McCartney speaks on ‘Broad Street’

Press, 24 January 1986, Page 15

McCartney speaks on ‘Broad Street’

In the final in this series of The South Bank Show, Melvyn Bragg talks to Paul McCartney about “Give My Regards to Broad Street,” his first feature film since “Let It Be” 15 years ago. “Give My Regards To Broad Street” tells the story of a famous musician, and a day in his life during which the worst possible disaster occurs — the master tapes (only copy) of his new album disappear. The film start McCartney, Ringo Starr, Ringo’s wife, Barbara Bach, Linda McCartney, Tracey Ullman, and includes the last filmed performance by Sir Ralph Richardson. “We don’t know what to call this film,” says McCartney, “because if you say it’s a musical it

suggests not only a whole new score but you also imagine that terrible moment when they are sitting at a restaurant table thinking, ‘does she love me?,’ ‘does he love me?’ and then they suddenly leap on top of the table and burst into full song. It’s not like that.” The most interesting aspect of “Broad Street” is that, after a couple of attempts to hand the job over to more established writers, McCartney has written the screenplay himself.

Melvyn Bragg talks to him about the project and shows excerpts from the film on The South Bank Show tonight. McCartney is nervous about his ability as a writer. "I’m not a prose

writer and I keep reading through the script to see if there are any terrible mistakes.” “I wrote it in the back of the car while driving up to town — I was in a lot of traffic and it passed the time. The film sort of grew. I play Paul McCartney in the film, which is handy. It’s a character who’s very like me, so it would be silly if he was called something else. “The director (Peter Webb) wanted to work in a part for an American lady journalist, and we had the funny idea that Ringo should be trying to ‘pull’ her. So we thought it would be nice if we gave the part to Barbara Bach because it would be a giggle if Ringo was trying to pull his missus.”

Working on the film, McCartney explains, was “like working with plasticine, adding little bits.” “When we were kids, if you had to walk to somebody’s house, you always had your guitar with you, because you were going to practise together. I was telling Peter that we would wander along singing songs and showing off to the girls on our way to John’s (Lennon) house or mine, and Peter said we

should do a busking scene in the film.” So the crew took

McCartney to Leicester Square, ripped his jeans and muddied him up and stood him on the comer. “There I was playing a lousy honky-tonk version of ‘Yesterday’ and having money thrown at me by the unsuspecting public. An old Scottish drunk unloaded all his small change at my feet, put his arm around me and said: ‘awright, son, yer doin’ great.’ If only he knew, he would have probably said, ‘Paul who?”’

The South Bank Show screens at 8.25 p.m. on One.