Billy Elliot (2000) Jamie Bell, Julie Walters, Gary Lewis, & the 2014 Musical Elton John & Lee Hall

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Try in your face, Dad, I know we're gonna try
and cry.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
Hey ya yay Hello we uh yeah, we're gonna cry
a lot. Welcome. This is Book Versus Movie, the podcast
where read books that have been adapted into movies and
then we try to decide which we like better, the
book or the movie. I am Margot pocoloniabook dot com.
This is my good friend and go host Margo d
or Brooklyn Bitchick.

Speaker 3 (01:50):
Hi.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
Everyone, Okay, listen, it's March. We do musicals in March.
Maybe you just found us because you love the musical,
you love the movie, you love both. We're with you.
It's technically not adapted from a book. Here's the way
we do things here because we've been at this for

(02:12):
over ten years and we try to give you a
brand new episode every single week, and so that means
when we say it's been adapted from a book, we
really mean it's been adapted from some kind of original source.
I think this is the second time we've done a
non musical to a musical. I think we did Hairspray,

(02:34):
did we not, Yes, we did do Hairspray. Okay, so
there is a precedent. So anyway, we will consider any
film that's been adapted from some other original material. Most
of the time that is a book, but it might
be fiction non fiction. And we also will consider short stories,
novella's magazine articles, songs, plays, plays, and twice films that

(03:02):
are you know, that have been adapted into other films,
so not remade, not reboots, but an adaptation of an
original film Mike Today, which although we'll get into that
a little bit later on the origins of that original film.
So all of that is to say, we're glad you're here.

(03:25):
We hope you have suggestions for future episodes. We are
always trying to come up with ideas. We've got mysteries
in March coming up, mysteries later, mysteries and May I'm sorry,
musicals in March, mysteries in May, and down the line,
we're going to be doing spooky movies, you know, in
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(03:47):
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Speaker 5 (04:53):
Ri n so.

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Speaker 2 (05:53):
We do, and we love seeing you anywhere we are
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are old episodes that you see on Patreon that you
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Speaker 5 (06:13):
We were open to that.

Speaker 2 (06:15):
We were totally open to that. We've done it a
couple of times. Oh my goodness, today we're going to
talk about Billy Elliott. This was another situation, like what
it was another musical that we just did. With the
musicals that we've done so far, we did. Sorry, we'll
edit this out unless you're on you mercuries in retrograde, Yes,
Mercury's and Retrograde will apologize in advance that oh Wicked. Okay.

(06:39):
So this is a situation for me similar to Wicked
that I had never seen Wicked because I had read
the book that I didn't really care for the book,
and I was like, why would I go see a
musical of this book I'm not nuts about In a
similar way, and also this was my experience with Hairspray.
I love Billy Elliott the movie, the original two thousand movie.

(07:04):
I love that this movie, and so when I saw
they were making a musical about it, I was like, Ooh,
I don't know that I could because I just I
would be very upset if it was even a little
bit off, if it missed even a little bit. I'm
not I'm gonna be it's gonna just make me really
really enraged. So I did not watch it. I'd never

(07:24):
seen it. This was my first time ever seeing the musical.
So I'm very excited to talk about both of these productions.
Billy It comes Billy Elliott comes out in the year
two thousand. It's directed by Stephen Daldry and it's written
by Lee Hall. And the movie, if you're familiar with it,

(07:45):
and I'm assuming that you are if you're listening to
us today, the movie is based on a play that
he had written called Dancer.

Speaker 5 (07:54):
I think it's what it was, all right.

Speaker 4 (07:56):
It was called Dancer, and they, well, you know, it's
only been performed. I mean sometimes with producers they will
have a table reading and he'll have potential of potential
excuse me, potential investors and critics and people like that
in the theater to come in and listen, and then
you give feedback like I think this work. I think
that doesn't work.

Speaker 2 (08:15):
So it was.

Speaker 5 (08:15):
Based on that. He also, Lee Hall wrote this story.

