deepened, by that ambivalence.” Again in the Listener in 1973 he was moved by the way, in Minnie and Moskowitz, “Cassavetes finds a place for misfits, and he describes the nondescript.”
In 1965 he had been an assistant to Ken Russell on his TV film about Henri Rousseau; thereafter, while still reviewing, he made a daunting number of arts documentaries at the BBC, as writer, director and producer as well as presenter for strands like New Release and (subsequently) Release, Omnibus, Talking Pictures and Arena Cinema. Making documentaries was an extension, or a natural part, of his activity as a critic and cinephile; he was always interested in knowing and understanding practitioners. That now looks like a golden age of arts programming – though in February 1969 he was already writing about a seeming campaign to remove intelligent coverage of culture from the airwaves. His BBC work introduced him to another giant auteur, Federico Fellini, about whom he made a Release film for the BBC in 1969.
Millar also wrote the final section of the revised edition of The Technique of Film Editing in 1968, which covered developments – chiefly widescreen and the nouvelle vague – since the first edition by Karel Reisz in 1953. It has been called “undoubtedly the most successful textbook on film ever published” – and was the brainchild of Thorold Dickinson, who assisted and supervised. Millar’s writing in it is subtle and nuanced, but far from dry: in his account of ‘Personal Cinema in the Sixties’ he relates the New Wave fascinatingly to existentialism. Truffaut’s films, he says, escape genre pigeonholes as they “flick from moods of despair to exhilaration and contain scenes of black comedy alternating with scenes of real tragedy or simply good-hearted unaffected joy.” Gavin’s own films would also be – quietly – ‘personal’.
In 1980, he directed a TV drama, Dennis Potter’s Cream in My Coffee, for LWT, which won the Prix Italia. Thereafter he only directed one more documentary, on Powell and Pressburger, to whom he made a witty and affectionate tribute in 1981, A Pretty British Affair. He kept afloat, even prolific, in the difficult world of 1980s British filmmaking, by working mostly in television. His achievements there are too numerous to list, but one can single out 1982’s Intensive Care by and with Alan Bennett; the much-loved Danny the Champion of the World with Jeremy Irons in 1989; the heartwarming Pat and Margaret by and with Victoria Wood, which got a BAFTA nomination in 1994; and the moving and humane turn-of-the-century French drama Belle Epoque (1995), from a script by Truffaut and Jean Gruault, with Kristin Scott Thomas in scintillating form. Iain Banks praised Millar’s 1996 adaptation of The Crow Road as better than his novel, while Housewife, 49, again with Victoria Wood, is a very warm and melancholy comedy about a plucky middle-aged wife and mother in wartime Barrow-in-Furness, which won a BAFTA in 2007.
In the cinema his unshowy talents didn’t exactly flourish. He followed The Crow Road with a fine film of Banks’s Complicity in 2000, but it did not reach the larger audiences it deserved; as Gavin once said, “the best film in the world doesn’t survive unless somebody’s prepared to put the money in – to sell it.”
He overcame great odds to get Albert Schweitzer made in 2009, with Jeroen Krabbé and Barbara Hershey. It was engaging, honourable, intelligent and politically astute about Schweitzer’s anti-nuclear campaigning, but got no distribution to speak of. It was his final credit as director.
It seems apt to conclude by looking back to the spellbinding Dreamchild, his most conspicuous achievement. When I interviewed him about it in 2014, he recalled the 15 months of post-production (“a struggle’), in which producer Verity Lambert chipped away at many of the carefully layered elements and touches Millar loved. It made him painfully aware of intentions unfulfilled: “these things bruise your soul”, he said. (Since then producer Kenith Trodd has found the missing elements, so a restored edition should now be possible).
He was attracted to Dennis Potter’s script about the septuagenarian Alice Liddell by its “weird originality” and “because of its tenderness and its complex range of emotions and motives, its ambiguities”. He commented in the production notes: “I liked the idea of the fantasy and reality, and never quite knowing where one ended and the other began, which gives weight to the place of nightmare and dream in people’s lives.” In the aged Alice’s hallucinations, the Mad Hatter, March Hare et al, created by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, are harsh, sinister beings – “as fierce as we felt an old lady’s nightmares would have made them”.
Millar treasured moments of poignancy and ambivalence. When I talked to him in 2004 for the Telegraph about Fellini’s Amarcord (1973), which he had chosen to discuss, he declared, “I admire him for making you laugh and want to cry all at the same time. Some sequences in this make me do both and I don’t know which way to go. I don’t know any other filmmaker – even Renoir – who can do it in that degree within a sequence, and to such extremes.”
Ten years later, thinking of this, I asked him about the exquisitely moving ending of Dreamchild, where after Dodgson has been laughed at for his stutter, the young Alice goes over and kisses him: “Yes, that seems to affect people very strongly. I mean, partly because there are moments when things come together and you think, ‘Yeah, we got that right, and the light is right, the angle is right, the lens is right. They look right, the actors do the right thing, and you’ve found the right gesture for them, and they’ve followed it.‘ But these things happen very rarely, and you’re lucky when you get them. 147 things have to be right all at the same time.”
