This Little Life

Introduction ...... 15 Production notes ...... 17 Cast and production credits ...... 18 Interviews with the cast: ...... Kate Ashfield plays Sadie ...... 19 David Morrissey plays Richie ...... 21

This Little Life 14 Introduction

This Little Life

Kate Ashfield, David Morrissey and Peter Mullan charged with balancing his emotions for Luke with star in This Little Life, winner of the prestigious his momentous medical responsibilities. Dennis Potter Screenwriting Award. This Little Life is a film jointly commissioned by BBC Films and the Rosemary Kay’s screenplay was awarded the BBC’s Film Council’s New Cinema Fund for BBC Two. Dennis Potter Screenwriting Award, a scheme set up in 1995 to nurture and encourage the work of Directed by Sarah Gavron, winner of the RTS Best new writers with talent and personal vision. This New Director Award for her film Losing Touch,This Little Life is an adaptation of Kay’s novel Between Little Life is the moving story of a premature baby’s Two Eternities, a fictional memoir based on the fragile existence and a mother’s supreme trust and author’s own experiences during her son’s tragic betrayal. premature birth.

Luke is born prematurely, weighing only one pound Jane Tranter, BBC Controller of Drama and four ounces. He is too small to be cradled in Commissioning, says:“This Little Life is a powerful his mother’s arms but can be held in the palm of piece of work that is part of the BBC’s ongoing, her hand. Everything possible is done to keep him practical commitment not just to finding and alive, but what does her son want and what will nurturing new talent, but also to getting their work medical science allow? Luke’s mother, Sadie, made and seen.” desperately wants him to have a voice and, through her friendship with a young boy, mother and son David Thompson, Head of BBC Films, says:“The find a way to talk. Dennis Potter Screenwriting Award is very much about honouring new talent. I do feel the This Little Life stars Kate Ashfield as the brave and combination of director Sarah Gavron and writer persistent Sadie and David Morrissey as her loving Rosemary Kay has produced a startling piece of husband Richie. Peter Mullan plays the consultant, work.This very unusual film takes us into a world

This Little Life 15 Introduction

which has never been explored – made with real verve and imagination.All in all, this is a very fitting tribute to Dennis Potter.”

“Finding and fostering new talent in the UK is fundamental to the New Cinema Fund,” says Paul Trijbits, Head of the New Cinema Fund at the Film Council.“Sarah Gavron, as a first time director, illustrates the mutual joint aims of our partnership with the BBC. Following on from the success of Tomorrow La Scala!, which was the first film to be made under the joint venture and was selected for Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival, This Little Life underlines our mutual commitment to emerging film-making talent.”

This Little Life, a Common Features Production financed by the BBC, the Film Council,Yorkshire Media Production Agency and the Northern Production Fund, was filmed in Manchester. It is directed by Sarah Gavron and produced by Stewart Mackinnon.The executive producers are David Thompson for BBC Films and Paul Trijbits for the Film Council.The music is composed by Dario Marianelli (The Warrior).

This Little Life 16 Production notes

Production notes

“This Little Life is inspired by Rosemary Kay’s tragic course, was crucial. I knew that the audience was story,” says Sarah Gavron, the award-winning going to enter Sadie’s world and her imagination director of This Little Life.“While the script we and, as such, see the whole story through her eyes. ended up with was far from a literal, step-by-step replica of her experiences, the touchstones are “I felt very strongly that we had to find an actress very much still there.That made me feel incredibly who had a quality about her which made the responsible: I knew I had to do justice to this very audience believe that she could enter a dream important story. world. She had to be real on the one hand, but very elusive on the other. I think Kate Ashfield “In addition to that, I met a lot of other mothers perfectly embodies that. who had been through the same experience,” continues Gavron.“Initially, I knew very little about “Casting Richie, the father, was even more difficult, the facts behind premature birth. It’s very because it’s not as fleshy a role as Sadie. But David shocking.What makes it unique is that, in a way, Morrissey is so talented an actor that he filled in the parents are the patients; they are the ones all the gaps and turned the role into something who become infantilised. Often the parents are in really substantial.When looking for an actor to hospital with their baby for months and months. play the consultant we wanted to avoid It’s a horribly stressful and difficult ordeal to go stereotyping. Stewart Mackinnon came up with the through, and the more people who know about it idea of casting Peter Mullan, and I immediately the better. warmed to it. Peter is such a truthful actor; he never strikes a false note.We knew he’d bring “I had worked in documentaries and shorts before, something unusual and refreshing to the part.” but this was my first feature-length film. I knew the mechanics of film-making, therefore, but doing Peter Mullan explains that personal experience and something of this length and magnitude was a past history were the main reasons why he was so whole new process.” Gavron went to the National keen to play the consultant.“I’ve got friends who Film and Television School and, having made some have had premature babies and, thankfully, they’ve short films, was developing various feature-length pulled through. I’ve also known people for whom projects when she met Stewart Mackinnon, the it’s not worked out. So I wanted to support a producer of This Little Life, who was looking for a project which was brave enough to examine this director. taboo and traumatic subject.The strength of the script really amazed me – it is so hopeful and “As it happened, a script editor at BBC Films had honest, but it never patronises either the audience seen my work and had sent some of it to Stewart, or the subject matter itself. thinking that perhaps my sensibilities would match the project. Stewart liked what he saw and called “At a time when so many films are being dumbed- to ask me if I was interested in directing This Little down, this film certainly bucks a very worrying Life. I read both the script and Between Two trend. I hope that the people who watch this film Eternities, the book on which it is loosely based, will be reminded of just how great television and on that basis I decided that it was definitely a drama can be.And more than that, I hope they can film I wanted to make. be reminded that television drama doesn’t have to be safe or conformist. It can actually be honest and “I spent a lot of time thinking about the style of insightful and ultimately really moving and hopeful.” the film and how to approach it,” Gavron continues.“It felt very unusual and unlike anything I’d seen. Initially, I couldn’t find a visual reference, because I didn’t want it to be just another medical drama. I felt that this was something else, something altogether different.And the casting, of

