13 December 2012

Snodgrass or Lost John



Today marks the third anniversary of this blog and I was all ready to do some reflecting on what it's all been for - and possibly some shameful admission of the amount of time I've wasted and why I ought never to write another word here and devote myself to Important Writing. But then I saw something and I thought: Wow! 


Now I don't know whether you will share my reaction, but I do know I want to record it for those who might. Ready? Okay.

Beat.

They're making a film of Snodgrass.


If you don't know what I'm talking about, it's a short story imagining what would have happened if Lennon had jumped ship early from the Beatles. Written by Ian R McLeod,  it was published in In Dreams, an anthology of music-related short stories, around the mid eighties and you can read it online here.


I always thought it would make a nice little radio play but it's being adapted as a film by David Quantick. And get this - Ian Hart is Lennon. And it probably fits in terms of age, from my memory of the story, which must go some way towards making up for his being so cruelly and inexplicably turned down for Nowhere Boy.

There's a website about the film here. Actually, it looks like it's a TV movie, which is probably all to the good. It doesn't feel like it should be a big budget spectacular. And I hope they keep the downbeat - or rather the I'm-Down-ex-Beatle - ending. Whoops, spoiler alert. Retrospectively.

Yes, yes, I know that Paul wrote I'm Down. I KNOW that. You'll take any opportunity, won't you?

And there's a good strapline or whatever you cry it: "Which is more fascinating - success or failure?"

I hope it does well. I look forward to seeing it.

If you haven't read it already, a post about Mark Shipper's Paperback Writer here. Written before Lennon died, it imagines a Beatles reunion which doesn't go as planned.

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