Speaker 4 (08:20):
So he was born Newcastle upon Tyne, I think that's
what's pronounced in nineteen sixty six, and he talks about
when he was a kid he wanted to be a writer,
and that was considered. You know, he's in town full
of minors, and and you know, men act this way,
women act that way, so the gender roles are really strict.
And there was an opera singer that was based from

(08:41):
a town that he was also from, and he originally
started with that idea, and then he came up with
a dancer and what if this eleven twelve year old
boy discovers he has this talent for dancing, and they
very cleverly, I think, place it in the nineteen eighties.
First of all, for one, it's just I just love
stuff that takes in the eighties. But and something I

(09:01):
never knew is that there is this minor strike in
County Durham in eighty four into eighty five. They were
on strike for a year and it's and Margo is
a labor union advocate, so we both have a lot
to add to this show. But it started as a
play and he had presented it to people and then
someone had suggested this was actually a movie. You need

(09:24):
to make a script out of this, and it took
him a long time to come with the concept and
then when you actually just sat down and wrote the screenplay,
he said it took him less than a month. He
just it just boom, just came out of him. And
Stephen Daldry is the director for this movie. It's his
first film, and he goes on to work on the
Hours and amazing productions.

Speaker 5 (09:43):
But that is the basic story here.

Speaker 4 (09:45):
So Lee Hall wrote the screenplay for this, and then
he writes all the lyrics and the book for the musical,
and then Elton John contributes music to the musical that
comes out. And he also, by the way, wrote for
Warhorse the screenplay for Warhorse, and I saw that on
Lincoln Center, but that's not a musical. And then Rocketman,

(10:07):
which is like you both you and I both talked
about Rocketman, and that's on our Patreon wall. We both
loved that movie. That was and we loved Elton's book.
Of course that's like incredible, But yeah, that's our that's
our writer today. He's a playwright, he's a screenwriter. He
is married to Beiban Kidron and she is a director
and she directed one of the Bridget Jones movies. And
just incredible talented people here, and this is sort of

(10:29):
the genesis of this story.

Speaker 2 (10:35):
You're on mute, just pontificating over here in the silent
void and metrograde.

Speaker 5 (10:43):
Everyone just keep that in Marry.

Speaker 2 (10:46):
Oh, it's gonna be a little bumpy. It's gonna be
I've already I was just saying for we got in
the air, I've already like sent text to the wrong
people multiple times. I don't do that. I'm very good
about that. Normally, that super good about checking before I
hit send. I have a little pause. But yeah, it's
been it's been a little wacky technology wise. Okay, So

(11:13):
let's let's start with actually, just let's give a little
bit of background about the movie. I think so Billy
Elliott comes out in two thousand.

Speaker 5 (11:23):
Twenty five years ago.

Speaker 2 (11:25):
Twenty five.

Speaker 5 (11:25):
Oh my god, we're old.

Speaker 2 (11:27):
Wow. So it's a very it's an interesting time in
world politics, and so I do agree it's like such
a great choice to set it in the eighties, and
they're looking back at a time where I feel like
at the time when we were watching it, we're like,
aren't we Are we so glad that we've progressed beyond

(11:48):
beyond those awful, awful years for us here in the US.
It was of course the Reagan era, and in Britain
we have Margaret Thatcher, who is not unlike on Regan
in many ways. Tony Blair is the president, is the

(12:08):
Prime Minister. You know, when this comes out, we're coming
out of the Clinton years here, we're about to have
the backlash into the Bush era. But it's a kind
of it's an economically prosperous time that's going on. And
like I said, to set it in the in the
in the mid eighties is a very interesting choice, I think.

(12:34):
And here in the US we were so busy dealing
with all of our nonsense that was going on in
the middle of the you know, like I say, we
had Star Wars and gosh, mister Gorbachev tear down this
wall and all that kind of states. I'm sorry, I'm
just not a fan. Yes, AIDS crisis. That alone, I'm
just like, don't even get me started. But in Britain

(13:00):
there's a lot of really shady stuff going on. And
this minor strike is really an historic strike. There was
a general strike in like the nineteen twenties, I want
to say it was, and and that was huge, and

(13:20):
this is like the biggest strike since that. So many
miners these. First of all, it's coal mining. Let's just
talk about that. We're fueling everything with coal that has
to be dug up out of the ground. And as
every good nineteen seventies baby like you, and I know

(13:41):
you can't. You know, fossil fuels are limited supply and
so we have to come up with other ways to
fuel our busy, busy lives. But that's not the case
in Britain. I'm trying to see how many. It's like
two hundred thousand, okay, oh, here's the number. The number