This Little Life 17 Cast and production credits

This Little Life

Cast

Kate Ashfield ...... Sadie David Morrissey ...... Richie Peter Mullan ...... Consultant Anthony Burrows ...... Luke Sian Reeves ...... Glenda Alan Stocks ...... Alan Corrinne Skinner Carter ...... Nurse Madeline Alexis Tuttle ...... Doctor Rachel Emma Lowndes ...... Nurse Anne Linda Bassett ...... Nurse Nina Shauna Shim ...... Nurse Janey Gerry Hinks ...... Richie’s Dad Judi Jones ...... Richie’s Mum Caroline O’Neil ...... Nurse Babs Archie Panjabi ...... Nisha

Production credits

Written by ...... Rosemary Kay Script Consultant ...... Howard Schuman Costume Designer ...... Julian Day Make-up Designer ...... Joyce Dean Production Designer ...... David Munns Music Composed by ...... Dario Marianelli Director of Photography ...... David Katznelson Director ...... Sarah Gavron Producer ...... Stewart Mackinnon Executive Producers ...... David Thompson and ...... Paul Trijbits ......

This Little Life 18 Kate Ashfield

Kate Ashfield plays Sadie

Kate Ashfield was adamant that the raw and painful “But once the baby is born, everything changes. emotions on the set of This Little Life would not be Sadie and her husband Richie are convinced that allowed to seep off set, too.That said, it’s inevitable little Luke, born so prematurely, is going to die.The that the harrowing nature of the film and the consultant rises to the occasion, keeping Luke alive intensity of the subject matter had a significant and working round the clock to stave off death. impact on her. From that moment on, Sadie adores the consultant, and they both begin to trust one another “I had make-up on which made me look tired and completely. Sadie sees him as a father figure, tearful. People used to come up to me between someone all-wise and all-knowing.As Sadie looks scenes and ask if I was all right, and I always used after Luke, so she allows herself to be looked after to say that I was fine, but I just had to stay as by the consultant.” focused as I possibly could. I was concentrating so hard, slipping into the shoes of Sadie, this amazing All this, of course, profoundly influences Sadie’s wife and mother who finds herself having to fight relationship with her husband Richie, played by for the life of her child, Luke. I realised that it’s not David Morrissey.“Once Luke is born, Sadie and sadness which lies at the core of Sadie, but love. Richie reluctantly and unintentionally grow apart. Sadie’s love for Luke keeps her going – and I tried Sadie wants to stay at the hospital for as long as to tap into that as much as I could.” she can, partly because she doesn’t explicitly trust the hospital to look after Luke and partly because The role of Sadie is the focal point of This Little Life. she feels compelled to be with Luke.As the film She is the bridge between her critically ill son, her goes on, Richie is forced to fight for his right to desperately alienated husband and their decide what should happen to Luke. He gets more inspirational consultant, nurturing their love and and more disenfranchised as the decisions become channelling their strength.Ashfield explains Sadie’s ever more difficult and perilous.” relationship with the consultant, played by Peter Mullan:“He’s quite closed off at the beginning. He’s Ashfield believes that the rawness of the emotions in control of things, but no one really knows him or on display in This Little Life, their plausibility and gets to see into his world. their humanity, makes for truly powerful drama.

