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THE STORY OF A LITTLE BIG MAN
How they brought HG Wells’s
The History Of Mr Polly back to the screen
O wner of a bankrupt gentle- man’s outfitters and
trapped in a loveless mar- riage, Alfred Polly can see only one way out. When that fails, it’s time for changes of a rather less
drastic nature.
That’s the nub of HG Wells’s
famous Edwardian tragic-comic novel, The History Of Mr Polly, written in 1910. Previously turned into a memo- rable 1949 British film, with John Mills and Sally Ann Howes, and the 1980 TV series (with Andrew Sachs in the title role), this new 120-minute film for ITV1 co-stars Lee Evans, Anne-Marie Duff and Julie Graham.
Directed by Gillies MacKinnon, the latest version has been adapted for television by Adrian Hodges (The Ruby In The Smoke, Primeval).
Says Hodges: “I was attracted to Mr Polly because it’s a very unusual kind of period piece. A lot of period dramas deal in the history of famous people but Mr Polly is something quite different and somehow contemporary. It’s about an ordinary lower-middle class man with a modest education but big dreams that mostly come to nothing. There’s something in the character that connects with all of us at any time or in any place.
“I can remember very clearly see- ing the 1940s film with John Mills dur- ing a summer holiday from school when the Test Match was washed out and they showed old films instead. I know I really loved it and when I read the book a lot of the film came back to me very clearly. It’s a lovely piece, and very beautifully photographed, if memory serves.
“Even though I’d mostly forgotten the details I always remembered Mills’s bewilderment, a little man confronted
with an unsympathetic universe. I remember really liking it very much, but I didn’t seek it out before I wrote my own adaptation; I didn’t want to know exactly when they’d done because I didn’t want to copy it in any way. It’s always better to come to an adaptation without too many influences from other films or TV programmes.
“The thing I like most about Polly - especially as he’s played by Lee Evans - is that he’s a sympathetic character who is in no way perfect. He behaves in ways that are, at times, silly, mean, cowardly or unworthy just like the rest of us do.
“But at the end of the day he’s redeemed by his essential good nature, and when he finally gambles on happi- ness, he’s rewarded. It’s a nice mes- sage. Wells has a sceptical but basical- ly benign view of Polly that I find real- istic and, by the end, very moving.”
When producer Katherine Lannon, formerly in the BBC Drama department, came on board – it was her follow-up to the acclaimed The Secret Life Of Mrs Beeton – Lee Evans was already attached to the project and there was also a Hodges’ script.
“Damien Timmer and Michele Buck at Granada asked me to read it and I found it had great charm. I also knew Adrian’s work and had actually wanted to work with him for years. I think he’s really got the essence of the book in there. I thought it was the sort of the thing that would appeal to Gillies MacKinnon because if you look across the body of his work, one of his regular focuses has been the story of the outsider.”
Lannon also, rather fortuitously, found herself filming back in the land of her fathers, about ten minutes from where she was born in The Vale of Glamorgan. Although it’s meant to be
set in Kent – and Hodges has kept the original place names from the novel – the vagaries of financing meant that with money from the Welsh IP Fund, the production was filmed principally within 25 miles of Cardiff.
“It was,” said Lannon, “an incredi- bly tight schedule, four six-day weeks. I don’t think Gillies has done a 24 day shoot since the beginning of his career. It was a push but we got a lot of material. Lee was just amazing; his disciplines, his application, bringing new thoughts and ideas to the script. There was never a cross word. He was a producer’s dream.
“When there was tension - and inevitably some of the locations were more difficult to shoot than others because of some of the incredibly tight spaces we were working in – Lee would sense it and go around individually thanking the crew. It really made a difference.”
Lannon also paid fulsome tribute to DP Nigel Willoughby: “I think he’s fantastic, and has a wonderful eye. There are scenes in there that are incredibly painterly, and just look beautiful. He works so well as a duo with Gillies. To have that level of expe- rience behind the production when it’s that tight was just invaluable.”
Mr Polly marked the first time Willoughby had used Fujifilm as a DP. It was all-location and, says Willoughby, no stranger to television schedules, “absolutely relentless. You get up in the morning and just go and go. You have to think on your feet all day. I just happen to thrive in that environment.” ■ QUENTIN FALK
The History Of Mr Polly
is predominantly originated on 16mm Fujicolor Eterna 250D 8663 and Eterna 500T 8673
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