VIDEO: Brassed Off star Stephen Tompkinson's tears of pride for 20th anniversary film

Brassed Off, the classic British film about a pit village and its band which refused to die, is 20-years-old this year and still has fans shedding emotional tears of pride - not least of all star Stephen Tompkinson.
Brassed Off made in 1996 - celebrating it's 20th anniversary.Brassed Off made in 1996 - celebrating it's 20th anniversary.
Brassed Off made in 1996 - celebrating it's 20th anniversary.

He might be best known these days as the gritty, hard-nosed detective DCI Banks, but play him a few notes of spine-tingling brass band music from the film and he admits he's a wreck.

He's not alone.

Throw in an emotionally super charged script by Mark Herman, who also directed, and you have a passionate, inspiring celebration of human endeavour which still has audiences fighting back tears two decades on.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The award-winning 1996 film, set in the fictional village of Grimley, was inspired by the real life pit closure at Grimethorpe, near Barnsley, and the struggle for survival of its world famous Grimethorpe Colliery Band.

It was was honoured with a 20th anniversary screening to launch this year's Ilkley Film Festival, followed by a Q&A with Stephan, actor Phil Jackson and producer Steve Abbott..

VIDEO: Watch our special video reports and see links below to full video interviews with Stephen Tompkinson, Phil Jackson and Steve Abbott

In an exclusive chat with Graham Walker, looking back at the making of the film, Stephen admitted it remains his finest piece of work.

Brassed Off made in 1996 - celebrating it's 20th anniversary.Brassed Off made in 1996 - celebrating it's 20th anniversary.
Brassed Off made in 1996 - celebrating it's 20th anniversary.
Hide Ad
Hide Ad

He told how locals were "indispensable" in helping to make the film, telling their story, how the film proved so popular they had to stop The Odeon in Doncaster from showing it after a 26-week run, because the runaway hit was about to clash with the DVD release, how it was a dream working with co-stars Pete Postlethwaite, Ewan McGregor and Tara Fitzgerald and how it all led to a drink with big fan Robert Redford.

He says he would jump at the chance of appearing in a modern day sequel, following the characters two decades on.

In an exclusive chat - watch the full interview here - he also revealed how the Brassed Off soundtrack's spine-tingling brass band music gets him every time. He said:"I'm hopeless. Hopeless.The first time we got together as a cast was to go to the world famous Abbey Road studios, to watch the band record the sound track. They did Danny Boy which I thought, reading it, was a bit too on the nose, possibly a bit gratuitous. But they did it. None of us could look at each other. We were all gone."

It was Downton Abbey's head butler Mr Carson, actor Jim Carter, who conducted the band to their winning finale in Brassed Off, who was there at the end to help him. Stephen, now 50, added: "When we filmed the last scene I was inconsolable.

Brassed Off stars Ewan McGregor, Jim Carter, Peter Martin, Stephen Tomkinson and Phil JacksonBrassed Off stars Ewan McGregor, Jim Carter, Peter Martin, Stephen Tomkinson and Phil Jackson
Brassed Off stars Ewan McGregor, Jim Carter, Peter Martin, Stephen Tomkinson and Phil Jackson
Hide Ad
Hide Ad

"My tears on screen were absolutely real. Some of the last scenes we filmed were in Birmingham Town Hall, that we tried to make look like the Albert Hall. When they called the final cut on the whole thing I was gone for about half an hour and it was Jim Carter who picked me up and snapped me out of it.

"I'm the same as anyone else. When you see people watching it now, you can see them looking for a hanky surreptitiously and rejoicing at the same time.

"It just goes to show what an amazingly, beautiful, heartwarming, human story Mark Herman, who wrote and directed it, wanted to tell."

He played suicidal miner, Phil, or Danny's boy - the son of band conductor Danny, portrayed by the late great Pete Postlethwaite.

