The 2023 David Lean Lecture: Shane Meadows

THE 2023 DAVID LEAN LECTURE PRESENTED BY

O V e R V i eW

BY TOBY WEIDMANN

A DIGITAL VERSION OF THIS BROCHURE IS AVAILABLE HERE FOLLOW US: BAFTA.ORG | @BAFTA

Above: The Gallows Pole (2023); Behind: BAFTA Breakthrough jury duty, 2013; Cover: The Virtues (2019)

It’s a matter of record that Martin Scorsese’s crime drama Mean Streets (1973) was a great inspiration for Shane Meadows at the start of his career.

It wasn’t so much the story that connected with the British filmmaker, but the raw authenticity of those depicted within it, representing a world that Scorsese clearly knew well. Meadows’ big takeaway was he could do the same in his own films, largely basing the characters and stories on his experience growing up on the ‘mean streets’ of Uttoxeter and Nottingham.

Queue a lot of trial and error as Meadows made short after short, even acting all the parts himself at first, leading to a eureka moment: create the right environment, away from external pressures, and anyone who wants to act can act and will take risks if they feel comfortable. It was a lesson in method that Meadows has incorporated throughout his career, famously using workshops with his actors, many of them untrained, to figure out the key narrative strokes and nuanced character traits before writing his final story.

This evolving process is most clearly evident in This is England, from the groundbreaking original film (2006) through its subsequent BAFTA-winning series, This is England ’86, ’88 and ’90 (2010-2015). It’s a collaborative and improvisational approach that threads his work, from his breakthrough film, TwentyFourSeven (1997), to his most recent drama series, The Gallows Pole (2023). In between, he’s captivated audiences with his mix of engaging verité storytelling, intense drama and gallows humour, through the likes of A Room for Romeo Brass (1999), Once Upon a Time in the Midlands (2002), Dead Man’s Shoes (2004), Somers Town (2008), Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee (2009) and The Virtues (2019), earning him four BAFTAs and many more accolades along the way.

Taking us full circle, Scorsese’s name is again writ large in Meadows’ thoughts. Scorsese delivered his David Lean Lecture in 2019, in which he admitted he felt intimidated delivering a lecture in Lean’s name, whose films are so widely revered as cinematic masterpieces. Scorsese used his lecture to express how the advent of 35mm cameras in the 1960s had allowed someone like him to break through and make the kind of films that almost certainly would not have made it under the old studio system.

Meadows begrudgingly accepts he’s representative of the next generation along – Scorsese’s 35mm was his Hi8 camcorder, which he used to make all those original shorts and express his passion for storytelling. Without that opportunity, Meadows insists he would probably never have made it as a filmmaker. Unthinkable.

The modern equivalent, Meadows points out, is the mobile phone. Breaking through may not be easy, but as a form of creative expression, filmmaking has never been more accessible. Meadows’ journey may have been unorthodox, his method unique, but there’s no question his unwavering ‘have a go’ attitude, support for representation and a palpable desire to tell his incredible stories his way is a huge inspiration for the next generation of storytellers.

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Left: With producer Mark Herbert, 2007; Right: Dead Man’s Shoes (2004)

OW n WO rdS IN THEIR

ON WHAT MAKES A SHANE MEADOWS FILM

I hope it’s characters and stories you believe, drama that punches in the tum-tum, music you may not have heard before that makes for a banging soundtrack, followed by a slice of gallows humour for pud.

ON HIS CREATIVE COMMUNIT Y

When I first started making shorts in 1994, the man who became my mentor in the early years, Graham Forde, taught me to be generous with your ideas not hide them in a cave, give people on both sides of the camera the opportunity to step up and always try to pay them the going rate. Obviously, when you’re making films for a tenner, the last one on the list isn’t possible, but the idea of participating in a creative community became hugely important to me. In those early years, I was making films with people who lived on my street as actors, up and coming students from Intermedia’s film 4

and video course as crew, in exchange for me acting badly or boom ‘opping on their projects, then all of us would hang out in the Broadway cinema café till daft o’clock, banging ideas back and forth, setting up little half-arsed film festivals, daring to dream we could make a living doing this. It was honestly the greatest non-degree in film and television the world could offer. I still follow the same philosophy laid out to me

by Graham nigh on 30 years later.