On this occasion they were – and justly earned the great critic Andrew Sarris’s moving praise in the Village Voice. Sarris came late to the film but atoned for his neglect by stirring emotion. He caught Millar’s spirit when he wrote that in its brave sincerity, “rising inexorably towards a rich epiphany”, Dreamchild did what cinema sometimes can: “What makes the film so rousing and inspiring is its invocation of love and art as redemptive forces pitted against the dark spirits.”
At Millar’s death he was surrounded by their five children (James, Tommy, Duncan, Kirstie and Isabel). He leaves six grandchildren (Florence, Martha, Louis, Iris, Arwen and Gavin).
Young Creatives from Coventry and Nairobi have come together to create incredible immersive experiences designed to inspire change in their cities. The Digital Storytelling Lab welcomed the young people into their programme in July 2021 with up-and-coming filmakers, digital artists, writers and musicians signing up. The learning programme was designed to introduce them to cutting edge storytelling techniques, tools and platforms.
They were also invited to attend a series of workshops to offer the young people mentoring and support, enabling them to create their own new short form digital experiences. The two experiences explore youth unemployment and life after graduation. An interactive short film, ‘Our Daily Bread’ delves into different city themes and how they impact young people’s mental health while they search for employment. The experience moves between Nairobi and Coventry and audiences can make choices which change how the story unfolds. The other experience, ‘Now That I Know things’, uses spatial audio techniques to follow a range of thoughts, feelings and experiences from two students during their graduation days. The project follows Aisha in Nairobi and Sara in Coventry and uses smart devices, laptops, tablets and phones to deliver an immersive experience. The teams on both projects have been collaborating remotely throughout lockdown.
Team members working on Our Daily Bread said: “By sharing our stories with the world our goal is to inspire policymakers, activists and governments to be intentional and deliberate in combating issues that affect young people across the globe. We’ve all acquired skill sets that we can’t wait to put into practice for future projects and made new friends with a group of revolutionary creatives to connect with and learn from.”
Both projects are now available to experience on BBC Taster and will be showcased at events celebrating the Global Youth Series in Coventry and Nairobi on the same day.
The storytelling lab has been bought to life through a partnership between Coventry City of Culture Trust, British Council, The Space and BBC R&D, which aims to create new media to inspire change.
ITV’s brand new police drama, DI Ray, made its debut on the channel on Monday night and viewers are all saying the same thing about the series.
The series stars Bend It Like Beckham’s Parminder Nagra as DI Rachita Ray, who is promoted to a role in the Homicide department. However, after learning that the case she is investigating is a Culturally Specific Homicide, she begins to suspect that she’s been brought onto the case for her ethnicity rather than her ability. As she starts to look into the death of the victim, Imran Aziz, she realises there’s more to the murder than her colleagues first thought.
Viewers took to Twitter to praise the new drama, which is produced by Line of Duty creator Jed Mercurio.
One person wrote: “Love the first episode of #DIRay – what a thriller!! Think I’ll wait for next week till the second instalment. My nerves can’t take any more at the mo,” while another added: “Superb opening episode of #DIRay with the ace @parmindernagra totally smashing it, especially in the opening scene where we are first introduced to her character. Looking forward to episode two. Congratulations to all involved.”
Many viewers also praised the cast, referring to Parminder and Gemma Whelan as stand-out performers: “Well that was an excellent start. Congrats everyone, especially @parmindernagra and Maya Sondhi. Looking forward to more #DIRay,” while another added: “Is there a drama that @WhelanGemma has been in that isn’t good? Another cracker #DIRay.”
Birmingham natives also took to Twitter, pleased to see their city on the small screen. One person tweeted: “Lovely bit of stuff outside the Library of #Birmingham on #DIRay That water feature looking spectacular,” while another added: “Am loving how fabulous #Birmingham is looking on #DIRay – and it’s actually Birmingham and not an unnamed city! It’s always London and Manchester on these dramas, now it’s our turn.”
Wolverhampton Filmmaker Mark Griffin has funded, produced, written and directed the film Lawrence After Arabia. It examines the circumstances of Col Thomas Edward Lawrence’s death in a motorcycle accident in 1935, will be released on DVD on May 19.
The movie, produced and financed by Mark Griffin who grew up in Penn, features Poirot star Hugh Fraser as Lawrence’s Commander Lord Allenby, while Lawrence himself is played by Tom Barber-Duffy who has appeared in Downton Abbey. Character actor Brian Cox, who has appeared in Rob Roy and Braveheart, plays Lawrence’s father, while German actress Nicole Ansari Cox plays his mother. Michael Maloney, who played former prime minister Ted Heath in The Crown, also appears in the film.
Mark, 64, grew up in Wells Road, Penn, and was a pupil at Highfields School.
ITV’s latest crime series, DI Ray, follows a homicide detective working on a murder investigation in Birmingham.
Written by Line of Duty writer Maya Sondhi and executive producer Jed Mercurio, the four-part series aired on 2 May on ITV at 9pm. Actress and screenwriter Maya Sondhi was born and raised from Birmingham.
