CHARLES DICKENS’S
ENGLAND
Presented & narrated
by
Derek Jacobi
Running Time
118 minutes
Release Date
24th July 2009
BBFC Cert
tbc
UK
Distribution
Guerilla Films
Press information
Christina Pickworth
A look at what remains of the England of Charles
Dickens.
SYNOPSIS
CHARLES DICKENS is the UK’s most prominent writer since
Shakespeare and the literary voice of Victorian England. His characters
are universally well known, while his style of writing came to define
the episodic cliff-hanger. Over 250 different film and television
adaptations have been made of these stories – 34 in the last 10 years.
CHARLES
DICKENS’S ENGLAND for the very first time
takes the viewer on a journey of all of the most important places, towns
and cities that were the inspiration to some of the most famous settings
in literature. We visit
Cooling Church
in Kent used by the
author in the opening chapter of Great Expectations; Miss
Havisham’s house in Rochester; the almost
forgotten London Roman Baths used by David Copperfield; Joe Gargey’s
cottage in Chalk; the notorious Bowes Academy, the harshest of the
Yorkshire
schools now known to the world as Dotheboys Hall. From
Portsmouth
to Isle of Wight to numerous London
locations, to Bury St Edmonds to Rochester
and Chatham to Broadstairs, to Folkestone, to
Barnard
Castle to St George’s Hall in Liverpool, well over 100 locations are featured. Many of
the locations, such as the interior of 58 Lincoln’s Inn Fields where
Dickens first read in public, the All The Year Round offices in
Covent Garden where he lived and worked and Gad’s Hill in Kent, the last
in a very long list of his homes, are simply not open to the public and
have rarely been filmed.
The
producer’s overview
Early
on, as an actor, I became aware of the vital importance of writers;
without them, there is nothing – no films, no theatre, no books, no
newspapers, and no TV drama. I also became fascinated by how the
environment inhabited by writers was reflected to such great effect
within the tales, stories, plays and articles they created.
Many years ago, I
made my first about writers JAMES HERRIOT’S YORKSHIRE. I
subsequently decided to produce CHARLES DICKENS’S ENGLAND;
however I did not move forward until after I had read the three books
written by Walter Dexter in the 1920s – THE
KENT
OF DICKENS, THE LONDON
OF DICKENS and THE ENGLAND OF DICKENS. These illustrate a
Charles Dickens association with almost every town and city in
England. I was utterly overwhelmed by
the vast amount of material to be covered.
Then in 2007, my
wife was the costume designer on the BBC production of OLIVER TWIST. They filmed
some of their scenes at Tilbury Fort. One morning, I drove her there and
then walked our dog. As I walked up by the Thames, I saw some rotting hulks which instantly conjured
up GREAT EXPECTATIONS. I then got in the car and explored north
Kent
and was amazed at how much still remains. This prompted me to attempt to
tackle this enormous subject once again.
Whilst we do resort
to the occasional ‘this is where that used to be and that is where
this was’ for one or two scenes, I am confident that we have
found quite enough still existing places and locations to satisfy even
the most avid reader of the works of Charles Dickens. And although much
of his world has vanished forever – Jacob’s Island, The Marshalsea,
Warren’s Blacking Factory, The Adelphi Arches
(almost) - so much surprisingly remains; and, although often altered,
most of these locations continue to give a flavour of the world Charles
Dickens invented for them.
The difficulty Emlyn
Price and I had in creating the script was in deciding what to include
and, more importantly, what to leave out. Even after extensive editing
of the script, the film is still 118 minutes.
I decided to give
the film a UK cinema release because I think
the subject matter and the extraordinary images it reveals deserves a
greater profile that only the movies can deliver.
A shorter version of
the film will be screened as 2 x 48 minutes in the autumn on SkyARTS.
Over many years of
distributing, I have found a large, somewhat ignored cinema audience –
those over the age of 50. This film is aimed directly at them and will
play at specialy selected cinemas throughout the UK
during the summer of 2009.
