British Made

I wanted to make a feature film in the style of other British film-makers that I admire - Ken Loach, Mike Leigh, Shane Meadows, Lynne Ramsey and Danny Boyle, who all made very high quality films with low budgets. Part of the success of this type of film making, is writing a script that relies on narrative and good acting rather than intricate set designs and glamorous locations. Being a director at a young film production company I knew I had to write a script that could be produced with the resources we had, but with sufficient flexibility in it to allow for location changes and, most importantly, with a story that could be told with a realistic film aesthetic and one that would excite an audiance.

I had begun to research true crime events in Britain in 2015 and developed the outline for the script. The majority of crime films set and made in Britain tended to either glorify or trivialise the characters and criminal behaviour which I wanted to avoid. I decided to focus on a crime that involved a killing spree - which was a much darker side of British crime that is difficult to rationalise. There had been a number of these incidents in Britain over the years, where a deranged mind decides to inflict as much death and destruction on an area in a very short space of time, with no obvious motive. I considered making a re-enactment of one of these events but instead decided to make a fictional account which would draw heavily on my research into real-life events.

The first draft script was completed in 2016, but I felt the central character and narrative of the film lacked grit and substance. This was at a time when real world events were seeing a rise in nationalism and populist politics were gaining momentum in Britain, Europe and America. The news covered stories about nationalist gangs and crimes, arrests of right-wing leaders and an increasing amount of violence and intimidation against ‘foreigners’. There was a rise generally in right wing sentiment across the world, with social media becoming a valuable and effective platform for spreading this toxic rhetoric. Closer to home, politicians were being murdered by lone killers and right wing extremism was becoming more visible.

The next version of the script was very heavily influenced by these events and the charged atmosphere that was developing within British communities. In this third draft, I built the story around a young man involved in a right-wing gang, whose ideas and feelings were shaped by the hate being preached by prominent but dangerous members of society. This would give his already disturbed mind the justification it would need to commit the violent crimes he carries out. The narrative continued to develop and by the fifth draft, the film weaved political propaganda, austerity, revenge, retribution and masculinity, into the original idea of a killing spree set in Britain.

As the script neared completion, we brought together a talented cast and crew and early in 2018, embarked on an ambitious shooting schedule. During this time, I became a father – which brought further excitement and challenges – but with the dedication of the Godiva team and a hugely supportive family, we completed the film early in 2019.