Page 19 - Fujifilm Exposure_24 Stephen Fry_ok

PUCKOON
RE-CREATING THE CRAZY SURREAL WORLD OF SPIKE MILLIGAN
T hirty years after the late Charles Crichton gave him
a copy of Spike Milligan’s Puckoon as a “perfect example of great comedy writing”, producer-director Terence Ryan’s film version
has finally reached the big screen. Set in 1924 and starring Sean
Hughes, Elliott Gould, Richard Attenborough, John Lynch, Daragh O’Malley, Milo O’Shea, Griff Rhys- Jones and Jane (daughter of Spike) Milligan, the story concerns a bound- ary dispute which, quite literally, divides in two the sleepy (fictitious) Irish village of Puckoon.
Thought to be the first co-produc- tion between the North and South of Ireland, it was financed from Germany and with contributions from The
Photos: On the set of Puckoon starring Sean Hughes, Elliott Gould, Richard Attenborough, John Lynch, Daragh O’Malley, Milo O’Shea, Griff Rhys-Jones and Jane Milligan
Northern Ireland Film Commission and Irish Film Board as well as a couple of tax deals in the UK and Ireland.
Go back 10 years and Ryan (The Brylcreem Boys, Going Home) was pro- ducing Eric Sykes’ silent comedy, The Big Freeze, starring Bob Hoskins, Sir John Mills and Spike Milligan.
Having just re-read the book – first published in 1963 – and knowing he “had” to make it into a film, Ryan started having discussions on the sub- ject with Milligan.
In an early attempt to mount the production, Ryan and his producer Ken Tuohy hired a stage at Shepperton to film Milligan in the role of the story’s author-narrator-creator (a part now played by Lord Attenborough).
On the second day of filming, Milligan, who died last year, asked
why they were shooting if they still hadn’t got the production fully financed. There was an embarrassed moment of silence.
Milligan broke the silence with a chuckle and said: “It’s 30 years since I wrote the book, and it will take anoth- er 30 years for the British film indus- try to fund the bloody film, so it was just as well to be in the film now before I am gone.”
Thanks to Ryan and Tuohy’s per- sistence, and with BAFTA-winning cin- ematographer Peter Hannan BSC on board, it only took another ten years.
Puckoon was originated on Fujicolor Motion Picture Negative
Fuji Motion Picture And Professional Video • Exposure • 17
feature in focus