THE
FILMMAKERS
David Nicholas
Wilkinson – Producer & Co-writer
Founder, Chairman, guerilla
films limited and guerilla books limited
Entered the entertainment
industry in 1970, as an actor, in the title role in the
West End
revival production of THE WINSLOW BOY. Throughout the seventies he played many
leading roles in theatre, television and film production including the
joint lead in JACK FLEA’S BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION – Ian McEwan’s
screen debut directed by Mike Newell; the juvenile lead in
Arthur Hopkcraft’s THE NEARLY
MAN directed by John Irvin and playing
Stuart Sutcliffe in Richard Marquand’s BIRTH OF THE
BEATLES. He won a best actor theatre award for playing Alan
Strang in Peter Shaffer’s
EQUUS.
In 1982 he
pioneered, with Keith Williams, the former BBC Head of Drama, and Barry Smith at
Richards Butler the “Reverse Co-Production” with the BBC. This was a new break-through, for
independent producers in working with the BBC. He has Produced/ Executive
Produced the following productions -
TO THE LIGHTHOUSE
Nominated for Best Single Drama – Bafta , COAST TO
COAST
(Lenny Henry’s
acting debut), DYLAN THOMAS: RETURN JOURNEY Sir Anthony
Hopkins' directorial debut, THE WEATHER IN THE STREETS,
RETRIBUTION, ZERO ( A British/ Lithuanian co-production)
LE CIRQUE IMAGINAIRE (British/French co-production), ELEMENTS OF
ACTING, THE WANDERER, LONDON UNDERGROUND (British/German
co-production), A VERY ENGLISH MADAM, SMALL TIME OBSESSION,
FRED TRUEMAN BOWLS YOU OVER,
JAMES HERRIOT’S YORKSHIRE, the multi award winning I
IS A LONG MEMORIED WOMAN and numerous pop videos etc.
Since
1998 Wilkinson has concentrated on distributing British & Irish films
only in the cinema, on DVD
and to television and has to date released over 50 films. No other
distributor has made this kind of commitment to British films.
Julian
Richards – Director
After winning the British Short
Film Festival 1990 with his
National Film School
graduation film QUEEN SACRIFICE, Julian Richards was hired by
Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment to write CALLING ALL
MONSTERS. After several years directing television drama for BBC and
Channel Four including BROOKSIDE,
Julian wrote and directed his debut feature film
DARKLANDS. Other films are
THE LAST HORROR SHOW, SILENT CRY
and SUMMER SCARS.
Emlyn Price - co-writer
Emlyn Price has worked as a writer and actor
for over forty years on programmes such as SURGICAL SPIRIT, ROLL OVER
BEETHOVEN, ROCK FOLLIES, BOON, THE BORGIAS, PORRIDGE, THE BILL,
REMINGTON STEELE etc.
Chris Smith –
composer
Coming from a background which
combined pop music with teaching, Chris founded Final Touch Productions
in 1988, and subsequently established himself as one of the UK’s leading
producers of media music. As well as being instrumental in developing
the careers of many talented composers, his own work as a composer spans
songwriting, national, pan-European and global advertising work
(including Budweiser, Coca-Cola, Expedia, Philips, Renault), national
and international theatrical productions, drama & documentary films and
the theme for an animated stick man. His album, ‘Wake Up
Tomorrow’ was recently released by KPM.
Chris is also
actively engaged with the administrative and political issues facing the
music industry. He sits on the boards of PCAM and BASCA and works
actively within Europe on the board of FFACE, the Federation of Film and
Audio-visual Composers of Europe. In February 2009, Chris was elected to
the board of the MCPS.
Alan M Trow – Director of
Photography
Alan has 40 years experience of
working with a camera. He trained with the Ministry of Aviation in
England
shooting with large format stills cameras and later 16mm and 35mm movie
camera. After a period working as a freelance stills photographer, where
he won two awards and staged several exhibitions, he moved into
cinematography.
Over the last 25
year he has shot in many parts of the world including Singapore, Borneo,
Brunei,
Texas,
Vancouver BC, Romania, South
Africa, Zimbabwe,
Kosovo, most of Europe and in Hollywood, LA.
Alan has given
Master Classes for Kodak & Fuji, is a visiting lecturer at the London Film School in Covent Garden and
International
Film School,
Wales
and is a member of the Film panel for Screen Academy Wales.
