Letter From London: Raise a Glass to Cockney Vigilantism

The prime example from this decade is Dead Man's Shoes, directed by Shane Meadows and starring the great Paddy Considine. A small-town drama about a returning paratrooper who starts killing bad elements of the community, it was written by Meadows and Considine as a response to the sort of local atrocities that don't get dealt with, let alone reported. It's an inventive, claustrophobic and unnerving film which you should find a way to see if you haven't already. "The film for me is about how easily people who do the most awful shit can just carry on with their lives, and just fucking bury it," Considine once told me, and said the film's lo-fi intensity was inspired by The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Deliverance.

You may know Considine from Jim Sheridan's In America, or as the unfortunate British journalist at the beginning of The Bourne Ultimatum, or as one of Simon Pegg's unsupportive officers in Hot Fuzz. His latest collaboration with Meadows, a funny, improvised comedy about a misguided roadie called Le Donk And Scor-Zay-Zee, just came out here on DVD, which gave me the excuse to grill him for a few minutes. I asked him if he turned down projects that don't strike a chord compared to labours of love like Dead Man's Shoes. "Don't get me wrong," he says, "I enjoyed being on Cinderella Man, I enjoyed all the company I was with, Ron Howard and all the people who work for him, it was a great experience. But I come away from those things thinking, 'Man, I didn't get to show them my best work, I didn't get to give them anything.' I've walked away from roles like Bourne and thought, 'Anyone could have played that role. Maybe I shouldn't have.'"

Like Caine with Harry Brown, Considine recently didn't act for months until he found a script that meant something to him. He admits his experiences on films such as_ Dead Man's Shoes_ have spoilt him. "When I work with the likes of Shane Meadows or Jim Sheridan, the rapport is so important", he says. "Sometimes when you work on these bigger films, if I'm standing here with my note about the script and Russell Crowe's standing there with his note, Ron Howard's not gonna be paying much mind to what my little note is. That's how it works. So you sort of shut your mouth and don't say anything. There's a kind of insignificance there. I'm just used to a certain amount of collaboration. It validates you."

Here's hoping for more.

Tally-ho, bitches.

Pages: 1 2