Hangman's Tale

I left the office last night to see an advance screening of Christopher Guest’s movie For Your Consideration at a private screening room in Soho. I really wanted to see his new movie, billed as a parody of the pretentious Hollywood award ceremonies. I took my seat as,Tim Spall, introduced the screening, which seemed odd as I didn’t recall him being in the film. I have not met up with Spall since a strange encounter in a rehearsal room with Stephen Poliakoff back in 1995, but that’s another story for another time. I thought, ‘funny he is not in Guest’s film’, and instantly I knew that I had wandered into the wrong preview cinema. It emerged that my uber PA Bolton-frau had got the dates mixed and instead of mirth and merriment I was in for night of deep and intense emotion. I discovered all too late that I was about to watch Pierrepoint the gripping and dramatic true-life story of Albert Pierrepoint, Britain’s most notorious hangman. The blurb I picked up rattled on that “following in the footsteps of his father and uncle before him, Albert joins the ‘family business’ in 1934. Living a secret life as a master hangman, as well as a humble grocery deliveryman and loyal husband, Pierrepoint’s reputation as the most highly regarded executioner in the land results in him executing some of Britain’s most infamous murderers including Derek Bentley and Ruth Ellis, and also the Nazi war criminals convicted at the Nuremberg Trials” I heard some geek whisper in front of me, that the first person we see hanged in the film by Spall is actually Spall’s son, also an actor. Anyway folks, it’s brilliant. . If Spall doesn’t win a BAFTA for his performance then the world is truly insane. The director of the film is my old pal Adrian Shergold who I met in my first job in London when I worked as the publicist for the Theatre Royal Stratford East. Adrian was associate director nurturing the talents of Tony Marchant and Barrie Keefe . Adrian is a craftsman and a brilliant director who really labours to produce awesome work. I worked on the beta version of the movie, fifteen years ago when it was a stage play about Ruth Ellis called Breakneck by Vince Foxall It got mixed reviews at the time but in truth, Breakneck was a phenomenal offering that deserved higher praise. I recall that the FT review was a little iffy. In retrospect I suspect the critic being hustled at the theatre bar by an East End character who tried to persuade the hapless scribe to purchase fake Rolexes and vacuum-packed bacon, certainly contributed to his mood before the curtain went up!. Oh the joys of the Royal! I hope Shergold’s film picks up the accolades it richly deserves