(14:03):
of people who went on strike is one hundred and
forty two thousand workers, I believe. So it's it's around yeah,
one hundred and fifty thousand ishs. Six deaths, oh my god.
Fifty one police injuries, seventy two mining injuries, eleven thousand,

(14:24):
two hundred and ninety one arrests, oh my god, with
eighty three hundred and ninety two charged, Oh my god.
And here's the thing. You have a system, and by
this I mean like the energy system and the economic system.
The system has been designed in such a way that

(14:44):
you have these great swaths of Britain that are one
hundred percent dependent on the mining industry. They've blitzed out
every other kind of business, every other kind of industry,
and it is a dying industry. It's you know, fossil

(15:04):
fuels are a limited supply. There are only so many
of them, and it was already you know, getting more
and more difficult and expensive to mine this coal. So
you have hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of people who
are dependent on this you know, archaic of industry that

(15:27):
is going out. It is, it is, it is dying.
And in order to survive, the coal industry is you know,
squeezing and squeezing and squeezing and exploiting the workers to
the point where they really have I mean, nobody wants
to go on strike. No, it's just like it's just
like immigration, Like nobody wants to leave their home, right right, Nobody.

(15:49):
People want to work. They they they take pride in
their work, and they've these miners have been miners for
generations and generations and generations at this point. And so
as I say that the system and the government have
allowed this to happen, where you have all of these
miners who are completely dependent on the coal industry, which

(16:12):
is very powerful and very wealthy, and so the miners
are put in this position where they could the coal
industry can basically do whatever they want with them. I'm
going to read I found the Wikipedia does a really
good job of giving you all of the blow by
blow of the strike. It is brutal and violent, as

(16:33):
you could probably tell. But there's this one section that
I think really sums up the way that the government
was doing what it was happening here. So I'm just
going to read it verbatim out of Wikipedia, if you'll
allow me. The government strategy, designed by Margaret Thatcher was threefold.
One to build up ample coal stocks. So as the

(16:55):
strike was approaching, the government is pushing the coal industry
to stockpile coal because they see a strike is coming
and they want to keep the people happy. And as
long as the coal doesn't right now, the people are
going to be happy unless they're miners. So that's number one,
build up a stockpile. Number two, to keep as many
miners at work as possible. And that's by not by like,

(17:21):
hey miners, here's some better wages, or hay miners, here's
some better conditions, and we'll listen to you. It's hey miners,
We're not going to let anybody else compete for you know,
anybody other industry come in and take you away from
our nines basically.

Speaker 5 (17:36):
Right, So no wind power or solar power, right.

Speaker 2 (17:39):
Nobody else or even like manufacturing or any literally anything else.
That's how we keep the miners at work as long
as possible. That's number two and number three. And this
is the critical thing to use police to break up
attacks by pickets on working miners. So, I mean it

(18:01):
was very violent. It was extremely violent.

Speaker 5 (18:04):
We're going to see that more of that, by the
way here in America, Yeah, coming up.

Speaker 2 (18:07):
And when the police are the minds own the towns,
so the police are when the police are quote unquote
protecting the minds, they have free reign of these towns
to just go running around intimidating people with the government's permission.

(18:27):
One of the things that I love about this film,
and we're talking first about the original film and then
we'll talk about the it's a film of the show.
It's not like a but it was screened in theaters.
But the two thousand film, I really love the way
that they set the scene of what the environment was like.
I think they do really really it's really palpable what

(18:50):
these folks have been under. The movie opens and the
mind has the strike has been going on for months,
months of not knowing where your next meal was going
to come from. Are you going to lose your house?
How am I going to heat my home? Winter is coming?

Speaker 5 (19:05):
How do I take care of my family? My kids?