With the show having been filmed in Birmingham, many recognisable locations throughout the city will feature in the series.
Here’s everything you need to know about where DI Ray was filmed.
What is DI Ray about?
DI Ray is a four-part crime drama that follows the story of Birmingham police officer DI Rachita Ray, who finds herself working on her first homicide case. Bend It Like Beckham actress Parminder Nagra will lead the cast of the highly-anticipated series, which has been made by Jed Mercurio’s production company, HTM Television.
When DI Rachita Ray, played by Nagra, finally receives a promotion she’s wanted for ages, she discovers it is “culturally specific” and is left wondering if she was assigned based on her merit, or her ethnicity.
The series follows Ray as she works hard to track down the killer, finding herself uncovering the murky side of Birmingham’s criminal underworld.
The series explores racism in the workplace, dealing with microaggressions and asks important questions about what it’s like to be British but feel, “other”.
Where is DI Ray filmed?
DI Ray is set in the midlands, with much of the series being filmed in Birmingham city centre. Film crews were spotted by fans in October and November 2021 in locations across the city including Snow Hill station car park and Livery Street.
Some of the confirmed filming locations include:
Three Snow Hill
Film crews were spotted outside the landmark office block Three Snow Hill opposite the Lloyd House police station. Filming took place at the busy city centre location, which is near the Children’s hospital and Gun Quarter, in October 2021.
Snow Hill station car park
Film crews were also spotted around the corner in Snow Hill station car park, filming scenes on top of the multi-story building.
St. Paul’s Square
The last remaining Georgian square in Birmingham, St Paul’s Square is located in the Jewellery Quarter and named after the church in its centre. Filming occured in this leafy section of the city in November 2021.
Ludgate Hill car park
Film crews were seen filming at another car park – this time Ludgate Hill, which is located around the corner from Paul’s Square in the Jewellery Quarter.
Livery Street
Scenes were also spotted being filmed in Livery Street, which is located within the city’s Soho & Jewellery Quarter.
Speaking about the new drama ahead of its release, DI Ray writer Maya Sondhi, who was born in Birmingham, said: “This project is deeply personal for me as a British Asian Brummie woman. It’s only in the past ten years or so I’ve really been able to truly embrace my heritage.
Speaking on the show, producer Jed Mercurio shared: “I felt that the blend of the identity crisis story, the heritage conflict story, alongside a police procedural could be developed into something that would stand a very good chance of getting on a mainstream channel.
“We were incredibly fortunate that ITV responded to the material with so much support.
Channel 4 and Create Central are pleased to announce a new collaboration to support and grow the West Midlands’ TV production sector. Launching today, the partnership includes a £30K More4 linear content development fund, a £20K digital development fund and a Channel 4 West Midlands Open Day event. The partnership has been formed to forge stronger relationships between West Midlands’ indies and Channel 4 Commissioning to create more opportunities for creative talent in the region.
£30K ‘More4 the West Midlands’ Fund
‘More4 the West Midlands’ is a £30K development fund open to all production companies based within the West Midlands Combined Authority area and/or one of the three West Midlands’ Local Enterprise Partnership regions (Greater Birmingham and Solihull, Black Country, Coventry & Warwickshire). Three More4 programmes ideas will be selected for initial development and awarded £5K each, with one idea awarded an extra £15K funding for further development. The fund is hosted by the Daytime and Features team at Channel 4 and managed by Commissioning Editors Kate Thomas and Jayne Stanger.
£20K Digital Development Fund
In September a digital development scheme with an overall £20K funding pot will also launch. Available to digital content makers in the West Midlands, the scheme will focus on short-form and digital content for social media and All 4. It will be led by Channel 4’s Digital Commissioning and 4Studio teams.
Open Day on May 16th
Accompanying the funds is the Channel 4 West Midlands Open Day on the 16th of May 2022. Indies, freelancers, and other stakeholders will be able to find out more about the channel and meet the commissioners running the funds. The event will be a mix of virtual sessions and in-person activities and will take place on an annual basis going forward.
Mission Accomplished Training
Working with Create Central and training providers, Channel 4 will also deliver targeted training and skills initiatives in the region, including bespoke coaching on development and pitching delivered by Birmingham based Mission Accomplished. The training builds on the Channel 4 initiatives already in place in the region like the Emerging Indie Fund which provides opportunities and advice on projects, and the 4Skills Production Training Scheme which helps develop entry-level diverse talent.
4Schools initiative
For school children, Channel 4 has targeted the West Midlands as one of the three regional areas in England (along with Yorkshire and the North East) for its 4Schools initiative. This scheme opens the world of television and the creative industries to young people, providing practical careers skills and advice.
Sinead Rocks, Managing Director Nations & Regions Channel 4, said: “It’s part of our 4 All the UK strategy to support the growth of production outside of London, especially for smaller and medium-sized indies. The West Midlands is an area where we know there are huge amounts of talent and potential to grow. This partnership with Create Central should allow Channel 4 to support this growth by leveraging our unique relationship with indies.”