Brassed Off star Stephen Tompkinson reveals his on screen tears of pride were realBrassed Off star Stephen Tompkinson reveals his on screen tears of pride were real
Brassed Off star Stephen Tompkinson reveals his on screen tears of pride were real
Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Stephen's character has a mental breakdown while trying to make ends meet as a kids party clown and is infamously dubbed Coco The Scab by a debt collector, after he asks for time for his redundancy money to come through.

It was one of the film's key, hard-hitting roles, which mined a rich tragic-comedy theme, where humanity wins in the end, just as Grimley Brass Band reunite after the pit closure to win the National Finals.

He explained: "In the great history of clowns that cry, Mark wanted to put that in. That was the only bit that wasn't scripted, when you saw Phil do his atrocious attempt to entertain the kids. We improvised the whole lot, the bad card tricks, the watch getting smashed up. Because Mark wanted me to find my own tragedy, my own sad clown. And he did. He let me loose on that and it became a lot more personal, because it was something I created.

"It was also the one bizarre splash of colour in the whole thing but again so sad. But he never allowed it to spill over into sentimentality or mawkishness. Even after his attempted suicide his trolley goes past and you see those huge clown shoes, which always just rips the rug away from people and lets them now they are allowed to laugh again."

Is it his proudest piece of work?

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

"Definitely," says the actor, who today starts filming a new series of DCI Banks in Leeds and has had starring roles in the likes of Wild at Heart, Ballykissangel, Grafters, Drop the Dead Donkey and Trollied.

Brassed Off star Stephan TompkinsonBrassed Off star Stephan Tompkinson
Brassed Off star Stephan Tompkinson

He said: "Robert Retford, of all people, asked us to open his Sundance Film Festival with Brassed Off so I knew it mattered. After we had a drink with him I remember saying to Pete Postlethwaite, 'it's odd to think, at 31, this could be the highlight of my career'.

"When Mark's script came along and I knew it wasn't a Hollywood version. It wasn't a pit that was going to close with huge explosions or car chases, it was a honest story where the biggest entertainment angle was brass band music. It was a story that had to be told. These people felt betrayed. And it was their voice. It was their story.

"It was a piece of social history. A lot of MPs have commented it being a shameful episode in Britain's social history. Cardinal Basil Hume, who was head of the Catholic Church at the time, went as far as to say Mrs Thatcher was evil, what she did to communities- how systematic it was and, with malice of forethought almost, destroyed communities.

"We learned everything from the people we met.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

"Before we started filming, Pete and I went to Grimethorpe for about 10 days to meet people, to get the accent as near perfect as we could, to let them read the scripts, to know that it was their story, that we weren't trying to embellish it in any way; that we just wanted to tell the truth. They saw that, they accepted us, thy opened up to us in a way that was indispensable to us, as was the way that the Grimethorpe Colliery Band welcomed in these strange actors."

Phil Jackson, 67, who went on to play Chief Insp Japp in TV's Poirot TV, was tuba player Jim in Brassed Off - watch his full video chat with Grham Walker - CLICK HERE. He said: "I can't play the tuba but I can read music. I marked on the score so I knew exactly which fingers to use used. I can't blow and make a good noise but I got the fingering right.

"My son, George Jackson, is now a conductor and he did a masterclass at the LSO in London. In the interval this guy ran up to me and he said 'you're my favourite tuba player'. It was the principal tuba player of the LSO and he loved Brassed Off. He thought I'd done a great job. That was the ultimate compliment."

Bradford born Brassed Off producer Steve Abbott, founding chair and now a director of Screen Yorkshire, said the film was made with his company Prominent Features - formed with his business partner and five of the Monty Python Team. Their first film was 1988's A Fish Called Wanda and he has produced travel documentaries for Sheffield pal Michael Palin. Watch his full video chat with Graham Walker - CLICK HEREHe said: "Brassed Off was a film we were passionate about making. We were angry about what had happened to the coalfield in South Yorkshire. That's what drove us to make this film. We have enormous pride in it. I've a slight regret that it couldn't have been made with an all Yorkshire crew at the time, that had my arm twisted to get involved in establishing Screen Yorkshire."

MORE VIDEO: Watch Graham Walker's special video reports:

Hide Ad
Hide Ad