His movies include
John Godber’s Up’N’Under which was one of the most
successful independent British movies in recent years, Monolith,
shot in Hollywood with John Hurt and Lou Gossett Jnr and Dear
Nobody, from the novel by Berlei Doherty, a movie of the week
for the BBC.
Simon Cox – editor
Simon has worked in the TV and
film industry for 20 years and has directed and edited numerous
programmes for the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5. He started as an
Assistant Editor with Film Fair where he learnt his craft, cutting over
600 children’s programmes including; Bangers and Mash, Astro Farm,
The Gingerbread Man, The Dreamstone, Huxley Pig, The Cabbage Patch Kids,
The Wombles, The Herbs, Treasure Island, Molly’s Gang, Tom & Vicky, Rod
& Emu and The Koala Brothers etc.
In 2002 Simon edited
the BAFTA nominated Cool Keys featuring Jools Holland for the
BBC.
THE
PERFORMERS
Derek
Jacobi
Derek Jacobi is one
of the UK’s
most distinguished actors. He was knighted in 1994. His recent credits
include -
THEATRE
TWELFTH NIGHT
– Malvolio; Olivier Awards 2009 –
winner: Best Actor, A VOYAGE ROUND MY
FATHER – DON CARLOS – King Philip II of
Spain; THE TEMPEST – Prospero; THE HOLLOW CROWN;
GOD ONLY KNOWS – Humphrey Biddulph; UNCLE VANYA; LOVE FOR
LOVE; PLAYING THE WIFE; HADRIAN VII – Father William Rolfe;
MACBETH – Macbeth; BECKET; KEAN etc.
FILM
A
BUNCH OF AMATEURS; HIPPIE HIPPIE SHAKE; ADAM RESURRECTED; MORRIS: A LIFE
WITH BELLS ON ; THE GOLDEN COMPASS ; AIRLOCK, OR HOW TO SAY GOODBYE IN
SPACE; THE RIDDLE GUANTANAMERO; ANASTEZSI; UNDERWORLD: EVOLUTION;
NANNY McPHEE; TWO MEN WENT TO WAR; GOSFORD PARK;
LOVE IS THE DEVIL; LITTLE DORRIT etc.
TELEVISION
ENDGAME; DIAMONDS; THE OLD
CURIOSITY SHOP; DR. WHO – SERIES III; PINOCHET IN SUBURBIA ; MISS
MARPLE: MURDER AT THE VICARAGE; THE LONG FIRM
Roy Hattersley
Roy Hattersley entered the House
of Commons in 1964 as a Labour Member of Parliament.
In 1967 he joined the Government as Under-secretary of State at the
Department of Employment, then served as Minister of Defence.
From 1974 he was Senior Minister of State at the Foreign Office
and became a Privy Councillor the following year. He
entered the Cabinet in 1976 as Secretary of State for Prices and
Consumer Affairs. In 1983 he was elected Deputy
Leader of the Labour Party and served until 1992 and was made a peer in
1998.
He stood down from the Commons
at the 1997 general election to concentrate on his writing and speaking.
He has been a Visiting Fellow of the
Institute of Politics at Harvard, Nuffield
College, Oxford,
and a visiting Professor of Politics at the
University
of Sheffield, an Honorary
Fellow of Queen Mary Collge, University of London,
and a Fellow of The Royal Society of Literature.
One of the most prolific writers
in Britain, he was a Guardian colunist for 27 years, and for three years
wrote ‘In Search of England’ for The Daily Mail.
He contributes to numerous newspapers and magazines, as well as
appearing regularly on radio and television. Roy
Hattersley is currently working on a biography of Lloyd George and is
the author of twenty-three books, including A Brand from The Burning:
The Life Of John Wesley, The Edwardians and Borrowed Time, The Story of Britain between
The Wars.
Adrian Wotton
Adrian
Wootton is the first Chief
Executive of Film London, the body charged with representing and
developing the film and media industry in the capital.
Prior to becoming the Chief Executive of Film London,
Adrian
was Acting Director of the British Film Institute (BFI), in
addition to having been the Director of the London Film Festival
(LFF), the National Film Theatre (NFT) and Head of BFI
Exhibition.
