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FOCUS ON THE PERFORMING ARTS IN CONVERSATION WITH DAME PHILIPPA ‘PIPPA’ HARRIS
Daisy omas Daisy omas is a second-year English student, with interests in writing and politics. She was a Vice-President of the RCSA Committee in 2019-20.
In times of social distance and separation, I was still lucky enough to be brought together (virtually) with one of Robinson’s most prominent alumni. Dame Pippa Harris - Deputy Chair of BAFTA and producer of Call the Midwife, 1917 and co-founder of Neal Street Productions - gave up time from her busy schedule to sit and talk with me. Having been at Robinson in the late 1980s, she was delighted to speak with me about her university experience, her career in film and what lies in store for the creative industry. We began by reminiscing over her days at Robinson. An English student like me, she recalled how she ‘loved studying at Robinson’ and particularly enjoyed ‘the work on 20th century drama’. Her Director of Studies at the time, Judith Weiss, was ‘really inspirational’ in terms of giving both guidance and ‘complete independence’. Dame Pippa explained how she enjoyed Robinson’s role as ‘a relatively new college’ when she was here, and how it was ‘quite freeing to be in a college that was relatively new because there wasn’t a whole load of baggage’; she felt she was ‘discovering it’ for herself. She noted that ‘everyone was always very envious of our facilities. People would come round literally to look at our bathroom because they had to trudge down 16 corridors in the dark to one cold tap, whereas we all had ensuites or bathrooms shared between a couple of rooms’. She laughed as she remembered
Dame Pippa Harris at 77th Golden Globes with Sam Mendes (M), George MacKay (L) and Dean-Charles Chapman (R)
BIN BROOK ROBINSON COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE
this. While we wondered whether Robinson has managed to shake that ‘new-and-interesting-but-mostly-unknown’ reputation, I mused that the drawing factor for other students is currently the paninis from the Red Brick Cafe rather than our bathrooms. When asked about the theatre scene at Cambridge, she reflected on her time at the ADC eatre and the Marlowe Society of which she ended up President in her third year. rough this, she was able to find out about the different roles that went into creating a piece of theatre. It was here that she began to understand what ‘production’ really meant. In her words, ‘as a student you know quite a bit about what direction is. You know clearly what actors do, but being a producer is something that is slightly different. Because it is behind the scenes, it is not something that you really understand (or at least I did not understand when I was at school). In particular, I am not sure I had even ever heard of a producer, so being able to be in that position [as a student] in a professional theatre [was] really, really helpful later.’ Tracing her development from a Robinson student to a high-level producer, Dame Pippa explained in detail what her day-to-day life is like. While some producers mainly focus on finances and budget management, she aims to be a ‘more creative producer’ who has a role in ‘shaping the story... from the outset’. is involves working closely with the writer and choosing a director to work with. Recently she has been working on an adaptation of John Fowles’ The Magus and when looking for ‘the perfect person to direct it’ she reached out to Johan Renck, who had just been hugely successful with his drama series Chernobyl. is, she said joyfully, was one of those situations ‘when it slots together very easily’, as Renck immediately agreed to come on board. Dame Pippa spends her time doing what she calls ‘rallying the troops’ including cinematographers, editors, composers and costume designers in an industry where there’s ‘never enough time’ and ‘never enough money’. Despite the multi-layered network of troops involved in creating a film or series, being a producer means ‘you’re one of the few people who stays right through the whole production process’. Indeed this post-filming involvement is one aspect she thoroughly enjoys, noting how ‘settling on the right imagery to use on the poster’ and ‘working out what the ads should look like’ is a fascinating part of the job. e question following this was of course: how do I get involved?! For graduate students wanting to follow a similar path into the film industry, Dame Pippa described how ‘there are lots of entry level
