The Man Who Sold British Actors Down The River

"Will you contact Allan McKeown", Ian Potter asked in connection with a book he was writing for me THE RISE & RISE OF THE INDEPENDENTS – A TV HISTORY. Ian knew I knew him but I had not told him that Allan used to tell anyone who listened that I was "a fucking idiot". 

Maybe he had mellowed over the passage of time. As I wanted this book to be a full and detailed history of British independent TV producers from when they first started after the Second World War, I had to include him. To miss him out would leave a giant hole as Allan played an important role in shaping of the independent television sector.

I contacted our mutual lawyer Barry Smith to ask him for an email address. Allan contacted me directly. Now for anyone who meets me in person I am David Wilkinson but on any letter, film credit or on this blog I use my middle name Nicholas as well to avoid confusion with at least five other David Wilkinson’s who work in the entertainment sector. “I would be delighted to talk to Ian and help him with your book. When Barry mentioned you I thought you were the other David Wilkinson who is an fucking idiot”. He then went on to abuse that other DW including telling me that he had put "the other one" on a blacklist "preventing him working in TV" because "he" had ruined it for "me and other producers". This last bit of information I never knew for certain, just assumed it. 

For about a month or so I assumed that he genuinely thought he had believed DNW was actually someone else. Then it dawned on me, of course he knew we were one and the same. It was his last chance to have yet another go at me before he died.

He actually called me a fucking idiot to my face back in 1983 at a meeting with John Wolstenholme of United Media Finance. They had put up part of the financing for TO THE LIGHTHOUSE which I had produced the year before. Allan was applying for the top part job to run this film & TV investment fund. His open hostility towards me was about how I treated the actors on TO THE LIGHTHOUSE. He thought I had given them too good a deal. His new wife was Tracey Ulman then an actress who I had seen perform at the Royal Court Theatre so I was always baffled as to why he felt actors should not get their fair share. He would lead the way for the abolition of actors long term residuals. After they went, fees would later be reduced too. 

By happenstance I became the first true independent producer to work with the BBC with a film of the Virginia Woolf book with a wonderful screenplay by Hugh Stoddart which I made through the directors own company, Colin Gregg Films and I with Ronnie Marsh of the BBC invented something called a Reverse Co-Production. Basically CGF owned the copyright of the film and all other rights. The BBC had just two UK showings and provided the crew. We provided the actors, rights, extras, musicians and composer. 

I had never negotiated anything in my life except an option for another book, but Colin had great faith in me, partly because I had found UMF. I had asked IPPA a forerunner to PACT who negotiated terms of trade on behalf of producers with Channel 4 but they told me I was on my own as they had never dealt with the British Broadcasting Corporation. Luckily I had Barry Smith to help me, but I had to lead these talks. Having structured the deal with the BBC and UMF I had to go to see what was then called British Actors Equity the actors union to structure a working arrangement with them.

Because it was a TV film, which was not owned by a broadcaster, there was no agreement then for such a beast. Normally Equity would be guarded about a new ground breaking arrangement which would customarily take months and involve an army of people but Ian McGarry who negotiated with me knew I was a member of Equity and was more at ease and willing to "try an experiment". 

On offer was the BFTPA feature films agreement which bought out all the actors rights for an upfront fee or there was the ITCA agreement which was the agreement Equity had with ITV which we could harvest clauses to suit this film. This latter agreement involved residuals for the actors. This meant every time it sold to any broadcaster anywhere in the world the actors would receive a further payment.  I was offered the choice. Ian and Barry both said it was up to me to decide which one. At 26 I had was forced to be Solomon.

In 1974 I had been in a theatre production THE WISEST FOOL starring Marius Goring as James I. I played his first-born son Prince Henry. The other actors had voted me Equity deputy, which meant that I was responsible for all union matters on the production. I considered it an honour.  Most actor’s don’t. After a matinee one day at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford, Vanessa Redgrave came to talk to the company about the Workers Revolutionary Party. I had been to their now legendary meeting the year before at the Roundhouse Theatre in Chalk Farm. It was overflowing with every actor I knew and so many others I did not.  Most of the older stars of today were there. Vanessa talked and talked to a group of us at the Yvonne Arnaud  until just Jonathan Hackett and I were the only ones left. 

Vanessa was hypnotic and convincing. Before we knew it the "half" was called. At this point in theatre law everyone not connected with the show has to leave the backstage area. I knew this. Vanessa knew this.  More importantly Marius knew this. He was a leading light of Equity and Ms Redgrave was about as far to the left as you can get in the acting profession and Marius Goring was the furthest right you could go without becoming Herman Göring. 

He summoned me to his dressing room and ordered me to remove her. I tried, sort of. I think I coughed to attract her attention. I challenge any of you to stand up to Vanessa Redgrave and kick her out and I was only 18 years old.  After a while Marius marched into the green room and forced her to leave. He then attacked me with such vigour calling me all the names under the sun.