Ed Shedd, Chair of Create Central, said: “The West Midlands is one of the youngest and most diverse regions in Europe, full of talented people with stories to tell. Support for those individuals and independent creative businesses in the region is at the heart of Create Central’s mission, and so I am delighted to welcome this agreement between Create Central and Channel 4. Backing for skills and training on the ground, plus linear and digital development pots, will generate closer collaboration between the West Midlands’ screen sector and Channel 4, and real opportunities for local creative talent to break through.”
Jo Street, Head of Daytime & Features, said: “The Daytime & Features team are renowned for championing indies in the Nations and Regions and this initiative allows us to build on our existing relationships in the area and expand our network to companies who might not think about pitching to us. More4 is a fantastic shop window for escapist and aspirational series and we hope that indies are as ambitious for the content as we are.”
On Easter Sunday 17th April 2022 Midlands Movies Editor Michael Sales and BBC Radio Presenter Ed Stagg announced the nominations for the 2022 Midlands Movies Awards via a Facebook live stream. A big thanks was given to the entire Jury Panel who gave up their precious time to watch a huge selection of over 100 films and had such a difficult time choosing from the excellent number of films from the region. The panel is headed up by Steve Oram who will be deciding the winner of the Best Short category. It also comprises key industry representatives including Denyce Blackman (from Film Birmingham), Mark Woodyatt (Mark & Me podcast), Natasha Wilson (Film Hub Midlands), Kelly Jeffs (CEO Lighthouse Cinema), Tim Coleman (Film writer) & Mike Sales (Midlands Movies).
You can read the full list of nominations across all 16 categories below and watch our announcement videos via Facebook (Part 1 here & Part 2 here):
Best Documentary
The Art of Oppression by Patricia Francis
Layers by Lee Page and Micquel Wright
Neilation by Brian Harley
From the End of the Road by Ben Crawford
Best Actress in a Leading Role
Lizzie Clarke for Ned & Me
Carmella Corbett for Her Majesty
Janet Etuk for Cold
Esther McCormick for Rudy
Beatrice Allen for The Heart Asunder
Best Animated Film
Emily the Little Match Girl by Matt Hickinbottom
Fires of Serenity by James Pyle
Treasure by Samantha Moore
Best Director
Rebekah Fortune for Her Majesty
Shona Auerbach for Rudy
Philip Stevens for Lapwing
Lorna Nickson Brown for Ned & Me
Claire Coaché & Lisle Turner for Cold
Best Sound (Editing or Mixing)
James Foster for Wrong Way Up
Stephen Theofanous for Repeat
Keith Tinman for The Fort
Matthew Jones & Susan Pennington for Lapwing
Andrei Korotkov for iHands – A Life Less Lived
Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Edward Crook for Finger Prick
Yoni Nadav for Doghouse
Frank Terry for Loneliness
Craig J Simons for Perdition
Andrew Readman for Tales of Creeping Death
Best Visual Effects
Mike Choo for A Change in Time
Richard Miller & his team for Repeat
Gary Pollard for Tales of the Creeping Death
Jake Jay Eden for September, October, November
James Millar and Phil Chapman for Swine
Best Cinematography
Gary Rogers for Fixed
Haridas Stewart for Her Majesty
Jonathan Zaurin for Wyvern Hill
Christian Cole for A Personal Errand
Best Costume & Makeup & Hairstyling
Dhea Nurrafa for Exiled: The Chosen Ones
Ben Errington for Wyvern Hill
Stephanie Harrison & Zoe Graham for Her Majesty
James Millar, Phil Chapman, Keira Miller & Kaz Preston for Swine
Pauline Loven, Samantha Chapman and Jane Hyman for Lapwing
Best Actor in a Leading Role
Dylan Llewellyn for Finger Prick
Nicholas Clarke for Fixed
Manpreet Bachu for Slave to the Page
Sonny Michael Chohan for Two and a Half Minutes
Charles O’Neill for You Are My Sunshine
Best Editing
James Millar for Swine
Lisa Rustage for Stained Canvas
Guy Nicholls for Who Said Love Is Dead
Daniel Harden for A Personal Errand
Anthony M. Winson for Children of Darkwood House
Best Music (Score or song)
Lee Gretton for Lapwing
Matthew Hickinbottom for Emily the Little Match Girl
Elizabeth Purnell for Treasure
Danny Rowe for September, October, November
Mike Riley for Foul Play
Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Nina Wadia for Repeat
Chrissie Wunna for Stained Canvas
Laura Rollins for Fortune Cookie
Alice Knights in Rudy
Barbara Marten in Her Majesty
Best Feature
Rudy by Shona Auerbach
Tales of the Creeping Death by John Williams
Repeat by Richard Miller
Fixed by Jez Alsop
Lapwing by Philip Stevens
Cold by Claire Coaché and Lisle Turner
Best Writing (Original/adapted)
Gary Cattell for The Morality of Lying
Lizzie Clarke for Ned & Me
Laura Turner for Lapwing
Wayne Nelson for Loneliness
Carmela Corbett for Her Majesty
Best Short Film
September, October, November by Charis McRoberts & Ruth Mestel
Some may say Coventry doesn’t spring to mind as a prime film location but the city has had a few brushes with cinematic fame. Ask anyone to name a famous film made in the city and they are most likely to say Nativity! or The Italian Job.