ON CASTING AND METHOD

Casting and workshopping are definitely my favourite part of the process. I hate writing and find it far easier when I have an actor in my mind’s eye to write a scene/scenario for.

So, as the years have rolled by, I find myself preferring to run a workshop first, then feed off the actor’s natural talents and chemistry in the room, rather than trying to get an

Above: Somers Town (2008); Behind: This is England ’86 (2010)

actor with a CV that sells tickets, to play a character I wrote before I met them. An actor’s (or non-actor’s) experience has no bearing on how absolutely incredible a scene can be – you could put Marlon Brando opposite Mandy Brando and if sparks fly between them (and/or Marlon doesn’t try to steal the scene) magic can happen, baby.

ON THE FUTURE OF CINEMA

It’s clearly a weird one at the minute due to AI waiting in the wings to kick off a new world where humans live in pods, inhaling ‘dark matter’-flavoured pot noodles through a dual-action ‘feed me/poo me pipe’, while watching AI-generated content of Donald Trump’s hair growing really massive for ever, but… I take massive heart from history. Did theatre die at the advent of cinema? Did cinema die at the advent of television? Does all of that die at the advent of AI? Big, cheesy,

vacuous stuff will fall foul to some degree, but I’m praying oddballs like myself can still craft some kind of artisan ‘purveyor of the kitchen sink-eth’ existence until the economy sausages catch up with me.

ON DAVID LEAN

I do wonder whether Sir David might be turning in his grave, knowing a tubby dude from Uttoxeter, who started out making short films on Hi8, is giving a lecture in his name. So I had to put it out of my mind a little bit, because I have imposter syndrome at the best of times.

As a kid, I watched his films on a 4:3 TV. They are iconic in 4:3, when they’ve been panned and scanned, but when you actually see them as god intended, to see Lawrence of Arabia on the big screen, it’s an incredible experience. So, I’m incredibly proud to do it.

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R ea L D eaL THE

ADRIAN LOBB REVEALS HOW AUTHENTIC REPRESENTATION AND SUPPORTING FRESH TALENT, WHATEVER THEIR BACKGROUND, ARE VITAL ELEMENTS OF ANY SHANE MEADOWS PRODUCTION.

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Is Shane Meadows the most exciting, most authentic, most thrilling voice to have emerged in British cinema in the last 30 years? Well, many would say – in the immortal words of Brian Clough, adopted son of the East Midlands – he’s certainly in the top one.

Meadows emerged, fresh out of the film school of life (and a performing arts course at Burton College), on a mission to tell stories that were true to the youthful, pop culture-obsessed experience of his life to date and representative of the socioeconomic communities of his childhood.

It was like a surge of energy and dynamism into British film.

CHARLOTTE OCKELTON, ACTOR

Top: A Room for Romeo Brass (1999); Left & Above: This is England ’88 (2011)

When you watch his work, you’re like ‘Wow, this is Shane Meadows’, but when you meet him and work with him, he’s so humble. He’s like a friend, the way he speaks to you. He’s welcomed me, as a non-professional who’s come from open casting, and treated me exactly the same as everybody else on the job.

[From ‘The Gallows Pole cast and creatives reveal all about Shane Meadows’ new series’ feature, BBC.com]

Inspired by Martin Scorsese, he has shone a light on this world he knew so well, from a perspective we hadn’t seen before. Like early Ken Loach or Alan Clarke but with a better record collection, or Scorsese if he’d spent his life bombing up and down the A38 rather than stomping the ‘mean streets’ of Little Italy, Meadows injects his films with searing truth and unblinking honesty. And all his work – from Small Time (1996) and TwentyFourSeven (1997) to The Gallows Pole (2023) – is soundtracked with style and verve.