This Little Life 19 Kate Ashfield

“Sadie really wants to do the very best she can. She doesn’t want anything to slip by unnoticed or unchecked, so instead she tries to become an expert on as many of the facts and figures associated with premature birth as she can.

“Luke’s life is in the hands of nurses, some of whom are younger than Sadie herself. One of the nurses is even newly qualified.While Sadie knows she can trust the consultant, she knows he’s not omnipresent, so she feels obliged to be there the whole time herself, keeping an eye on everything. There are scenes in the film when Sadie oversteps the mark, but at every stage she believes that she alone knows the baby and understands him.The midwives, all of them heroes, nonetheless cannot allow themselves to get too close to the babies. Sadie knows that and responds to that in the only way she knows how: by associating herself indelibly with Luke’s survival.”

Ashfield is full of praise for both Rosemary Kay’s award-winning script and also Sarah Gavron’s striking direction, but admits that she’s hoping to act in some rather cheerier fare again in the future. Having starred in the widely acclaimed Crime And Punishment and Storm Damage, both for the BBC,Ashfield has also displayed her versatility by playing Elly Rawsthorne in the BBC comedy A Many Splintered Thing. With films such as Late Night Shopping (winner of the British Independent Film Award for Best Actress, 2001) and stage appearances in Closer and the hugely controversial Shopping And F***ing, Ashfield has broadened her range yet further.“But anyway,” says Ashfield,“no more crying for me. Comedy – hopefully that’s next.”

This Little Life 20 David Morrissey

David Morrissey plays Richie

David Morrissey has fast become one of Britain’s most exciting acting talents. For the BBC, he has received great acclaim for his parts in Out Of Control, Holding On and Our Mutual Friend.A distinguished stage actor, he has also appeared in films such as Captain Corelli’s Mandolin and the forthcoming screen adaptation of the best-selling novel, The Girl With The Pearl Earring. He is shortly to be seen starring in BBC One’s forthcoming conspiracy thriller State Of Play, written by Paul Abbott.

Explaining the role of Richie MacGregor, Morrissey says:“Richie and Sadie have been together for a long time, but only now Sadie is pregnant have they decided to tie the knot. Richie’s brother and parents appear very briefly at the beginning of the film, and it’s clear that they are unhappy about Sadie and Richie’s situation.As such, the film gets off to a tense start – and things just get more and more painful, I suppose.”

Morrissey explains that, when Luke is born prematurely, Richie goes from bridegroom to father in just one week.“It’s the speed and the shock of that transition which really impacts on him. Every bridegroom has a fantasy of how his marriage will pan out and every parent has a fantasy of what his relationship with his child will be like – a happy wedding and a loving relationship on the one hand, a normal birth and a healthy child on the other. Neither Richie nor Sadie is allowed to have their fantasies – they are brutally deprived of them. doesn’t really have any answers, while the “Once Luke is born, everything changes. Sadie consultant seemingly has all of them.As the film wants to spend all the time keeping her eye on the shows, however, the heart is a resilient organ, and baby, while Richie, of course, has to go back to some hope and good will always come out of even work, however much he doesn’t want to. He can’t the bleakest circumstances. stay in the hospital, and that inevitably causes a divide. More than that, Richie resents the presence “The great strength of Rosemary Kay’s script is of the consultant [played by Peter Mullan]. He that by the end of the film the audience should feel becomes the most necessary figure in Sadie’s life both sad and positive. Rosemary shows that the and, as such, elbows Richie out of the way. Richie love of two people should never be sneered at or

This Little Life 21 David Morrissey

underestimated. I think Sadie and Richie are a good, loving couple and they get through this.The message of the film, in essence, is that you should listen to your emotions.”

Being a father himself, Morrissey can well understand the feelings on display in This Little Life. “As a father, it’s very easy to tap into the worry and the concern which Richie and Sadie feel. Show me a parent who doesn’t worry about their children.With premature birth, however, I feel as though that anxiety is even more acute and intense, particularly when the child in question is your first born.”

Hot off the heels of Out Of Control and State Of Play, the part of Richie was not easy to play, Morrissey admits.“I’m not coping with that very well! I often say that I’d like to do comedy next, but when a role like this comes along, it’s absolutely impossible for me to turn it down – it resonated so strongly with me, and I was so impressed by the script. If you look over my career, I do often play people in trauma – but I guess I get it out of my system while I’m in front of the camera so I don’t have to worry about it in my personal life!”

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