The Nativity! series of films are pretty much synonymous with Coventry and the city has been at the heart of all of them. The first film was made in 2009 and despite the successful franchise and subsequent films, it remains a Christmas classic. Various sites across the city were featured, including Holy Family Primary School, Coventry Cathedral and the old Coventry Telegraph office in Corporation Street. The newspaper’s then editor, Darren Parkin, even had a cameo role in the film as a reporter. Stars in the first film included Alan Carr and Martin Freeman, and the third instalment of the popular festive comedy featured Martin Clunes. So far there have been four films in the series with talk a fifth could be in the pipeline.
There are few clues connecting Coventry to the legendary sixties heist movie The Italian Job. and it was not until October 2019 that the location where one of the most famous car chases in cinematic history was filmed was at last officially recognised. An unforgettable Mini car chase scene from The Italian Job, supposedly in Turin, was shot in Stoke Aldermoor. In the 1969 film Minis made their way through sewer pipes under the park next to The Lindfield and close to Corpus Christi Catholic School. In 2019 a commemorative plaque was installed to mark the spot where Minis were lowered by a crane into the disused sewer pipes in 1968. The underground pipe system is thought to stretch for around 300 metres. The location of the plaque is approximately 50m on the path between the Barley Lea and Corpus Christi School in Ernesford Grange.
So, outside of that, what are some of the lesser known movies that have been filmed, or at least partly filmed in Coventry?
Lady Godiva Back in the Saddle (2007)
In this comedy, the plot centres around a teacher who attempts to stop an American gangster and a corrupt mayor from building a casino on the site where Lady Godiva rode in Coventry. It starred Phil Cornwell, James Fleet, Caroline Harker and Faye Tozer from Steps in the leading role. It also featured Neil and Christine Hamilton. And the movie was filmed across Coventry at various locations including The Rocket pub, the Council House, Coventry Cathedral, War Memorial Park, Coombe Abbey and the Ramada Hotel.
Spooks: The Greater Good (2015)
Based on the BAFTA-winning international television series, Spooks: The Greater Good was actually filmed in Coventry. Production crews spent several days in the city filming dramatic scenes in Coventry city centre. Junction two of the ring road near Hillfields stood in for the M4 motorway as terrorists on high-powered motorbikes broke open a security convoy to release a fellow conspirator. Other scenes were shot in Birmingham and London. Starring Peter Firth, Kit Harrington and Jennifer Ehle, the film was a huge success raking in a massive $5.3 million at the box office.
Danny and the Human Zoo (2015)
Evidently, 2015 was a big year for movies coming to Coventry as Danny and the Human Zoo was also filmed in the city. Written by Lenny Henry, the hour-and-a-half film is a fictionalised account of his teenage years in the 1970s and stars Kascion Franklin as Danny Fearon, the Lenny Henry character, and Lenny Henry himself as Samson Fearon. Scenes of the movie were filmed at The Albany Theatre in Earlsdon, and lucky locals even got the chance to work on the filming and meet some of the stars including Richard Wilson.
All in the Game (2006)
All in the Game is based on the power-politics of football, and the movie starred Ray Winstone. In this football drama, the audience is provided with an insight into the dark side of the game, as a passionate manager is torn apart between loyalty to his son, a dodgy football agent and his hometown club. It was filmed at the Ricoh Arena, now the Coventry Building Society Arena, the home of Coventry City Football Club. One scene was actually filmed in front of football fans on a matchday against Derby County which involved Ray Winstone kissing the pitch. Coincidentally, Coventry City went on to thrash Derby 6-1 the same day that scene was filmed.
Immune (2016)
Make-up artist Krystal Sidwell, 18, director Steve Taylor and zombies on the set of Immune, the new zombie horror movie being shot in Coventry. Immune is a post-apocalyptic movie set in Coventry. In the thriller, the zombie apocalypse has been and gone. Nine months later, James Fisher played by Christopher Clarke survives alone in a deserted Coventry immune to the virus that has ended the world. But then, another survivor appears from nowhere bringing emotional conflict that is harder to deal with than the hordes of nocturnal undead. During filming, over 60 local volunteers showed up to the set of the movie to take part, and the budding actors queued from the early morning to get their zombie make-up done.
If Ken Loach ever needs reminding about how to champion social justice, then he only has to remember his late best friend, Tony Garnett – orphaned in the most shocking of circumstances at the age of five, Hollywood producer before he’d turned 50. After Tony’s mother Ida (nee Poulton) died from septicaemia following a botched abortion during a night-time bombing raid in the city, his father committed suicide 19 days later – an unimaginable “burden” their young Erdington-born son carried for the rest of his life.