Speaker 2 (19:08):
Unbelievable. And Billy lives in a house where his mother
has just died. He's the mother's been dead for about
also about a year, so she dies right before the
strike happens, I think. And he's eleven years old. His
older brother and father are both minors, so they are
both on strike. So that's two incomes down. The household

(19:29):
is and in the film, the grandmother who's the mother's mother,
has Alzheimer's, so on top of everything else, they have
to caregive for this grandmother. And you really get this heaviness,
everything crushing in on this community and they are just
doing their best what ultimately so so the audience who

(19:54):
was watching this, certainly in Britain, would have been keenly
aware of what was going on. Like you say, nineteen
eighty three, we're in this part of the country. They're like, oh, minors,
these are miners and it's the minor strike, and everybody's
out of work and everybody's hungry, but not everybody, you know,
in the US, I didn't know that per se, Like
I was vaguely aware that there was a minor strike,

(20:15):
but we had our own stuff going on here, so
an audience there really would have been aware. Margaret Thatcher
was still alive when this movie came out, Right, So
the movie opens with thet you know, we see Billy
Elliott's house. All these housing would have been built by
the mining company, and there's a there's a news broadcast

(20:40):
playing in the background, and the news broadcast mentions that
Market Thatcher, the prime minister. Boom, Maggie, Margaret Thatcher has
referred to the not just the miners, but labor unions
in general as quote unquote the enemy within. Sound familiar,

(21:06):
that's what she calls them. Yeah, And later she has
a speech famously she has She's going she gives that.
She says that in a speech originally to Supposedly she
originally said it in a speech to something called the
nineteen twenty two Committee, which is I think still an

(21:31):
organization of like the most conservative of conservative like John
Brook Society ministers of Parliament kind of like the kind
of like Seapack. It's the way I sort of think
about it, but yeah, probably more like John Birch Society.
And that was such a rousing success playing to that
crowd that she decided to go even further in a speech,

(21:54):
and she famously wrote this like super incendiary speech where
she not only calls she basically says, if you support
the Labor Party, because she's part of the Conservative Party,
if you support the Labor Party the other party, you
are an enemy of the people. It's basically what she's
saying in that speech. But right before she's going to
give that speech, there's an IRA bombing that was targeted

(22:18):
at her. It didn't get her, obviously, but there's an
attempted assassination by the IRA, and she famously rips up
that speech and writes another one where she sort of
walks back that language. Now the Margaret Thatcher, I guess
like her equivalent of her presidential library, like we would
have here, how's that speech ripped up? With the ripped

(22:41):
up pieces taped together so we can see what she
was going to say. That's how we know. And I
also found her actual handwritten notes from the speech that
she did give to the nineteen twenty two committee. So
I am now reading you right where did it go?
Hold on? It disappeared on me.

Speaker 4 (23:03):
We both love going down rabbit holes, by the way,
that's our favorite thing.

Speaker 2 (23:07):
And this is I'm going to show you on camera.
This is her actual handwritten notes okay, that she spoke
from that on that occasion in nineteen eighty four. So
she says it's notes to herself, like they're prompts for her.
So it says, stand firm, militancy cannot win. Why are

(23:30):
you on strike? Who are you hurting? And then she
goes on to say to talk about how we the
Conservative Party. She's like, attitudes have changed. People are supporting
the miners, Like the miners really had a lot of
support among the public. People really felt for them. And
Margaret is talking to again her fellow Conservatives, and she's

(23:53):
talking about how where is it here? Here it is?
She says that since she came into office, we have
defeated the enemy without meeting the opposition party, right, But

(24:13):
then it says they the enemy within minors leaders Liverpool
and some local authorities just as dangerous and in a
way more difficult to fight. So she identifies specifically labor
unions as quote unquote the enemy within and just as
dangerous to liberty, a scar across the face of our country,

(24:38):
ill motivated, ill intentioned, and politically inspired. So she is
really poisoning her own party. And then later on, you know, yeah,
so she really was very anti union, and you know,
the way this all was set up with the stock
playing and everything was definitely to break the back of

(25:01):
the union, and unfortunately it succeeded when the union when
when the strike ends after almost a year, I just
can't even imagine.

Speaker 4 (25:10):
By like a couple of weeks, you know, it was
almost a year, yeah, March to March.

