by Anthony Nield
Since its belated theatrical
release in early 1988, Withnail & I
has slowly but surely attracted an ever-increasing amount of ink. In fact, if
you ever feel the need to trace the steadily-growing popularity and appeal of
the film, then a quick scan of the key texts does a fine job. Initially there
were the reviews, and a mixed bag at that; the Village Voice describing it as “civilised Cheech and Chong”. And
then, nothing. Or rather, the words being spoken about the film were
word-of-mouth and not to be found in print. It was only when a new magazine and
a new audience – loaded and the ‘new
lad’ of the mid-nineties – emerged that some recognition in a popular
publication arrived. Appearing in May 1994, in the very first issue, James
Brown’s article, ‘The Biggest Cult Video in Britain?’, became the first to
identify the growing student audience for the film, as well as laying out the
rules for the now-infamous drinking game.
Spurred on, in part, by the loaded coverage, Withnail & I returned to cinemas in 1996 which in turn cued up
a series of retrospective articles and interviews. Writer-director Bruce
Robinson was joined by his two stars, Richard E. Grant and Paul McGann, for a
lengthy piece in Premiere, and he and
Grant reteamed for an Empire
equivalent around the same time, with McGann interviewed from the set of the Doctor Who TV movie. With each new
article came fresh revelations of Withnail’s
making and its various influences, although they arguably paled in comparison
to the diaries of Richard E. Grant published later that year (entitled With Nails). It was here that we learned
of his competition for the role – Kenneth Branagh, Daniel Day-Lewis and Bill
Nighy among others – and that Michael Maloney was given the role of “I” only to
turn it down at the last moment. The biggest revelation was the extremely sad
news that Grant and his wife had lost a child mere days before filming began.
The burgeoning cult of Withnail also gave Robinson a
much-needed boost. He hadn’t directed a feature since 1992’s Jennifer Eight, which went
straight-to-video in the UK, but Bloomsbury gave the Withnail & I screenplay a much-publicised re-release as well as
publishing his first novel, The Peculiar
Memories of Thomas Penman, a short story by the name of Paranoia in the Laundrette (both with
‘From the author of Withnail & I’
prominent on the sleeve), and a book-length series of interviews entitled Smoking in Bed, which recounted his
entire career as actor, writer, filmmaker and, latterly, children’s author. It
also brought yet more revelations about his most famous feature, of course.
All that Withnail needed now was to be properly canonised. And so it was.
Firstly, Ali Catterall and Simon Wells devoted a chapter to it in their 2002
book, Your Face Here, which looked at
cult British movies from the sixties onwards and mainly those which had gained
their recognition during the ‘new lad’ era: Get
Carter, Quadrophenia, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels,
etc. Secondly, it received an upgrade to ‘Modern Classic’ status when the BFI
devoted an entirely volume to the film as part of their series of the same
name.
Articles, interviews, diaries,
chapters and monographs – Withnail
has collected the lot. So how do you set about piecing together a new 200-page
book on the film as I was expected to do as part of production duties on the
new Withnail & I Blu-ray?
The initial considerations
were purely technical. What size is the book? What size will the text be? How
much of the book will be occupied by illustrations? The answers to these
questions would allow for a fairly decent idea as to the kind of word count I
was looking at – and therefore a fairly decent idea as to what kind of pieces
to include. It was decided early on that the illustrations would consist solely
of black and white production stills and so the stills photographers on Withnail & I and How to Get Ahead in Advertising were
approached for permission. Both Murray Close (Withnail) and Sophie Baker (Advertising)
kindly agreed, their photographs were carefully selected – the emphasis being
on behind-the-scenes pics – and attention was turned to the words.