Subsequent to his appointment to the BFI, he was founding Director of
Broadway Media Centre in Nottingham and Director of the Bradford Playhouse.
He regularly broadcasts and reviews films for Radio 4 and
contributes articles to various newspapers and magazines, including
The Guardian and Sight & Sound.
He recently edited 'Black Friday & Selected Stories', a
collection of stories by the American crime writer David Goodis, and is
currently working on a full length biography of him.
He is Director of the crime and mystery festival, Crime Scene,
and Programme Advisor to the London
Film Festival, Venice
Film Festival and Noir in Fest, Courmayeur. He is also Chair of the
Advisory Board of Sensoria, Sheffield's Music & Film Festival and is a member
of the Advisory Board of the Creative Industries Observatory.
Adrian lectures
regularly nationally and internationally on a wide variety of film and
literary subjects, as well as curating film programmes and
retrospectives for numerous organizations, including BFI Southbank.
Most recently, he curated a retrospective on the film career of Frank
Sinatra, which has been staged throughout the
UK and Adrian accompanied it with
a series of lectures.
He is currently working on two other writing projects, namely a critical
study of the life and career of English novelist Graham Greene
and a monograph on the American crime writer, Raymond Chandler.
Adrian is also a
member of BAFTA and the European Film Academy.
Dr Tony Williams –
contributor and script consultant.
Tony Williams is an Honorary
Research Fellow in the School
of Humanities at the University of Buckingham
and an Honorary Life Member of The International Dickens Fellowship.
He taught English in secondary schools from 1969 to 1997 and, after
taking early retirement in 1997, became Joint General Secretary of the
Dickens Fellowship from 1999 to 2006 and, for the same period, a Trustee
of The Charles Dickens Museum in
London. He continues to be actively involved in
the Fellowship's activities and is Associate Editor of its journal,
The Dickensian. He is a frequent
speaker on Dickens and other literary topics, both in the UK and overseas
and is a Deputy Editor of and contributor to
The Dickens Magazine.
His current work with the University of Buckingham is on a project to have all of
Dickens's journals on-line, edited and available to different levels of
user, for Dickens's bi-centenary in 2012.
Thelma Grove
Thelma Grove is an active member
of the local branch of the Dickens Fellowship since moving into
the Rochester
area in 1968. In recognition of her service as Joint Secretary of the
International Dickens Fellowship, she is now an Honorary Life
member. She is a Deputy Editor of the Dickens Magazine and a
regular contributor to The Dickensian. She gives talks on Dickens
to UK
and overseas Fellowship branches and at Dickens World where she is
Dickens adviser. She is an active participant in the Rochester
Dickens Festivals, especially by judging the children's and adults'
Dickens Character competitions and helping to arrange the Charles
Dickens Commemoration Service in the Cathedral.
Lee Ault
Lee Ault Joint Hon. Gen Sec. of
the International Dickens Fellowship. She is also Curator
of Dickens House Museum Broadstairs and Chairman of the
Dickens Fellowship Branch Canterbury. She runs Costume workshops for
English Heritage and lecture all over the world. She
lectures at the Tate B Gallery and is a speaker at University Summer
schools.