Speaker 2 (25:19):
And yeah, it was ultimately because the union there was
a lot of like dissension kind of planted in the union.
It was a very very big strike to try and manage,
very unwieldy, and they ultimately couldn't agree on like a
vote what they call a ballot vote, and labor is
a little bit different from from country to country, but yeah,

(25:42):
so it was really that And I don't know, I
can only imagine with this kind of rhetoric going on,
I can only imagine that they also had people in there,
you know, union busters to sew dissent. Then of course
you have scabs who are very very desperate people to
it's been My mom was I work. I work for

(26:04):
a labor union. I do communications for a big labor
union here in California. My mom was an organizer in
the teacher's union when I was a little girl, and
they used to go on strike all the time. Not
for this amount of time, but you know, a few weeks,
a few days, it wasn't that long. And my mom,
I remember, she would pull me out of school, me

(26:27):
and my sister. She would pull us out of elementary
school to be on the strike line with her, because
she said we would learn more on the strike line
than we would in the classroom. And she was fighting
for us in the classroom anyway, right, And she would
make us little signs.

Speaker 5 (26:39):
I love your mother, and I remember so she taught.

Speaker 2 (26:43):
I remember, I have a memory. I don't remember which
strike because there were multiple strikes. And I remember standing
there with my little sign and I remember being like
it was so heavy, but it was like so tiny
compared to the real signs, you know, it's so heavy,
and my mom being like, filter are the scabs yell
at them a little like kindergarten age me, like shaking
my feeling scared, like the little boy in the in

(27:05):
the musical right Scomcoms And so even then I knew
what that was. But it's such a desperate, desperate situation
that again nobody, nobody wants to go on strike.

Speaker 4 (27:22):
No, and man, we also just know you interrupt, but
like we also have a lot of like boycotts going
on here in the States. And no, I don't want
to boycott people. I understand it hurts the workers at
Target or wherever that I'm like deciding not to or
home depot or whatever I'm deciding not to spend my
I get that I worked in retail too. I know
what that's like. I feel bad. But the same time,

(27:43):
ahead it's what they understand economically, like these billionaires that
you know I have lost, there's they've all lost it.
Like if they get average of two hundred billion, a
lot of people lost their wealth, which is why they
had that much anyway, As another conversation to have, but yeah,
it's the it's the one economics, the one thing we
could agree on. It's a heavy weapon, but no one
wants because it'll also be used against you. If you're

(28:05):
not working, you're not paying your bills, you're not paying
your rent, You're gonna get kicked out.

Speaker 2 (28:09):
And it's making it is making some highway here in
the US today. By the way, I'm about to ruin
somebody's morning. Also Trader Joe's.

Speaker 5 (28:18):
Oh no, what did they do?

Speaker 2 (28:20):
I know Auchi Trader Joe's right now, And it's not
it's not like the Target thing, and they're not it's
not a racist thing per se, not directly anyway. But
Trader Joe's is actively I believe. Please correct me if
I'm wrong. I would love to be wrong about Trader
Joe's and go back there. But I believe Trader Joe's
is actively working to dismantle the National Labor Relations Board,

(28:41):
which is very bad for workers if that happens their
pessions board. Is that what you're saying, The National Labor
Relations Board. They're part of the like cabal of industries
trying to break that up so so they can have
free rein to you, you know, do whatever they want
with them.

Speaker 4 (28:59):
It's just disappointing because I know it's one of those
places like Costco, like it's a good job to have.

Speaker 5 (29:04):
They pay them very well. Yeah, yeah, yeah, now they
do now exactly.

Speaker 2 (29:09):
But this is exactly the thing. But and that's great,
and we can We're so privileged and fortunate that we
can do that. You know, so what, Okay, I have
to go to this other store instead. I have to
do a little more research, big deal. I am perfectly
able to do that. People in Britain couldn't just boycott coal, right,
you know, in the winter time.

Speaker 4 (29:30):
We're just not gonna have heat, that's all. How bad
can it get in England in winter? That was not
an option for them.

