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arts and crafts
a touch of velvet
Editor Kristina Hetherington talks to Quentin Falk
Yes,” admits Kristina Hetherington, “I was a bit worried in case someone could read the script over my shoulder on the Tube. Especially Episode Two...”
She’s talking about Tipping The Velvet, that splendid three- part Sapphic bodice-ripper which enlivened BBC2’s drama schedules during the autumn and wildly over-excited some newspaper columnists.
“When I first started to read the script, I just found it so visual. Within a few pages, I knew I had to do it. Actually it was written down more shockingly than it was actually filmed. I also trusted Geoff [Sax, the director] to han- dle it decently. I’m a great believer in the expression Less Is More because the imagination can then add so much.”
Hetherington has an infectious laugh as, with a rich Cumbrian twang, she very happily recalls the whole process of filming the so- called ‘scandalous’ serial: “I was regularly on set so got a chance to talk to the actresses. I felt very involved from the beginning.
“When it came to editing it was actually very straightforward – a bit boring, really. Went together like a dream. The policy was to put it all in and then wait
to be told to take it out. Geoff said from the beginning he planned to shoot it in a very tongue-in-cheek way.”
Was there anything they sim- ply couldn’t use? “There was,” she smiles, “only one occasion when we had to take some- thing out for decency’s sake.” And, no, she certainly wasn’t going to elaborate.
As a child she declared she wanted to work in films or TV – “from the age of five, I’m told. I really wanted to be an actress, but I couldn’t act.” Growing up in an remote corner of the North- West, showbiz glamour was restrict- ed to watching Sunday afternoon films on the telly with her grand- mother. “I wrote to Jim’ll Fix It ask- ing if I could wear a dress from The King and I but I didn’t get an answer. My gran said we were too far north for him to reply.”
Hetherington’s mother had a “vague connection” with an edi- tor who in turn knew a vision mixer, so she had a chance to sample both. The latter was defi- nitely a no-go. “I’ll have a heart attack if I do this for a living,” she thought. “So I decided to go with the editing. It seemed be to peaceful, calm and thoughtful, and we got a chance to discuss things. This was definitely for me.
In retrospect I always think how lucky I was to fall into something I really liked.”
At 18 she set off to London and having decided against uni- versity had to choose between the security of a solid office job at Burton’s or a four-week editing stint. No contest. That in turn led to a spell of holiday relief at the BBC followed by an appointment to the cutting room.
“I was an assistant for a long time – longer than I think was entirely necessary – but then again I was lucky to work with editors who took me through the whole process and let me edit with them.”
Eventually she was persuaded by the very experienced Robin Sales to leave the BBC to go and work for him.
“I’d first met Robin at the BBC but didn’t actually work with him there. He was a great teacher and allowed me to assemble sequences and then would go through them with me and dis- cuss my editing. As well as this he introduced me to all aspects of post -production and this has proved invaluable.
Six years later Sales persuaded Hetherington she should try and strike out on her own. After cut- ting some classy short films, she got an important break with pro-
ducer Lynda La Plante working on, in quick succession, Killer Net, Supply And Demand and Trial And Retribution II.
It’s been pretty much non- stop since mixing everything from acclaimed TV (Rescue Me, Dockers etc) to films like Gas Attack – winner of Best New Feature at Edinburgh in 2001 and a BAFTA Scotland nominee this year – and Stephen Frears’ peri- od drama, Liam.
“I always fall in love with my directors,” she laughs, “I want to look after them. Bit sad, really. My job is to see what the director wants, work at that and then try and expand on their vision; hope- fully, make it even better than they thought. It can be a very intense relationship.”
Citing Thelma Schoonmaker, Jill Bilcock and Anne V Coates as editors she particularly admires, Hetherington admits to a kind of game-plan: “I’d like to work more in films, particularly low-budget features because that’s when you tend more to all be part of something, and I like to have a big input. I want to be the best in my field.”
Photos l-r: Kristina Hetherington; a scene from Tipping The Velvet; Anthony Borrows as Liam
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