Cemetery Junction
In 1997, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant began a creative partnership that has to date notched up three Golden Globes, two primetime Emmys and seven BAFTAs, blockbusting DVD sales, critical raves and an army of devoted fans.
In doing so, they changed the face of contemporary television comedy, creating a template that has been copied around the world, from France to Chile to the US.
Their biggest hit to date ‘The Office’ is the most successful British comedy of all time, shown in 90 countries and remade in 7 and their follow up ‘Extras’, starred some of the biggest names in Hollywood. Like ‘The Office’, ‘Extras’ was also an Emmy, Golden Globe and BAFTA winning comedy.
In addition to these two comedy benchmarks, Gervais and Merchant have, either separately or together, enjoyed success in live radio, podcasts (which have been downloaded a record-breaking 190 million times), stand-up comedy, children’s books, and Hollywood films.
Now, Gervais and Merchant are bringing their creative genius onto a much more ambitious plain. Cemetery Junction marks the pair’s first foray into feature film-making and, in this coming-of-age tale of three young lads in 1970s suburban England, brings their unique blend of finely-tuned character development, engrossing story-telling and bitter-sweet comedy to the big screen.
"We always knew we’d write a film and we did have offers and it took us three years plus to come up with an idea that we were happy with," says Gervais, reflecting the duo’s trepidation at embarking on this new direction. "We started from scratch three times."
"We didn’t want to write a zany comedy," says Merchant. 2We wanted to take the drama and emotion we had introduced into The Office and Extras and expand it further. People may be expecting a straightforward comedy from us but actually, although there is humour, Cemetery Junction is more of a feel good drama."
Thanks to the success of their television collaborations, Gervais and Merchant could have segued very quickly into the broader canvas of cinema. But they were both wary of moving too fast; it was important that their debut film would not be a feature-length episode of their TV shows.
"We’ve always been bothered by people who’ve done some telly and instantly think they must make a film," says Merchant.
"They pop up doing essentially what they’ve done on telly and often it’s not as good or doesn’t really warrant being film. We were keen to do something that we felt deserved to be on the cinema screen."
"And we know that other people will have the same prejudices as we did about two blokes off the telly making a film," says Gervais, who took his first steps into feature film directing with The Invention Of Lying which he co-directed with Matthew Robinson.
Gervais was also concerned about the image of Britain they wanted to present. 2The problem with a lot of British films is that they a paint a picture of England that most people don’t know. It’s a chocolate box version of England or it’s the opposite and everyone’s a parody cockney. We didn’t want the film to be a spoof or a knockabout comedy."
"We always come up with ideas by discussing our experiences and families and people we’ve known," says Merchant. "And we liked the world of the 1970s because we grew up then and they were interesting times; class was more defined. I think the reason a lot of those great shows from the past - like Mad Men - work so well is because the rules were so much more defined.
"Dramatically that’s useful because everyone understands the parameters. The world has changed since then: class is not as obvious now, you can travel the world cheaply and the idea that you could be prime minister from a council estate is not as mad as it would have been 40 years ago."
"The aspiration was to move up a class. And for a blue collar to move up was to acquire his dad’s business, or to have a lot of luck and move out of the town and that stifling small town mentality," says Gervais.
"We took inspiration from British New Wave films like Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and Billy Liar but also Bruce Springsteen’s Thunder Road. We love Americana. Cemetery Junction is also influenced by Diner and Rebel Without A Cause and Saturday Night Fever."
Gervais and Merchant’s aim was to capture some of the spirit of British cinema from the 1950s and 1960s, when the so-called New Wave led to such ground-breaking classics as Billy Liar, Saturday Night And Sunday Morning, A Taste Of Honey and Alfie which introduced the world to a new generation of British acting talent including Albert Finney, Tom Courtenay, Julie Christie, Shirley Anne Field, Michael Caine and Rita Tushingham. "I suppose we’re trying to do a new New Wave," says Gervais.
"That new wave of British cinema which made stars of Michael Caine and Albert Finney managed to portray England realistically but they were also popular," says Merchant. "In a way, we’re trying to ape that sort of thing and make England glamorous and fun but not sweet and cloying and sentimental in a chocolate box way."
"We’re not presenting a gritty, slit-my-wrists version of 1970s England," adds Gervais. "Cemetery Junction is upbeat and quite rock ‘n’ roll. And there’s a nobility in our poverty as well. I was from a working class family and I grew up on an estate and my memories of the early 70s was of my mum always tending roses and always trying to make the house look nice.
"It was fun, the summers were hot. Of course, that’s obviously nostalgia playing tricks. But we’re trying to put that on screen. We don’t want this to be a depressing, gritty, kitchen sink drama."
Cemetery Junction also afforded Gervais and Merchant the chance to explore a new demographic, young people on the cusp of their adult lives.
