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in production
CATHOLIC TASTES
ON THE SET OF THE VIRGIN OF LIVERPOOL
A t a social club that’s not much more than a corner
kick away from Liverpool’s Goodison Park – the home of Everton FC – a first time director and producer team (Lee Donaldson and
Andrew Boswell) is discovering that trying to maintain a straight face can be one of the toughest aspects of film- ing a comedy.
“Today when I woke up my stom- ach muscles were hurting because I was laughing so much on the set when we were filming yesterday,” says helmer Donaldson who, with The Virgin Of Liverpool, is making the move from the world of commercials to the big screen.
Starring Ricky Tomlinson, Johnny Vegas, Imelda Staunton and Paul Barber, this is an irreverent comedy about family and faith. When the church decides to throw out an old statue of the Virgin Mary, a young girl – whose grandmother claimed she saw the statue shed tears – has other plans.
So, till a suitable home is found, the religious icon finds itself beside
the family telly. Then, when the statue starts to cry again, everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon.
Donaldson and Boswell says that the strength and appeal of The Virgin Of Liverpool lies in its humour. “First and foremost it is very funny, there are a lot of laugh out loud lines,” says Boswell.
“But it is also very character driv- en - there is just something charming about it, a bit like films such as The Full Monty and Brassed Off. In this script we have all the elements that recent British successes have had.”
The script – by Liverpool born writer Gil Brailey – had been around for about five years or so before it was drawn to the attention of Boswell and fellow producer Vadim Jean, of Leon The Pig Farmer and One More Kiss.
Typical of the way things are in this hi-tech age, the script was discov- ered on the internet.
“We were searching for a script that could be put into development and found this on the web through a site called Scriptshop” explains Boswell.
“We met the writer and we optioned it fairly quickly. The excep-
tional thing about what we have done is how quickly we got it going. It took five months to develop, we bought it in October and sent it out to cast at the end of February and within three days we had Ricky Tomlinson, Johnny Vegas and Paul Barber. Three or four weeks later we had sold worldwide rights to Senator Entertainment.”
Donaldson is very laid-back about making the transition from directing commercials to making movies. “I don’t think it’s a big leap,” he says. “It’s the same principles – surround yourself with enough talented people, have some idea of what you want to do, storyboard it as much as possible and be prepared to let people do things to make it better.”
Although filmed entirely on loca- tion in Liverpool, the film makers have taken care to ensure that the cast don’t speak in Scouse accents that will
be impenetrable for audiences outside the UK. Boswell also insists that the comedy is not too British and that it possesses international themes that will work beyond these shores.
“The Roman Catholic element will help in countries like France and Spain,” says Boswell. “We have German financiers behind us, so obvi- ously we have German distribution already. The television series The Royle Family, in which Ricky Tomlinson stars, is very popular in Australia, so we have offers on the table for Australia and New Zealand.”
Apart from the actors, and the city itself, one of the stars of The Virgin Of Liverpool is the six foot tall statue of the Virgin Mary. The moment he read the script, Donaldson knew to whom he would turn for the statue... his father, artist Tony Donaldson, who is currently working on a 30 foot square
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