Along with Nuneaton-born friend and director Ken Loach, now 85, Tony worked on landmark 1960s’ dramas Up The Junction about an illegal abortion (two years before termination were legalised), Cathy Come Home (the drama about homelessness which helped to create the charity Shelter) and Kes, the film about finding inner strength which was ranked seventh in the best British films list of the 20th century by the British Film Institute (BFI). Having spent the 1980s in LA, Tony returned to London to co-found World Productions. Launching Cardiac Arrest and Between The Lines opened up career paths for others which, even though he had retired from producing in 2006, effectively made him the spiritual godfather of Line of Duty as well as many other dramas.
Tony Garnett Early Years
Tony was born Anthony Lewis on April 3, 1936, but after the deaths of his mother and then garage mechanic turned insurance salesman father Tom Lewis, he was raised by his aunty and uncle Emily and Harold Garnett whilst younger brother Peter joined other relatives. Such real life trauma would inspire his drive to make dramas with a purpose and authenticity.
From Birmingham Central Grammar School, Tony later became an actor, first meeting Ken at Highbury Little Theatre en route to both arriving at the BBC when it was thirsting to make an original 75-minute Wednesday play every week. Being creative-minded and brave enough to challenge anything in their path made them a formidable pair.
In the 1960s they followed Up The Junction with the groundbreaking Cathy Come Home and Kes, before they went their separate ways at the dawn of Thatcherism. Ken became a full-time film director whilst Tony would become a Hollywood producer working with Paul Newman. Laura Dern and Roland Joffe on the Mexico-based atomic bomb drama Shadow Makers (1989) – a subject matter now being revisited by Christopher Nolan with Peaky Blinders star Cillian Murphy playing J Robert Oppenheimer in the film Oppenheimer, due for release next year. Other projects that decade included Prostitute (1980) and Handgun (1982) – Tony wrote and directed both – as well as Sesame Street adventure Follow That Bird and Earth Girls Are Easy, a musical directed by Julien Temple and starring Geena Davis, Jim Carrey and Jeff Goldblum.
Tony returned to England in search of creative freedom with World Productions. Early hits included Between The Lines and Cardiac Arrest – the show which gave Birmingham junior doctor Jed Mercurio his big break as an unknown writer before going on to pen other hits including The Grimleys and Line of Duty which would be produced by Tony’s fellow Brummie, Simon Heath. Other hits Tony backed included Ballykissangel, This Life and many more. Tony spent five years at the University of London as a professor of media arts and had honorary doctorates from the Universities of Birmingham and Reading. Having encouraged shooting on the streets instead of on sets, he once said of his work: “I’ve tried to tell the truth, but I would say that wouldn’t I. In any case, it had to be my truth. What other truth could I possibly know?”
Villa fan Tony died aged 83 on January 12, 2020 shortly before Covid-19 would wreak havoc on the world at large. And so 30 members of his family recently gathered at the MAC Cinema in Cannon Hill Park to remember him, partly via his on-screen work but also through the testimonies of Ken Loach and others who said they owed their careers to Tony.
Line of Duty Godfather
Line of Duty executive producer Simon Heath said: “We spent a decade working together and I think (as a Villa fan) Tony enjoyed having a Blues supporter like me – usually doing a lot worse – next to him.
“Tony wasn’t interested in building companies, profits and ownership, but he came back from America and co-founded World Productions because it gave him creative freedom and independence which he often used to give people breaks. He had a nose for brilliant writers, but he was always tough on writers and if they weren’t coming up to scratch they knew about it. He was also not swayed by fashion. You got tough love and if you’d done something wrong he would point it out so that you would want to do it better afterwards, so he was a brilliant mentor.
“Attachments (2000, starring Romola Garai) was a TV series set around an internet start-up company and was ahead of its time. Tony wanted people to be able to interact through a website, but not many people had any kind of access to the internet at that point and if they did it was dial up. It could have been a huge hit if it had been made a few years later. One of the writers was Charlie Brooker – not sure what happened to him!
“Tony told me once: ‘Simon… you need to have the courage of my convictions and I’ve always remembered that’.”
Cardiac Arrest writer Jed Mercurio said: “I was a junior hospital doctor working at the old accident hospital in Birmingham when I answered an advert Tony’s company had placed in the British Medical Journal seeking contributions for a new medical series they had in development. Tony had spent a whole career determined to represent the reality of people’s lives on TV.
“Tony hated the sham of the fake TV world that didn’t represent the true life. He called it the drama of reassurance. He understood the realities of the industry where creative risk must be balanced in inverse proportion to production costs. He was always the smartest bloke in the room.”
Roy Battersby, a friend for more than 50 years, has directed everything from Play for Today to Cracker, Inspector Morse and A Touch of Frost as well as Between The Lines. He said: “Truly great work has a necessity about it and all of Tony’s work had that, leaving us glad that it was there. Becoming a human being has always been something to aspire to. It’s a lifetime’s work and often takes great courage. It means finding a home in yourself for all of your fears and failures and never inflating your successes. It takes true modesty, it means opening your heart. Tony fought to go every step of that ancient way, my modest, brilliant friend.”