"Most of our past work has been about people approaching middle age starting to think about where their life is going, maybe trapped in certain worlds," says Merchant.
"We’re still interested in those subjects but we’re also interested in how those things can still confront you when you’re twentysomething. The decisions you make then can have an impact on the rest of your life."
While some of the characters in The Office, Tim and Dawn, for example, were grappling with those kinds of issues about their future, they were already approaching 30.
In Cemetery Junction, the four main characters, Freddie, Bruce, Snork and Julie - are in their early 20s but that was exactly the age at which people in the 1970s were thinking about marriage and settling down.
It was certainly a theme that struck a chord with the film’s producers Sue Baden-Powell, and Charlie Hanson. Hanson, whose working relationship with Gervais and Merchant began on Extras, was immediately impressed by the universality of the script’s themes.
"The reason the story works for the cinema is because those four young people could be from any town, anywhere, at any point in time. Even thought it’s set in southern England it’s a universal story that could equally well work in Buenos Aires.
"When I read it, it reminded me of American Graffiti in the way the characters were too big for the town they were in and I thought: Great, we’ve got a British American Graffiti on our hands!"
Baden-Powell, meanwhile, had executive produced Gervais’ The Invention Of Lying. She also responded emotionally to the script. "Although I did grow up in the 1970s I didn’t grow up in England but even so, I could very much relate to the characters and their desire to get out of a small town.
"Working with two directors was an interesting experience. Ricky and Stephen really do finish each other’s sentences. They work as a team completely; it’s like working with one director. They work very quickly and know what they want. It was a pleasure to work with them."
Cemetery Junction is released 14th April.
In 1997, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant began a creative partnership that has to date notched up three Golden Globes, two primetime Emmys and seven BAFTAs, blockbusting DVD sales, critical raves and an army of devoted fans.
In doing so, they changed the face of contemporary television comedy, creating a template that has been copied around the world, from France to Chile to the US.
Their biggest hit to date ‘The Office’ is the most successful British comedy of all time, shown in 90 countries and remade in 7 and their follow up ‘Extras’, starred some of the biggest names in Hollywood. Like ‘The Office’, ‘Extras’ was also an Emmy, Golden Globe and BAFTA winning comedy.
In addition to these two comedy benchmarks, Gervais and Merchant have, either separately or together, enjoyed success in live radio, podcasts (which have been downloaded a record-breaking 190 million times), stand-up comedy, children’s books, and Hollywood films.
Now, Gervais and Merchant are bringing their creative genius onto a much more ambitious plain. Cemetery Junction marks the pair’s first foray into feature film-making and, in this coming-of-age tale of three young lads in 1970s suburban England, brings their unique blend of finely-tuned character development, engrossing story-telling and bitter-sweet comedy to the big screen.
"We always knew we’d write a film and we did have offers and it took us three years plus to come up with an idea that we were happy with," says Gervais, reflecting the duo’s trepidation at embarking on this new direction. "We started from scratch three times."
"We didn’t want to write a zany comedy," says Merchant. 2We wanted to take the drama and emotion we had introduced into The Office and Extras and expand it further. People may be expecting a straightforward comedy from us but actually, although there is humour, Cemetery Junction is more of a feel good drama."
Thanks to the success of their television collaborations, Gervais and Merchant could have segued very quickly into the broader canvas of cinema. But they were both wary of moving too fast; it was important that their debut film would not be a feature-length episode of their TV shows.
"We’ve always been bothered by people who’ve done some telly and instantly think they must make a film," says Merchant.
"They pop up doing essentially what they’ve done on telly and often it’s not as good or doesn’t really warrant being film. We were keen to do something that we felt deserved to be on the cinema screen."
"And we know that other people will have the same prejudices as we did about two blokes off the telly making a film," says Gervais, who took his first steps into feature film directing with The Invention Of Lying which he co-directed with Matthew Robinson.
Gervais was also concerned about the image of Britain they wanted to present. 2The problem with a lot of British films is that they a paint a picture of England that most people don’t know. It’s a chocolate box version of England or it’s the opposite and everyone’s a parody cockney. We didn’t want the film to be a spoof or a knockabout comedy."
"We always come up with ideas by discussing our experiences and families and people we’ve known," says Merchant. "And we liked the world of the 1970s because we grew up then and they were interesting times; class was more defined. I think the reason a lot of those great shows from the past - like Mad Men - work so well is because the rules were so much more defined.
"Dramatically that’s useful because everyone understands the parameters. The world has changed since then: class is not as obvious now, you can travel the world cheaply and the idea that you could be prime minister from a council estate is not as mad as it would have been 40 years ago."
"The aspiration was to move up a class. And for a blue collar to move up was to acquire his dad’s business, or to have a lot of luck and move out of the town and that stifling small town mentality," says Gervais.
Tagged in Ricky Gervais