A top talent never lost for words

Jul 25 2008 by Peter Elson, Liverpool Daily Post

Prolific Liverpool writer Frank Cottrell Boyce has turned into a multi-media, one-man entertainment industry. He pauses to talk to Peter Elson

PERHAPS it is a sign of the times, but whereas Liverpool once boasted three or so nationally-acclaimed dramatists, in this rationalised era there is but one standard-bearer towering over the rest.

In a manner as quiet as the character of the man himself, Frank Cottrell Boyce has written himself into a position way ahead of the pack.

Somehow he’s achieved this while being a husband to Denny and a hands-on father to seven children in their big Crosby villa.

It’s difficult to know what to discuss first from his prolific output currently available or about to appear.

Take your pick from a series of five Radio 4 plays about punks, broadcast at 9pm on Friday nights, his latest children’s novel Cosmic, or a heavy-weight television play God On Trial, set in a concentration camp.

His first theatre play, Proper Clever, will be staged by the Liverpool Playhouse in October and a major animation film, Truckers, is scheduled for 2010.

Oh, and there’s The Odyssey, his follow-up to the Hollywood blockbuster Troy, which awaits a suitable director and could go into production sooner or later.

His most intriguing project is a serious television play researched and written around five years ago, but seemingly shelved.

God on Trial, starring Sir Antony Sher, Rupert Graves and Stellan Skarsgard, was suddenly given the go-ahead with only five weeks for production.

It is based on a probably apocryphal story that the inmates of Auschwitz concentration camp put God on trial for the horror they were being made to suffer.

Filmed in a currently unfashionable stagey-style with big set-piece speeches, it is scheduled to be broadcast in September.

Although a practising Roman Catholic, Frank has to approach the material from a Jewish intellectual position.

“The producer, Mark Redhead, has always wanted to make this story and has been pitching it to television commissioning editors for 20 years,” says Frank.

“He asked me to write it and I thought, I can do that. There are no facts about the story, just a rumour that it happened.

“Nobody knew or had imagined what the trial would be or was like. There is no evidence. It was all up to me and I confess it was a brilliant assignment.

“It’s so different from what’s done now, as there’s only one set and lots of long speeches. They had to hunt the world for film cartridges long enough for the takes.

“I literally read the entire Bible, which contains a lot more violence than you expect, especially in the Old Testament. The New Testament marks a radical change with the arrival of Jesus and really the two halves are unrelated.

“As a writer, I’m just stating an argument. The story is that they find God guilty, so the argument is lost, but it didn’t matter really as we’re all still here.”

His research also included watching classic courtroom dramas like 12 Angry Men and contemporary works such as The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry.

“Once we started filming, the drama changed from being an argument to the actors creating something about the spirit of people in a system that tries to remove their humanity,” he says.

The pay-off is that, having put God on trial and found him guilty, the protagonists wonder what to do next. Their only re- course is to say, “Now let us pray”.

Frank’s first-ever stage play, Proper Clever, will be staged at Liverpool Playhouse in October and he was briefed to bring young people into this theatre. “Well, I do have my own ready-made focus group,” he laughs, referring to his large brood.

“The play’s about teenagers going into sixth form. These are clever kids facing tough problems. No teachers appear.

“For me, the problem has been dramatising the way children communicate today with text messaging, and Facebook – solitary activities done on the computer.

“Overall, I found it hard, working on what was for me a completely new craft. But the Youth Theatre with whom I worked were terrific, and I used their names in the play.”

Frank’s third children’s novel, Cosmic, now published, starts in Bootle and ends on the dark side of the Moon.

“It’s the familiar fantasy of a child going into space. I remem- ber watching on television the first moon walk on July 20, 1969.

“We all grew up thinking by now we’d be flying around with jet packs. That’s not happened, not even in Bootle. Most of us now realise we won’t be going to the moon.

“Cosmic has been a wonderful and amazing self-indulgence to write. You start with a childhood wish and then, for me as an adult, I get to interview the astronaut Alan Bean, who has actually walked on the moon, and other space experts.”

What bigger contrast while shepherding this novel out, though, to be asked to write five plays about rock music and, in particular, the punk era?

“I thought Radio 4 only wanted me to do one of the series, but somehow I’ve done all five,” muses Frank.

“These are all set now except for one in 1977. I spent a lot of time talking to people about what they were and what they’ve become.

“Punk took them out of what their parents expected them to do. Punk was their university.”

For many years, Frank frequently worked with the director Michael Winterbottom, until a parting of the ways after Tristram Shandy, A Cock and Bull Story.

Following the success of his screenplay of his children’s story Millions, directed by Danny Boyle, the pair are now working in another direction. Boyle, famous for his film Trainspotting, based on Irvine Welsh’s no-holds barred novel about drug-taking in Edinburgh, is now firmly in the mainstream.

“We’re doing a big animation film together for DreamWorks, called Truckers which will be out in two years’ time,” says Frank.

“We’re having the best time. The producer is the same guy who did Shrek, and the commitment and professionalism of DreamWorks is incredible.”

This productivity is in direct contrast to the Cottrell Boyce family’s own Odyssey to live in Lille, France, a couple of years ago. Being in the enviable posit- ion of having a job that can be done anywhere, he and his wife decided that a year abroad would make a refreshing change for all.

Calculating that this was the least disruptive for the children’s education, initial moaning by the younger members was replaced by great enthusiasm once installed.

Frank, though, was more amb- ivalent. He recalls: “I seemed to spend most of my time in the launderette as we had no wash- ing machine. When I wasn’t doing that, I kept having to relocate the car to the cheapest parking space.

“However, the locals were incredibly friendly. Their lives are far more socially structured than ours and, being France, food is a great interest.

“They would discuss cheeses for hours at a dinner party and then eat a tiny piece of just one.”

Clearly, while all these physically mundane tasks were going on, the cerebral wheels were turning in the Cottrell Boyce brain.

One benefit from this huge output is that his family, used to basic holidays in cold water climes, are off this summer to Assissi, splurging on a fortnight’s stay in a smart hotel.

“I feel it’s the last time all nine of us will be together on a holiday, so we thought we’d do something special,” says Frank.

“I can’t imagine what it will be like when all the children have finally left home.”

COSMIC, by Frank Cottrell Boyce, Macmillan, £9.99

peter.elson