2:45pm Friday 26th June 2009
The Dresser (1983)
Goldcrest Films produced Ronald Harwood’s adaptation of his stage play, about the love-hate relationship between a Donald Wolfit-style larger-than-life actor-manager and his off-stage factotum, his dresser.
Harwood, who later won an Oscar for his screenplay of Roman Polanski’s The Pianist, was a small-part actor in London in 1953 when he spent a season in the company of Sir Donald Wolfit, watching the great man battling against indifferent audiences and doubting producers.
Albert Finney, as ‘Sir’ and Tom Courtenay, as Norman, came close to winning Oscars for their funny and poignant performances, which they were to repeat successfully in the 1998 television play of Angela Lambert’s novel A Rather English Marriage, which also starred Joanna Lumley.
Directed by Peter Yates, filming in Bradford – principally at the Alhambra before it was extensively renovated – took place in June and July, 1983. The film, nominated for five Oscars, represented Tom Courtenay’s movie comeback after a decade away from films.
Edward Fox, Zena Walker, Eileen Atkins, Bradford-born Michael Gough, Betty Marsden and Lockwood West, father of Timothy West, were among the cast.
Testimony (1988)
Partly shot inside The Alhambra in 1986, Tony Palmer’s biopic about the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovic starred Ben Kingsley as Shostakovich, Sherry Baines as his wife Nina and Terence Rigby as Stalin.
In September, 2003, Palmer returned to Bradford to deliver the Lumiere Lecture at what was then the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television.
He said: “I was looking for a theatre to film some scenes in and someone mentioned the Alhambra. I came down to see it and my jaw dropped when I saw how beautiful it was.
“I would definitely film in Bradford again if the right opportunity came up. I love being here because the people are so genuine.”
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