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Sir Paul McCartney is a passion- ate man. Passionate, as we know, about music, poetry, art, vegetarianism. But pas- sionate about Ubu Cocu? Now, not a lot of people know that – as fel- low showbiz knight Sir Michael Caine might have put it. More of that later.
Much more in character perhaps, Sir Paul is passionate about unneces- sary suffering. Specifically on this occa- sion at BAFTA, the indiscriminate, per- nicious suffering caused by the millions of landmines littering the world.
Relaxing in the Academy’s Members’ Gallery alongside his close friend, television presenter Heather Mills, the driving force behind a new campaign they are both spearheading in the UK called Adopt-A-Minefield, Sir Paul took time out from the official campaign launch to chat about BAFTA, film, television, and his secret passion to direct Ubu Cocu in the theatre.
Why had they chosen 195 Piccadilly for the minefield launch? “It really is a very beautiful building; the reputation of BAFTA as a body attracts me; it has great screening facilities and the food is absolutely excellent.”
“Can’t say fairer than that,” com- mented Roux chef Dominic Barham, hovering nearby with a mouth-watering tray of vegetarian canapés.
Sir Paul, a vegetarian for 25 years, tucked in. “I was brought up a good Liverpudlian meat and two veg guy. Now, my son is a vegan and I’m leaning towards that. But I still have skimmed milk. Many people don’t realise the environmental aspect of vegetarianism. They think it is just the animals.
“For instance, with billions of cat- tle in America to be fed and watered, the water table is going down. But with- out using animals we can feed 20 times more people. In this century, the eco- nomic thing is going to kick in so I try to persuade people” he said, munching a delicate Corn Bread, Avocado and Thyme Salsa.
Staying with Liverpool days, we moved on to Sir Paul’s film career.
“Dick Lester was the man. The Beatles had had lots of film offers but none of them really appealed. We were into French cinema that kind of stuff. Then we had this good script by Alun Owen called A Hard Day’s Night with Dick’s name attached to it as director.
“We liked Dick a lot. We loved his Running Jumping Standing Still film. It was anarchic. Still is. Boy, it was very exciting for us kids. We were doing well in music but suddenly THE MOVIES... now that was a real step up.”
But in 1984 another adventure into film for McCartney, Give My Regards to Broad Street, was, according to the Radio Times Guide to Films, widely condemned as a “worthless ego trip” for Paul who wrote the script.
Now, a new venture is in the pipeline based on one of his successful shorts which was launched at BAFTA last year. “We’re talking about a fea- ture film and I’m working on the script.”
Any thoughts of directing? “People say to me ‘What’s next,
Paul?’ because I do a lot of things. But I only do a lot of things because I have a lot of passions. The great thing is I’ve got the opportunity. Most people have passions but like me in Liverpool before the Beatles, no opportunity to do any of it.
“I’ve always wanted to direct, mainly for theatre. I just thought it would be easier than hoping that some- one would actually let me do a film.”
And that is when his secret pas- sion for Ubu Cocu emerged. “I’ve long harboured a secret ambition to direct three plays. Hamlet, Tennessee Williams’ Camino Royale and Ubu Cocu by Alfred Jarry [a French dramatist, who died in 1907, best known for Ubu Roi; Ubu Cocu, aka Ubu Cuckolded, was published posthumously in 1944].
“It’s wacky crazy stuff. Turn of the last century French farce. Very much Theatre Of The Absurd,” smiled Sir Paul.
We moved on to his early memories of television. “I was a teenage telly addict. Television for us became a fireplace. The thing you came home to instead of light- ing a fire. I remember going into some peoples’ houses who didn’t have the tele- vision on. It was quite disturbing. We had
it on all the time.
“The Beatles were all telly
addicts, but Ringo was the worst. I used to ring him up and he’d say ‘It’s 7.25.’ I’d say, yes true. And he’d say ‘I don’t want to speak to you now.’ He just wouldn’t speak to people during Coronation Street.”
Now, Sir Paul has drifted towards EastEnders and Brookside, but Ringo remains staunchly devoted to Corrie.
It was time for him and his partner to take their place on the platform in the Princess Anne Theatre for the pre- view of Heather’s poignant 25-minute documentary about landmine sur- vivors, Path To A Safer World, pro- duced by Sophie Chalk with Moira Stewart as executive producer.
Heather was a ski instructor before her own traffic accident resulted in a leg amputation. She made her film in Croatia where more than one million landmines are still buried.
Sir Paul who had recently taken their minefield campaign to US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, said: “Even soldiers can be persuaded that this is cowardly.
“We told him and President Bush that this is something people want stopped. Landmines take or wreck three lives an hour, every hour of every day of every year. We have to come together now to try to stop that.” ■
Adopt-A-Minefield www.landmines.org.uk
TRYTOSEEITMYWAY
Launching a landmine campaign at BAFTA, Sir Paul McCartney tells
John Morrell about everything from his telly addiction to Theatre Of The Absurd.
Events Extra
TRYTOSEEITMYWAY
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Photos: Paul and Heather with the children and their posters; Terry Gilliam with Heather Mills; Heather with her sister and friend Alex; chef Dominic Barham delights Paul and Heather
with his canapes; (photos by Ken Lennox)