Professor Roger Shannon on Tony Garnett
Moseley-based film professor Professor Roger Shannon, who organised the tribute through his own company Swish, said he first met Tony at the Berlin Film Festival in the late 1980s when he realised many of the 1960s’ dramas he’s seen as a kid were made by Tony whose work had had “a profound effect on this teenage grammar school boy from Liverpool.”
In terms of the most influential Birmingham-born producers, he rates Tony’s career as second only to Sir Michael Balcon who gave Alfred Hitchcock his first break as director, produced more than 250 films, ran the Ealing Studios, co-founded BAFTA and was grandfather to Daniel Day-Lewis, the only star to win three best actor Oscars
Roger added: “Tony agreed to have a retrospective of his work at the 1990 Birmingham Film & TV Festival and every day for eight days he travelled up and down from Euston to introduce the film and then take part in a Q&A after each screening.
“I thought that was a remarkable example of his discipline and determination. The last time I met him was a couple of years ago when he came to the Mockingbird in Digbeth where Shelter wanted to show Cathy Come Home to some of its new recruits. I’d arranged to have a drink with him – his was a double vodka – and I asked him how many people were there and he said ‘Five’. He was happy to do that for a film he’d worked on more than 50 years before. Maybe Shelter would have wanted more people, but the essence of the story is that he was happy to have been able to chat to five people about the film. That shows the measure of Tony’s passion, concern and of the ideas that were embedded in the work.”
Tony’s first wife Topsy Jane was an actress who starred with Tom Courtenay in The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner (1962) but after falling ill during the early weeks of filming Billy Liar (1963) with Tom, had electroshock therapy for schizophrenia and was replaced on set by Julie Christie. Tony was survived by his partner, Victoria Childs, and his two sons. Will was born to Topsy Jane while Michael was by his second wife Alex (nee Ouroussoff) – a marriage which also ended in divorce.
Ken Loach on Tony Garnett
The MAC Cinema was the perfect place for Ken to remember Tony because 60 years ago in 1962 his own wife, Lesley, had been working with Midlands Arts Centre pioneer Johnny English. Ken’s film Land & Freedom broke all box office records at MAC after it was released in 1995, even though it was about land reforms in 1930s’ Spain.
Ken said his wife Lesley first met Tony and his actress wife Topsy Jane at Highbury Little Theatre. “I was a little intimidated by him because he always wore black,” Ken joked. “I was lucky, I worked with Tony for 15 years from 1963/4 up to the end of the Seventies. He carried that burden (the death of his parents) with him all of his life. Of course, who wouldn’t. The book that he wrote (The Day The Music Died, 2016) is a magnificent piece of writing and nobody could be anything but moved by how he clarified it in the book. We were really pleased to see how he became much more at ease with himself and in the last year or two was happier than we’ve ever seen him so the last moments were very good. But he was a lifelong friend, we set out on our journey of filmmaking together, thanks to Roger, and whatever I’ve done since I owe Tony a lot. He was the greatest comrade, a steadfast friend and we all miss him.”
Ken said they had been “immensely fortunate” to have been working for the BBC just when The Wednesday Play was proving itself to be “an extraordinary moment in television… (with) the brief of making contemporary drama, contemporary fiction, every Wednesday throughout the year.
“Week after week there would be 75 minutes of contemporary fiction that set out to be challenging, critical, subversive… (the bosses) weren’t so keen on the subversive, but they were in for it,” said Ken. “It was produced by a man called Jimmy (James) MacTaggart who was an iconoclast – he wasn’t political, but he liked a tilt at the establishment and hired a script editor called Roger Smith. All of us, including Roy Battersby, owe what careers we’ve had to Roger Smith. Roger asked me to join as a director, he asked (actor) Tony to join as a script editor and that was a life-changing moment – we didn’t realise it at the time, but that paved the way for everything and they found brilliant writers.
“The 1960s were a time when the ruling classes were confident and when they are confident you can get away with most things. When they are worried, when they know things might not always turn out in their interest, then they become more restrictive. The substance of that group was the political development we took in that group. In the fog of memory and haze of anecdotes about ‘Do you remember this and that?’, what tends to get lost are those key ideas. We were at great pains to struggle towards them, to articulate them and to try to understand what was necessary. Every piece we did and every piece we have tried to do since has been because we felt there was no alternative but to do it.
“That was the core, and the ideas were these, and it came out of a new Left movement beginning for us when Harold Wilson was elected in 1964 when some of us joined the Labour Party around about then and some of us delivered leaflets for him. Over a period of a few months, you realised nothing would change. They were the Labour Party committed to the way things were. Out of that grew a new Left movement to articulate those ideas. This was the core of Tony’s work, my work and those associated with us. Tony’s life and work doesn’t make sense without this.”
The five principles of Tony Garnett and Ken Loach
Ken, whose personal honours include prizes from BAFTA, BIFA and the European Film Awards, used the tribute as an opportunity to remind the audience of how they stood up for what they believed in thanks to five key principles.
“The first principle was, there is an irreconcilable conflict between those who own and control and those who sell their labour. It is a conflict of interests between one wanting cheap labour, cheap raw materials and access to markets and the others wanting a way to support a family, a house, looking after you when you’re sick, education for your kids, a pension when you’re old. They are in conflict and always will be so until the system is changed.