No one else works quite like Meadows.

Ask any of his regular collaborators.

This is England (2006) was built on a solid foundation of intense workshops with the young cast. They helped create their characters, then practically became them – to the point where their improvised dialogue was so natural, so perfect, so exhilarating.

Only by building such trust with and between his actors were scenes of such sensitivity between newcomer Thomas Turgoose and Joseph Gilgun possible 7

or the rage in Stephen Graham’s depiction of Combo. The film won Meadows his first BAFTA, for British Film. He now has four.

This is England also launched or skyrocketed the careers of a new wave of young British actors. But Meadows has always nurtured a loving family around his work.

He doesn’t just offer his singular auteurial voice. He has directly helped ensure a steady stream of authentic voices from the mighty East Midlands (and surrounding regions) have entered the acting bloodstream. All of them in possession of the improvisational smarts that put the ‘real’ into Meadows’ social realism.

NICKIE SAULT, PRODUCER

These are days in which prestige drama or film schools can feel out of reach for many talented creatives from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Meadows has broken down that barrier for so many.

Much has been written about Shane’s process over the years, his propensity for improvisation, the way he collaborates with his cast to create their characters, his utterly unique way of spotting and nurturing new talent. But for me, the bedrock of his process, the core of everything he does, stems from his eternal search for truth and honesty in the moment.

In that brief moment of time that exists between “action” and “cut” what feels real? Where is the truth and honesty in that moment? It’s been an honour and a privilege to have accompanied Shane on this journey for the past 18 years.

Top: The Virtues (2019); Above: This is England (2006); Below: The Gallows Pole (2023)

As a collaborator, I can’t believe I’ve got to work with Shane. I have constantly learnt from him, been surprised by him and been put in weird situations.

I was even cast in This is England ’86, as Carrotbum, because, and I quote, “I can’t find anyone weird or lonely to play the role. It needs a writer who lives in Luton on his own.” We worked in lots of different ways, my favourite was when we set up in a Crossroads motel in Nottingham and ate chilli fries.

When we did The Virtues, telling an analogous story of something which had defined Shane’s life, it felt like he gave us all his heart. The ending, we were constantly writing and rewriting it, finding a way to represent how Joseph is going to finally deal with his abuser. And then, suddenly, Shane just found it. It was shocking, it was true and it was incredibly beautiful.

JACK THORNE, WRITER

As a fan, I think Shane Meadows has rewritten what working-class cinema (and television) is. He found a way to capture something that is both hardhitting and tender, always surprisingly tender. And this is the thing I love about him. He constantly surprises. Not because he’s got a formula in his head about what an audience is, just because he has to be led to what’s true and things don’t happen in the way we expect, in the way films teach us to expect. He finds a sort of mad, ungainly, sometimes really difficult, truth.

I remember watching TwentyFourSeven for the first time (I actually had the poster on my wall, bought from my video shop after they’d displayed it) and thinking that’s not how boxing matches are supposed to end, not at all.

He’s my hero.

Through his links with the Television Workshop in Nottingham, particularly, Meadows has impacted and fostered so many careers.

and the community around him than Thomas Turgoose – so young, so vulnerable when cast as Shaun Fields in This is England.

For his family of actors, there is making film or television and there is making film or television with Shane Meadows.

The difference really is that marked.

Almost two decades on, Turgoose impressed again alongside Michael Socha in Meadows’ television prequel to Ben Myers’ brutal, compelling historical fiction, The Gallows Pole. This again showcased his uncompromising vision.

In Meadows’ hands, this story of a community abandoned by people in power forging a literal money-making scheme – of the people and for the people – expanded into a psychedelic, poetic, hypnotic, gothic folk story for the ages.

Ask Vicky McClure and Andrew Shim.