The next day he must have felt guilty because he gave me a potted history of the formation of Equity by way of an explanation, and covered his own personal involvement in introduction of residuals for all actors working in the UK. He told me that his own fees for co-starring in THE RED SHOES and A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH were not small but nor where they generous and each amounted to about a half of the national annual average wage at the time, and like all actors spent much of the year resting,  yet he still got fan mail from all over the world for those films where they were a staple with broadcasters thirty years later but he never received any more money. This he said was not fair. He was right.

“ What’s your decision then” asked McGarry.  I chose the ITCA residual route. In the long term it would result in much more money for each actor.  I will always side with the actors.

There was also a sound practical reason for this. Colin Gregg and I had successfully raised £231,000 ( about £750,000 today) from United Media Finance for the production but that meant that I reduced my salary from £25,000 to £5,000 and Colin reduced his and waived all the development costs and took no production fee. If we had chosen the BFTPA route it meant that I would have to find a further 20-30%. I knew I was at my limit and could not raise more. We could not reduce the budget any further.

Unbeknownst to me Equity had used my arrangement as a precedent and had tried to force this upon others who would follow me. AUF WIEDERSEHEN, PET was one of Allan’s independent productions and Equity he told me wanted to use my terms on that production. As I had devised this I was therefore a fucking idiot as in the long run it would mean less money for him. Barry Smith was also an architect of this arrangement but Allan never once chastised him.  Allan sat there in United Media’s offices in Fitzroy Square laying into me. He told me “there are so many actors, the ones who are working should think themselves lucky, they should not have residuals as well ” I remember this so well, as I thought it disingenuous, especially from a man who lived with a thesp. He just went on and on. John Wolstenholme was amazed I just took it. What else could I do? Allan was not selected for the job.

I never did find out if the AUF WIEDERSEHEN, PET actors got residuals or not. That series went on to make Allan, his partners and shareholders a great deal of money. If the actors got residuals then it was only fair they shared in the financial success. If they did not then I hope they all got significantly rewarding upfront fees for, writers apart, it was the actors that made that TV series one of the very best we produced in this country.  They deserved a good slice of the pie.

From then on Allan McKeown actively bad-mouthed me whenever he could. I know I lost jobs because of him. All because he did not like the way I treated actors - fairly with a decent wage for a job well done.

In 2013 a Casting Call Pro survey showed more than three-quarters of actors in the UK earned less than £5,000. Another survey the same year by Equity showed that around 50% of all members had undertaken some unpaid work in the previous 12 months with a similar number earning less that £5,000. Sadly in my view, anyone these days can call themselves an actor and do not have to be part of the union which has caused problems all round. There are many “actors” now who think acting is all about shouting and pouting and assume they can be the next Benedict Cumberbatch or Ruth Wilson. They have not been to drama school, won’t do theatre, have never read Shakespeare, nor heard of Harold Pinter and are in endless micro budget gangster and zombie films. 

In the last 15 years I have distributed films where actors were either earning only £100 per week and in many cases nothing at all. In the 35 years since I structured that agreement there are more actors than ever before, and so few now can sustain a decent living. I recently saw a fringe production of THE NON-STOP CONNOLLY SHOW a 16 hours epic that was a tour de force by ten outstanding, mostly Irish actors. One of them was telling me that almost all of them have decided not to have children because they just can’t afford to be an actor and have a family. That is Allan McKeown’s legacy. He was a leading campaigner for actors getting a one off fee, and no more, no matter how successful that film or TV production. He died a multi, multi, multi millionaire. 

In 1979 I purposely gave up a fruitful acting career to try and make it as a producer. I took my life savings of £15,000 (I could have bought a 2 bedroomed house outright in Twickenham for that, now worth £900,000) and took an option on Tom Sharpe’s PORTERHOUSE BLUE to make into a film. By mid 1981 I had failed, no longer had the option, all my money was spent. I was thinking of packing it in and taking up Alan Clark’s offer of being in BAAL with David Bowie.  

The only encouragement I had had was from Sandy Lieberson an American who then headed 20^th Century Fox in Hollywood. He like it very much but it was not for the Studio. A defeat. 

Then I unexpectedly the week I was making up my mind whether to give up producing and go back to acting I bumped into Allan McKeown. I had met him about a year earlier because I wanted Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais to write the screenplay of PORTERHOUSE BLUE a book by Tom Sharpe which I had an option because I thought it would make a good film, and Allan ran their company. They did not like it so said no. However on that street in Soho Allan said how much he had enjoyed our first meeting and then complimented me on my great taste and effused about the fantastic ideas I had. He said one day I would go far and that that he hoped we would work together. I never forgot those extremely kind words. I then resolved to continue and just a few months later I found TO THE LIGHTHOUSE. Without his encouragement that would not have happened.

Barry Smith ( our mutual lawyer) once asked me what Allan McKeown was to me. I said he was both my Dr Jekyll and my Mr Hyde.

Film Festivals and YOUR Film

Two years ago, HOW TO CHANGE THE WORLD was one of the four opening night films at the Sundance Film Festival.

I talked the programmers Hussain Currinmbhoy and John Nein at the reception afterwards about the number of documentary features that had been entered that year. The figure I wrote in my notebook later that evening was "approx. 3,000".

As I write this I am wondering if that number is correct.

