Helen and I headed for the station in the pouring rain.
Kings Cross, like the rest of London it seems, is under construction. The taxi dropped us off around the corner and we got soaked as we tried to find an entrance through the blue hoardings surrounding the place.
We stood in front of the departures board with about 200 other people waiting to join the mad dash to the train as soon as the platform number came up. It reminds me of It’s A Knockout when I was a kid, people not built for physical exercise running an obstacle course of trolleys, toddlers and rucksacks while trying to balance their coffees and magazines in one hand and pulling lethal luggage in the other. I only remembered half way along the platform as I pushed a pensioner out of my way that we’d booked a seat anyway so why the rush??
In Newcastle we headed for the Northern Film and Media building. It was a beautiful day here, cold and bright. So no Fog on the Tyne for us. A room had been set aside and as I went through the clips and slides with Rupert Lee my old mate Trevor Fox came in. I’d worked with Trevor a number of times, both as an actor and a director. I once played a Geordie (with a terrible accent it has to be admitted) and Trevor was my mate in the film and we immediately became mates and have kept in touch ever since. He’s a fantastic actor, and done great work at Live Theatre in Newcastle and also in Billy Elliot on stage and is about to go to Broadway with the Pitman Painters.
The place filled up and I gave my talk which seemed to go well. Trevor and Helen joined me and Trevor had everyone in stitches about his experiences auditioning and how some directors had not been overly sensitive to him on film sets. It must have been tough in reality but as he told these stories back he made it all sound so hilarious I wondered if he’s ever thought of doing a stand up based on it.
There were great questions afterwards and many people here were champing at the bit to go away and make their own films. Their ideas (and also finished screenplays) came think and fast, it seemed a hive of creativity and not for the first time Newcastle reminded me of my own home town of Liverpool.
The film played that night in the beautiful Tyneside cinema in the city centre and again the place was packed. Afterwards the response was amazing. A lot of people didn’t have questions but raised their hands just to say how much they’d enjoyed it and picked out Helens performance in particular.
I go to the BFI next and do a talk with Bill Nighy and then onto derby next week. It’s been such a blast and I don’t want it to end to be honest. Thank you Newcastle.
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