“Second principle – when the working class is immensely strong, nothing’s made, nothing moves, nothing is sold, there’s no transport, there is no education, there is no care without the working class. They are strong.
“Third principle – if there is to be change it will be made by that class because that class has the interest in change. Those who have grown wealthy and fat from the present system… they won’t change. They may try to pass reforms to convince people that things will change – but they will never change. The working class is a revolutionary class.
“The fourth principle is – if as we struggle for class consciousness, to understand that power, to understand the strength, to realise that it is only through collective action that that change will take place. And that class consciousness… of course the whole media, the BBC as we know, that is what they will not tolerate, that is what they will not allow… that that consciousness should develop. And when there are times in history when it has been developing, that is when they move against us. The miners’ strike is one example, when you heard nothing about the justice for their cause – just ‘picket-line violence’ is all you heard. We know, 30 years odd later, that of course it was the police going in with their truncheons. I saw them in the vans as they went into the pit yards holding their fivers to show the overtime they were getting. The BBC never showed that.
“The BBC are apologists for the ruling class, they are an organ of the state and the state is an embodiment of the ruling class. The state is a committee for organising the interests of the ruling class.”
Ken, who has won the Palme d’Or at Cannes on a record-equalling two occasions – for The Wind That Shakes The Barley (2006) and for I, Daniel Blake (2016), the Jury Prize a join best three times as well as lifetime achievement awards in Berlin and Venice, added: “Those are the ideas, those are the principles on which we struggled throughout the Sixties and articulated and bound us together. “Those are the ideas that Tony embodied in his work and they remained the core of his view of the world as they have with those of us who were there at the time. To my mind, they’ve been borne out ever since.
“It’s really important that we articulate that from time to time because we never hear them – and they drove us. When we were doing the Wednesday plays there was another development that was equally radical and important and that was ‘form’ because – there’s still the idea, the content, the principles – but when we began, television drama was like theatre.
“Tony was momentarily in charge, Jimmy was away… what are we going to do? Up The Junction full of life and vitality. We were given three or four days filming, but it would cost a fortune to put together. We had a 16mm back up… the quality wasn’t good enough, but we cut the film together and because we had the cheek we got it on and then we were able to make Cathy Come Home. The lesson was you’ve got to undermine bureaucracy and get around them in a way they are not expecting. Tony then went to the States and, in a futile way, I tried to make documentaries (before consistently directing films).
“Tony would ask the core questions of any project: ‘Is it true, is it authentic, is it significant, is it worth telling, is it illuminating something we would otherwise not understand or realise, it is worth several months of our time, would it communicate that understanding to ordinary people, not an artistic elite?’ To make revolutionary programmes, you have to destroy the medium.”
Graduate filmmakers from Coventry University have won the acclaim of industry experts after picking up prestigious accolades at the Royal Television Society Midlands Student Awards. The awards, which were presented during a ceremony on March 31, recognise skills in areas such as editing, writing, sound, camerawork and production design.
Adrian Bajireanu, 23, from Portugal, took home the Best Editing Award for his music video entitled “Because of Covid” which carries a positive message about the importance of friends and family in overcoming feelings of isolation and lack of motivation during the pandemic.
Fellow graduates Edmundo Inacio and Artur Monteiro, also from Portugal, won the Best Production Design Award for their film “Filha da Terra” (“The Daughter of the Countryside”). It tells the story of Edmundo’s grandmother as she takes the difficult decision to move from her countryside community to the city. Several others narrowly missed out on awards, including Daniel Robinson, Roshni Patel and Harry Swaine, nominated for Best Drama and Best Writing, and Emily Williams who was nominated in the Sound category. All were media production graduates from last year.
Adrian, 23, said: “It was a really fun film to make, we were doing this during the pandemic and because of everything that was happening at the time, a couple of my other projects fell through. I was not expecting to win, it was such a shock, but with video editing being my favourite part of videography, it was a great honour and felt like my hard work paid off. I had a great experience in Coventry, the lecturers were very supportive and having access to all the resources from the media loan shop meant I could make professional standard films.”
Edmundo, 22, said: “This was a very personal film for me, it’s about my grandmother so it was something really special to make. I saw how much my grandfather loves my grandmother and how difficult it is to move away from the countryside, where you’ve grown up and have all these memories. I think the experience of learning about that made me feel more human. It was a surprise to win the award, I was so happy particularly as Covid had caused problems with the initial project.”
Artur added: “This documentary focused on a forgotten and poetic side of Portugal. There are many stories like this in our country and across the world, but most are never heard, it was something really interesting to explore.”
Dan Hopkins, Course Director for Media Production at Coventry University’s School of Media and Performing Arts, said: “The Media Production team and I are massively impressed with the graduates for getting nominated as well as winning awards. Media Production is a multi-disciplinary course meaning that they do lots of different types of media across the three years. This makes these wins particularly impressive when they are up against such stiff competition in the region and producing such high-quality work despite the difficulties of Covid.”
