The unlikely duo of Danny Dyer and Sylvester McCoy star as a pair of journalists on the trail of a kidnapped teenager. The hugely impressive cast also includes Dexter Fletcher, Denise Van Outen, Stephen Graham, Jeff Harding, Jade Asha, PH Moriarty, Alan Ford, Kenny Baker, Vas Blackwood, Lysette Anthony, Don Warrington, Richard Herring, Susannah Wise, Lucy Benjamin, David Schneider, Jennifer Evans and Jim Tavaré!
With a cast like that, you would expect this film have surfaced somewhere but it seems to have had a single screening in March 2006 at ScreenTest, the National Student Film Festival in Bristol. Produced by Cactus Films, Battersea Ripper was written by Stepen Fingleton, an award-winning Northern Irish scriptwriter. Curiously, most references to the film omit to name the director. Some websites say it was Fingleton but his own biography makes it clear he only wrote the thing. I’ve seen Nick Tyrone’s name attached too but he was just an editor.
It seems to have been directed by someone named Mike Spencer, about whom I know nothing.
Synopsis
South London’s young women are been terrorised by the Battersea Ripper. Chief Inspector Stalker (Fletcher) and his underlings (Tyrone and Graham) couldn’t care less. Two corrupt journos (Dyer and McCoy) band together to find the killer. Two media moguls make millions from the story, but are busy blackmailing each other. What nobody counts on is a crazed Irish hitman running amok. Is he the killer? Or the good guy in disguise?
I was a crew member on this film. Would like to see it completed.
ReplyDeleteWho was the director Ashley?
DeleteI'm going to a Q&A with Fingleton tonight - I suspect it'll be a very small audience so I may get a chance to talk one on one to him about this film. I'll report back.
ReplyDeleteThanks David. It would be great to find out the story behind this.
DeleteWell when I asked Fingleton about this movie his response was, well, rather like his responses to everything during the Q&A (he was a bit of a grump, don't know if it was a one off or whether he has a rep for this sort of behaviour - he seems to have fallen out with ALL of his cast making THE SURVIVALIST including Olivia Williams in MAGPIE, the short film that was the genesis of the feature). Think of an even more miserable Gerry Adams when you read these words as that was exactly how he sounded:
ReplyDelete"I contributed sketches to a student film, which had many writers, many directors, many different configurations. It was my second year at University. It started off being made by a very rich kid...it never really had a script. From my perspective it was good to be involved because it showed me how to make movies, but as far as I know it didn't ever screen and was never finished."
Since you wrote your piece MJ there have been some very entertaining blog entries from Richard Herring and Nick Tyrone about the making of MANILLA ENVELOPES as it was called during shooting. Danny Dyer's none the wiser either. If it's any consolation I don't think there are any BHR elements to this outside of the acting and Denise van Outen's enormous zit that appears in the trailer.
David.
Many thanks for your diligent research, David. Looks like it's in the 'never to be seen' file.
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