Ask Paddy Considine. Ask Joe Gilgun, Michael Socha, Chanel Cresswell, Jack O’Connell, Jo Hartley. Ask Stephen Graham, who Meadows has described as one of his “primary colours” and was BAFTA-nominated for his compelling performances in The Virtues (2019) and This is England ’90 (2015). No one’s life has been more transformed by Meadows

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Meadows has described The Gallows Pole as one of the most rewarding experiences of his life. He decided early on to completely open the door to people with no experience both in front of and behind the camera.

This was no box-ticking exercise, that’s not Meadows’ way. It’s about offering opportunity around, no matter what someone’s background is or experience level they have.

be taught. He’s a community builder who has expanded the talent pool and widened access to careers in television and film from the very beginning.

The positivity ripples out from each and every production he makes.

Off screen and on, it was a merry, disparate gang. Meadows regulars cast opposite – in the director’s words – a Gary Barlow impersonator, an excage fighter and a down-on-his-luck mechanic. The result mirrored the coin-making alchemy on screen – conjuring gold through a mastery of craft and a committed community under visionary leadership.

Adrian Lobb writes about film, television and music and is arts correspondent for The Big Issue

Shane Meadows has changed lives as much as he’s changed the screen arts.

This is dedication. This is community.

This is filmmaking…

Meadows fuses technical skill and deep knowledge of and love for film with an eye for truth that perhaps can’t

FILMOGRAPHY (SELECT )

2023 2019 2015 2013 2011 2010 2009 2008 2006 2004 2002 1999 1997 1996 10

The Gallows Pole The Virtues This is England ’90 The Stone Roses: Made of Stone This is England ’88 This is England ’86 Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee Somers Town This is England Dead Man’s Shoes Once Upon a Time in the Midlands A Room for Romeo Brass TwentyFourSeven Small Time

Above: BAFTA TV Awards, 2016; Below: Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee (2009)

Above: This is England (2006); Below: The BAFTA TV Craft Awards 2016

STEPHEN GRAHAM, ACTOR

As an actor you really want to challenge yourself. When someone gives you the chance to create a character like [Combo], it’s just a wonderful gift. I’d done quite a bit of work before then – I’d done Snatch and Gangs of New York – but given the responsibility of a role like this, and the opportunity to express myself, and just the chance to work with someone like Shane, who had that faith in me, it was amazing. He makes an environment where your only job is to create, to serve the story.

There’s a real integrity to working with him.

[From ‘Interview with Stephen Graham for This is England ’90’, Channel4.com]

BAFTA RECOGNITION

2020 2020 2020 2016 2016 2012 2011 2008 2008 2005 1999 1998

Mini-Series nomination, The Virtues Director: Fiction nomination, The Virtues Writer: Drama nomination, The Virtues Mini-Series win, This is England ’90 Director: Fiction win, This is England ’90 Mini-Series win, This is England ’88 Director: Fiction/Entertainment nomination, This is England ’86 British Film win, This is England Original Screenplay nomination, This is England Outstanding British Film of the Year nomination, Dead Man’s Shoes Most Promising Newcomer in British Film nomination, TwentyFourSeven Outstanding British Film of the Year nomination, TwentyFourSeven 11

THE DAVID LEAN LECTURE

WITH THANKS

BAFTA’s David Lean Lecture is generously funded by The David Lean Foundation. The lecture series serves to continue the legacy of the great director David Lean, one of the founders of the British Film Academy (as it was then known) in 1947 and a continuing inspiration to many through his exceptional body of work.

Shane Meadows Gilly Nolan Dean Rogers

Previous David Lean Lectures have been given by: 2022 2019 2018 2017 2015 2014 2014 2012 2011 2010

Ryan Coogler Martin Scorsese 2009 Spike Lee 2008 Yorgos Lanthimos (delivered 2018) 2007 David O Russell 2006 Lone Scherfig 2005 Paul Greengrass 2004 Pedro Almodóvar 2003 Errol Morris 2002 Peter Weir 2001

Atom Egoyan Lean Centenary Celebration David Lynch Oliver Stone Woody Allen John Boorman Ken Loach Robert Altman Sydney Pollack

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