It was important not to
neglect the many words which had been written in the past. Indeed, such pieces
usually provide a valuable aid when producing extras for a release. Thus Kevin
Jackson, author of the BFI Modern Classics volume, was approached to record an
audio commentary for the film, while Adrian Sibley’s documentary The Peculiar Memories of Bruce Robinson
was licenced from Channel 4 as it effectively serves as a handy précis of Smoking in Bed. Having accounted for
those two major texts, I decided that the loaded
article and the Empire interviews
would be ideal reprints to sit alongside the newly commissioned pieces in the
book, particularly the former as it was so key to identifying Withnail’s growing cult and helping it
grow that little bit further. Authors were therefore contacted, permissions
granted and slowly the word count begins to fill out…
The other reprints derive from
the first publication of the screenplay, issued in 1989 by Bloomsbury just as How to Get Ahead in Advertising was
released into British cinemas. Robinson had penned an introduction to both
works that has only ever appeared in this edition (subsequent publications
being of Withnail only and with a
different intro) and was absolutely ideal for purposes: not only does Robinson
have plenty to say about both films, but he also says it in such a wonderful
way with each word getting seemingly as much attention as each of his lines of
dialogue. This screenplay as published was a pre-production screenplay and so
contains a number of scenes and details that never made it into the finished
film. More permission to be asked, more pages filled when the replies were
positive.
As for the new commissions, it
was immediately clear that essays would be required for both of the features
contained on this set. And who better to ask than two of my favourite writers
on British film? Vic Pratt of the BFI has written numerous pieces for their DVD
releases, each one superb, although they tend to focus on the more obscure
examples of our national cinema. It was a pleasure therefore to ask him to
write about something better known, i.e. Withnail,
and to finally get his name on an Arrow Video release. (The end results being
duly excellent, of course.) Frank Collins, meanwhile, blogs on cult British
cinema and television for his Cathode Ray Tube site and occasionally
contributes to MovieMail in a similar capacity. His attention to detail and
level of research is always exemplary and so I felt he was the ideal candidate
for How to Get Ahead in Advertising,
a film about which very little has been said. Even Grant’s collection of film
diaries gives it only the briefest of nods. But if you add Frank’s 2,500 words
to the second half of Robinson’s 4,000-word introduction, plus the round-up of
contemporary reviews for the film, then the book essentially contains all of
the key writing How to Get Ahead in
Advertising has ever received. Not bad for a bonus feature!
Finally, I felt the book
wouldn’t be complete with pieces dedicated to the three main actors – Paul
McGann, Richard E. Grant and Richard Griffiths – all of whom gave career-defining
performances in Withnail. And so as
not to leave Robinson out, I’ve also contributed an essay of my own, devoted to
his short-lived acting career.
All of which – plus the
expected notes on the new restorations, credits, etc. – would have been the lot
were it not for one last unexpected addition. When emailing James Brown about
the use of his loaded article, he
mentioned an ill-fated attempt to bring Withnail
to the London stage. This was completely new information to me despite the
hours upon hours of research that goes into our titles and so I couldn’t resist
commissioning one final piece in which James talks about how the film has
continued to have an effect on him in the years since he penned that article.
And that is that: 200 pages
fully occupied and ready to be read on October 20th. You can
pre-order your copy at the withnailfilm.com site or, if you prefer, go through the
usual online outlets. To recap, you’ll find the following inside the hardback
book…
- INTRODUCTION (1989) by Bruce Robinson
- ALMOST A COMEDY (2014) by Vic Pratt
- WITHNAIL & I: CONTEMPORARY REVIEWS
- WITHNAIL & I: THE ‘DELETED’ SCENES
- WITHNAIL, YOU TERRIBLE CULT (1994) by James Brown
- A TERRIBLE CULT REVISITED (2014) by James Brown
- YOU’RE MY BESSHT FRIEND! (1996) by David Cavanagh
- AN ACTOR PREPARES (2014) by Anthony Nield
- THE LAST ENGLISH DREAMER (2014) by Martin Jones
- HE’S BONA FIDE, HE’S NOT FROM LONDON (2014) by Neil Mitchell
- I WILL NEVER PLAY THE DANE (2014) by Mike Sutton
- IF IT HASN’T GOT A PRICE TAG, IT ISN’T WORTH HAVING (2014) by Frank Collins
- HOW TO GET AHEAD IN ADVERTISING: CONTEMPORARY REVIEWS
- ABOUT THE TRANSFER
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