Added to this are all the feature docs that were not submitted to Sundance that are made produced over a twelve-month period, that are either entered into other film festivals or not entered in any at all. What would that be?

5,000 per annum?

Now I suspect, but do not know, that a good proportion are TV docs passing themselves off a cinema films. So, let’s be conservative and say that there are 2,500 genuine new documentaries seeking a cinema outing every year.

In the UK cinema arena, even in a good week the market can only take two, at a stretch three. That is just 150 in one calendar year.

Therefore, that means 2,350 don't get seen in UK cinemas (based upon my conservative figures).

Even though I am only really distributing films I am involved in making (ZERO DAYS was an exception) I am offered so many docs every year. So many of these come to me 4-6-8 and sometimes 12 months after they have debuted in some festival. It's too late by then, much too late.

When I was young the perceived wisdom was to finish your film, open it in a festival or market and then the sales agents and distributors would come running. 35 years ago, that did work. Would it now? I doubt it.

With HOW TO CHANGE THE WORLD the production company board members, of which I was one, decided that it was imperative that we had a sales agent on board before its world première, which we did. At Sundance, Netflix made an offer. This proved to be the right decision. 

The advice I would give now to feature documentary filmmakers is to try to have either a sales agent on board or a domestic distributor as part of your team before it screens anywhere.

The other advice I offer for what it is worth is to really look at your documentary hard, long and truthfully. Compare it to everything out there and honestly ask yourself “does it really have a chance in Sundance or Berlin or Cannes”.

So many films aim too high. This is not a bad thing; we should all do this in life but the disappointment can be crushing. Enter the film into other festivals as well.

I saw a UK feature doc three years ago that was produced for £10,000. It was good, but also average. The subject matter had been covered before, and far better. The filmmakers entered it into Sundance as this was their dream. They had to wait eight months before the rejection came. They had hyped themselves, and everyone else up that it would get in. They had never attended before so did not know how hugely competitive it is. The film never stood a chance. I and many others tried to tell them but they were so convinced it would be selected.

When it was rejected they were so deflated. They had turned down other film festivals along the way, who had approached them (it was an LBGT film) which they did not think good enough. But these festivals are excellent events. Because the director thought them “minor” festivals he dismissed them. Big mistake.

Yes, it would be nice to go on a date with Ryan Gosling or George Clooney or Emma Stone or Julia Roberts but it isn’t going to happen. Get real.

ZERO DAYS is directed by one of the world’s top documentary directors, an Oscar winner to boot. The film has been shortlisted for the 2017 Oscars for feature documentary yet it came to me for UK cinema distribution. I was the last on the list as every other UK distributor had turned it down. I was an afterthought. Up until then, for eighteen years I had only distributed British & Irish films. I broke my rule because it is that good.

Keep this in mind when you are in post-production of your own feature doc or any film for that matter. It is a very crowded market out there and not only do you have to make your film the best it can be, you need to put as much effort into your sales, festival and distribution strategy as you have done with your production. This costs you nothing. It involves lots of research and talking to lots of others- filmmakers, sales agents, distributors and above all the people who work at film festivals.

Remember you only get one chance to get it right. Changing your plan three months after its debut is far, far too late.  

(Sorry about the spacing. On the template it is fine but when I post it corrupts a bit).

Why are more and more people treating actors badly ?

There is something I have observed in my 47 years in this industry and that is, it often makes no sense whatsoever. 

With my own career the more I have worked hard to make something happen the less I seem to get anywhere and those projects I do not work as intensely on, and am not as passionate about, or as committed to, tend to be the ones that get made. 

But its not just me.

In the past when employing actors the team (producer/ director and sometimes writer) are far less enamoured by those who try really hard to impress us than those who can't be arsed and are not really bothered. 

Its like being back at school when you were only really interested in the person who was not interested in you.

Because I was an actor I am very sensitive to this, which is why I hate auditioning actors as I want to give them all the job. 

Maybe this is why I have moved on to documentaries?

I have sat there with the director, other producers and casting directors and many of them have laughed or been rude about an actor who has tried too hard wanting to please.

They don't know that for that actor that potential job means everything. That job could change their life or it just puts food on the table. These actors are just wanting to work and what is more natural than that. This is not a reason to be cruel. 

We should be pleased that actors are so enthusiastic to work with us that they try so hard. They only want to impress you, to show you their talent. They just want a chance. Someone took a chance with all of us who conduct these interview/ audition so its only right that we are give everyone who comes before us an equal chance. 

Maybe they do try too hard but its hardly a crime. Yes it is desperation, which only those of us who have been there can really understand, but I do get increasingly angry by those arrogant insensitive people who have so little compassion for others less successful than themselves, success that has often come about because of pure luck, something the very successful in the entertainment industry never acknowledge. 

Some of the best actors I know you have never heard of because they never got that lucky break. And then you have those very lucky limited actors like Ewen McGregor.....I rest my case. 

There are so many emerging writers and directors who can say the same. Some broadcasters have also changed since when I started. There was a time when they would meet with all film & TV producers who had ideas and projects. Now it seems that they only have time for their mates and no one else. 

I am sad to say that this uncaring dismissive attitude to those less successful is becoming far too common these days.