HOMECOMING FOR ICONIC ‘ROOM AT THE TOP’ (30/03/2011)
The highly anticipated drama adaptation of Room At The Top, adapted from John Braine’s post-war literary classic, will screen on BBC 4 shortly. Screen Yorkshire worked with Great Meadow Productions to crew up for the four week shoot and source a range of locations across Bradford, Leeds and Calderdale.
Amanda Coe (Margot, Doctor Who) has adapted the classic, one of the great British novels of the 20th Century, into a new two-part drama for a contemporary audience starring Matthew Mcnulty (Control, Lark Rise to Candleford) as protagonist and everyman figure of the time, Joe Lampton and Maxine Peake (The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister, Red Riding, Silk) as Alice Aisgill with whom Joe embarks on a highly charged, clandestine sexual affair.
Room at The Top was a hit when published in 1957 and turned Joe Lampton into an iconic character of post-war Britain. The two part drama adaptation by Amanda Coe (Margot; Elizabeth David: A Life In Recipes; Doctor Who) was commissioned for BBC Four by Ben Stephenson, Controller, BBC Drama Commissioning, and Richard Klein, Controller for BBC Four, as part of a season which explores love and sexuality in 20th century literature. It is the first screen version since the Oscar-winning film of 1959, starring Laurence Harvey and Simone Signoret, which filmed at locations including Bradford, Bingley and Keighley.
Chris Hordley, Production Liaison Manager at Screen Yorkshire, says:
‘’We are thrilled to have played a part in bringing this iconic literary classic, which has its roots firmly steeped in the region, to the screen. Over the past year we’ve seen an increasing number of producers recognise the seductive combination of diverse locations and experienced crew that Yorkshire has to offer and as such, viewers can look forward to seeing a fantastic range of television drama filmed here on their screens in 2011.’’
The first screen version since the controversial Oscar-winning film in 1959, Room At The Top is an iconic story based in post-war Yorkshire that centres on Joe, a working class man with great ambition. He has the potential and keen determination to achieve his dreams but when he sets plans in motion to achieve them, he soon realises that the road to the top is rockier than it first looked.
In his quest for social promotion he meets and courts the beautiful daughter of a rich local businessman, Susan Brown, played by Jenna Louise Coleman (Waterloo Road, Emmerdale) who can help him advance his social prospects. However he also meets, and falls passionately in love with, an unhappily married, older woman, Alice; a startlingly forward and sexual woman with whom Joe starts a risqué affair that not only threatens his career but his social standing and reputation. Despite his single-minded ambition, Joe finds he can’t choose between the two women as he struggles against his own self-destructive will and an inevitable outcome that has tragedy written all over it. He wants to rise above his rank and station and improve himself, whatever the cost.
Room at The Top filmed at a range of locations across Leeds, Bradford and Calderdale in winter 2010, including:
Leeds
Morley Town Hall , Morley
Braimes Pressings
Cardigan Arms Pub
Garden Gate Pub
Bramham Park Estate
Holbeck
Studio 81
Bradford
Little Germany
Bradford Town Hall
Connaught Rooms
Calderdale
Shaw Lodge Mills in Halifax
Todmorden Hippodrome
Other cast includes; Kevin R Mcnally (Pirates of The Caribbean, Margaret), Peter Wight (Another Year, Monday Monday), Theo James (Downton Abbey, A Passionate Woman), Zoe Telford (Sherlock, Collision) and Lauren Crace (Sherlock, EastEnders).
Great Meadow Productions’ other recent credits include When Harvey Met Bob and the award-winning Margaret for BBC Two, Margaret Thatcher – The Long Walk To Finchley for BBC Four, Bradford Riots for Channel 4, and the hugely popular series Messiah for BBC One.
Room At The Top is adapted by Amanda Coe, directed by Aisling Walsh (Wallander, Fingersmith) and produced by Paul Frift (Primeval, State of Play). The executive producers are Robert Cooper, Kate Triggs and Amanda Coe for Great Meadow Productions and Bethan Jones for BBC Wales. It was commissioned by Richard Klein, Controller, BBC Four and Ben Stephenson, Controller, BBC Drama Commissioning.
Links:
www.greatmeadowprods.com
http://www.bbc.co.uk/tv/comingup/room_at_the_top/
