Category: TV
Drama
Date: 13.08.2004
Printable version
Filming now on location on the Isle of Man for transmission next
year
Filming commenced this week on The Rotters' Club, a story about
a group of Birmingham teenagers and their families set against a backdrop
of class conflict, racial tension, strike action – not to mention
Blue Nun, prog-rock and black forest gateau – which was the social
and political landscape of Seventies Britain.
Much more than just a rites of passage tale, The Rotters'
Club is a blend of the personal and the political, a coming-of-age drama
that takes in everything from industrial disputes to the delights and
confusion of first love.
The Rotters’ Club has been adapted by Dick Clement
and Ian La Frenais (Auf Weidersehen Pet, Porridge, The Likely Lads)
from Jonathan Coe's novel of the same name.
It features newcomers Geoff Breton,
Nicholas Shaw and Rasmus Hardiker
alongside such established talent as Sarah Lancashire,
Hugo Speer, Mark Williams, Julian
Rhind-Tutt and Kevin Doyle.
It is brought to the small screen by Company Pictures
whose recent successes include Rose & Maloney (ITV1), Shameless
and White Teeth (both Channel 4).
Gareth Neame, Head of Drama Commissioning at the BBC,
comments: "The Rotters' Club is part of our ongoing commitment
to bringing audiences the very best original adaptations of modern novels
to BBC ONE.
"These include Peter Ransley's adaptation of Sarah
Waters' Fingersmith and Meera Syal's adaptation of her own novel, Life
Isn't All Ha Ha Hee Hee.
"Jonathan Coe's novel made enormous impact when
it was published because it was such a uniquely British rites-of-passage
story – our aim is for Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais' adaptation
to resonate as much with a wide television audience."
Ben Trotter, Doug Anderton and Philip Chase (played
by Geoff Breton, Nicholas Shaw and Rasmus Hardiker respectively) attend
King William's School, a 'middle-class' institution that's set to give
them a start in life that their parents never had.
Aspiring literary genius Ben lusts after the gorgeous
Cicely Boyd (Alice Eve, Stage Beauty) and conceals his nascent
Christianity from the world.
Confident and good looking, Doug flies the flag for
socialism and nurses a crush on the intelligent and sarcastic Claire
(Cara Horgan, The Libertine) who seems immune to his charms.
Prog-rock lover Philip is desperate to start his own
band, although with suggested names ranging from The Squitters to Gandalf's
Pikestaff, it could be an uphill struggle.
Their peers include the school's bigheaded sports star
Culpepper (Henry Lloyd-Hughes, Murphy's Law), who is locked in
bitter rivalry with high achiever Steve Richards (newcomer Peter
Bankolé), the only black kid in school, and anarchic jokester
Sean Harding (Rafe Spall, The Calcium Kid) who provides comedic
relief, as long as his far right postulations are supposed to be ironic,
that is…
The tensions and conflicts of the school mirror the
barely more ordered world of their parents, the lives of whom revolve
primarily around the British Leyland Motor Corporation's Longbridge
works.
Colin Trotter (Kevin Doyle, At Home With The Braithwaites)
is in middle management, trying negotiate a way out of redundancies
and strike action.
Charismatic shop steward Bill Anderton (Hugo Speer,
Clocking Off) is heavily involved in the trade unions and dedicated
to the cause, although his affair with pretty secretary Miriam (Christine
Tremarco, Uncle Adolf) could threaten everything he's worked for.
Bus driver Sam Chase (Mark Williams, The Fast Show)
and wife Barbara (Sarah Lancashire, Rose & Maloney) seem happily
married, but when Barbara meets her son's sophisticated art teacher
Nigel Plumb (Julian Rhind-Tutt, Keen Eddie) she starts to wonder if
maybe there's more to life than being 'just' a housewife…
This is a tale not just of individuals but of an entire
era.
Informing and enriching every aspect of the drama is
a real sense of the Seventies as a decade – the power of the unions,
the growing threat of the IRA, the upsurge of the British far right
and the slow erosion of idealism and socialism.
Not to mention velvet suits, The Morecombe & Wise
Christmas Show and early punk bands with names like Concrete Boil…
Chrissy Skinns, producer of The Rotters' Club, comments:
"I worked with Dick and Ian on Auf Weidersehen Pet last year and
it is really interesting to now be working with them on an adaptation
– seeing them turn Jonathan Coe's novel into a script that maintains
the spirit of the book, whilst still bearing the hallmarks of their
own excellent writing.
"It's also fantastic to be working with such a
talented group of younger actors, they really are very special and I'm
sure we'll be seeing much more of them."
The Rotters Club is produced by Chrissy Skinns
(Auf Weidersehen Pet, Jeffrey Archer: The Truth) and directed by Tony
Smith (England Expects, Attachments).
It is executive produced by George Faber, Charlie Pattinson and Suzan Harrison for Company Pictures and Gareth Neame for the BBC.