FULL CREDITS
presented by
Derek Jacobi
director
Julian Richards
producer
David Nicholas
Wilkinson
written by
David Nicholas
Wilkinson
and Emlyn Price
executive
producer
Keith Hayley
director of
photography
Alan M Trow
BSC
film editor &
second unit cameraman
Simon Cox
composer
Chris Smith
production
manager
Christina
Pickworth
executive
producer for SkyARTS
James Hunt
John Cassy
production
executive for SkyARTS
Laura Green
production
co-ordinator for SkyARTS
Annalisa Johnson
colourist
Barry Taylor
dubbing mixers
Roger Askew
Marek Bielski
Stuart Hemphill
sound recordist
Keith Tunney
location
management
Andrew Pavord and
Karen Everett
focus puller &
first assistant camera
Jeremy Fusco
costume designer
Amy Roberts
title sequence
Dave Ledsom
Stuart Burnicutt
Screenburn
Animation
casting director
Carl Proctor
stills
photographer
Russell Burden
stills
photography assistants
Jane Burden
Wesley Burden
unit manager
Toby Eliot
transport manager
Nick Coppack
production
accountant
Richard Juneman
production
executive
Catharine Alen-Buckley
production
assistant
Pip Wilkinson
audio post
production
The Barbershop
Music Company
assistant editor
James Barham
cello
Nicholas Holland
clarinet
James Ingham
composer's
assistant
Daniel Elms
interviewees
Lord Hattersley
Dr Tony Williams
Adrian Wootton
Professor Tony
Pointon
Lee Ault
Thelma Grove
Toni Mackintosh
Roger Limb
Dr Jonathan
Freeman
Andrew Eccott
Reverend Roger
Calder
historic &
literary consultant
Dr Tony Williams
International
Dickens Fellowship
Special thank you
to
Keith Loudon
The producers
wish to thank the following:-
Charles Dickens’s Birthplace Museum
Portsmouth
City Council
Portsmouth
Historic Dockyard and Naval Pay Office
Chatham
Historic Dockyard
Medway Council
St Luke’s Church,
Chelsea
St James Church,
Cooling and the Churches Conservation Trust
St Giles Church,
Bowes
Copnor
Parish
Church
of St Alban
The Mackintosh
Family
Gravesend City
Council
Highgate
Cemetery
and Friends of Highgate
Cemetery
The Old Curiosity
Shop, Lincolns Inn Fields
Wightlink Ferries
Kent
and East Sussex Steam Railway Line
Renault UK
Peter Thompson,
Hatched Brands
Winterbourne
Country House, Isle of Wight
Sean Webb & the
residents of Dotheboys Hall, Bowes
Tony White and
The Leather Bottle, Cobham
The George &
Vulture, City of London
Barbara Hague and
The Grapes, Limehouse
The Spaniards
Inn, Hampstead
Coutts & Co – Jo
Thorne, David Campbell and Jordan James
The Morritt
Hotel, Greta
Bridge
1 Lombard Street
Restaurant, City of London
Garden Court
Chambers, Lincolns
Inn Fields
The Royal Albion
Hotel, Broadstairs
Eel Pie Boatyard,
Twickenham
Gordon’s Wine
Bar, London
Slainey Place
Farm, Staplehurst
Hammersmith and
Fulham Archives and Local History Centre
Highland
Road
Cemetery and Friends of Highland Road Cemetery
Staples Inn,
Holborn
Royal
Victoria
and Bull Hotel, Rochester
Waterhouse Square
(Furnivals Inn), Holborn
Westminster
Abbey
Dickens World, Chatham
St George’s Hall,
Liverpool
Peter Ellis and 18 Cecil Court, London
Paul Lyon Maris
and Camilla Young
Triumph
Interiors, London
Queens Square
Fruit Stall
The Bluebell
Railway
Emma Price
Port of London
Authority
Livetts Launches
Abingdon Green
Dr Jonathan
Freeman
Southwark and
Lewisham Film Office
The Film
Office
City of Westminster
Richmond
Film Office
Kensington and
Chelsea
Filming and Special Events Office
City of London
Camden Film Office
Covent Garden Market
Crown Estate and
Paving Commission
The Dean and
Chapter of Rochester Cathedral
Rochester
Castle
The National
Trust
Johnny at Camera
Speed
Raymondo and The
London Cab Company
Rex Features
Michael Rogers
Kee Scott
Associates
Little Dorrit
clip courtesy of Sands Films
Nick Thomas and
Michelle Addison-Sakyi
from Media
Insurance Brokers
The staff and students of
Gad’s Hill
School
Dickens
House
Museum,
Broadstairs
Lee Ault
The
Charles
Dickens Museum,
London
Dr Florian
Schweizer, Kate Gazzard, Andrew Xavier
International
Dickens Fellowship
Joan Dicks
Screen South
Jo Nolan, Jenny
Cooper
Film London
Adrian Wootton,
Jane Shaw
a Guerilla Films
& SkyARTS
presentation
of a
Boz Films
production
© Boz Films
Limited. MMIX.
|