Speaker 2 (29:39):
And so that that's where like they that's where the
government like really had people, and the coal industry really
had not just the miners but also the public where
they wanted them. I'm sure the public, as I said,
they were very it seems to be what I saw,
very supportive of the miners on the whole. It's also
dependent on the kind of reporting that's going on and

(29:59):
all that kind of stuff. But yeah, they can't boycott coal.
They there's no way, there's no like, well, I'll just
go get such and such like you can't. You can't,
there's no there's no doing that everybody freezes, So yeah,
that's no good. So anyway, I think the movie does
such a great job of not hitting you over the

(30:22):
head with the history of it, like I just did.
But what really giving you the giving you the atmosphere
of what that was like for real people who are
really in the middle of it. It's a fictional town
that we're in, but it's a fig you know. But
I'm sure a lot of people recognized their own towns,

(30:43):
their own families, and anyway, you know, in two thousand,
it's what fifteen years ish later. I mean, that's not
that long. A lot of these people would remember what
it was like and how they felt and how it
panned out, and that must have felt. I mean, I
felt so terrible for everybody just reading about it and

(31:03):
watching this movie. Yeah, I to be there in the
middle of it, and you know your neighbors are going
through that. I just I was telling you, it's just
cart breaking.

Speaker 4 (31:12):
We were talking off the air about the show The Crown,
and I was saying to Margot that Jillian Anderson plays
Margaret Thatcher and I I love her and I see
her and everything that she's in since X Files days.
I'm a stand for her, but I was like, why
are you playing this horrible person? Because I like you
so much and I want you, I always want to
support you.

Speaker 5 (31:31):
But she's awful.

Speaker 2 (31:33):
She's just I'm sorry, I'm again not a fan.

Speaker 4 (31:37):
And it's just like we have coal mining in America.
I mean, it's it's a rough life. It's a really
tough existence. So anybody wants to like just cheapen their
pay for them, I don't understand, like just how much
work they're doing just to keep us comfortable.

Speaker 2 (31:52):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know it's.

Speaker 5 (31:58):
Should be played.

Speaker 4 (31:59):
So going on, should we play the trailer for the movie,
because we have two trailers and one for the music.

Speaker 5 (32:04):
Exist, So let's say the movie and then we'll talk
about this movie.

Speaker 2 (32:07):
Okay, let's let me find this. That's the one.

Speaker 6 (32:10):
Okay, you got robe, Well, don't you stand there, Elliott.

Speaker 3 (32:25):
We love to boogie.

Speaker 7 (32:28):
We love to boogie. We love to boogie, and and two.

Speaker 1 (32:40):
And four.

Speaker 3 (32:42):
I've been thinking of the Royal Ballet School.

Speaker 2 (32:45):
And you're a bit older, not me.

Speaker 7 (32:47):
You boxing that wrestling?

Speaker 3 (32:53):
Not love enough.

Speaker 2 (33:15):
The soundtrack is so great. This is like soundtrack. I mean, okay,
we have so much to talk about. Unsung heroes of
this film, the soundtrack and the wallpaper that house has
the like Billy's mom just how she managed that amount
of style on a on a miner's wife's pay. Kudos,

(33:40):
kudos missus Elliott.

Speaker 4 (33:43):
So it's it's a tiny budget too. This this film
was it was five million is the budget. And let
me just go through the cast. We have Jamie Bell
as Billy Elliott, who's a dream. Just Adam Cooper plays
Billy Older that's another thing, and.

Speaker 2 (33:59):
Well to that.

Speaker 5 (34:01):
Julie Walters is Sandra Wilkinson, she's the teacher. Gary Lewis is.

Speaker 4 (34:07):
Jackie Elliott, who's Billy's dad. I just all these people
are heartbreaking, is he? Jamie Draven as Tony his brother,
the grandma Jean Haywood. I mean it starts with her
Billy like getting her tea and she wanders out of
the house and he has I mean, this movie just
gets me all over the place. Stuart Wells is Michael,

(34:27):
which is his little gay friend, so sweet. Nicola Blackwell's
Debbie Wilkinson, Colin mcleannon as McLachlan as Tom Wilkinson, Mike
Elliott is George Watson, Billy Faine as mister Braithwaite, Jennine
Burkett as Jenny Elliott, Charlie Hardwick as Sheila Breaks, Matthew
James Thomas is Simon, Stephen Mangan as Doctor Crane, and

(34:50):
Patrick Malahyde as the Royal Ballet School Principal.

Speaker 2 (34:54):
So, yeah, I forgot about Stephen Mangott, like he shows
up for just as he's hardly in it. But I
was like, whoa, that's Stephen Megan.

Speaker 1 (35:01):
Oh yeah, look at that.

Speaker 2 (35:03):
Uh. It's an amazing cast. So many children, Yes, and
the kids are good. It's a big, big cast because
you have all the miners, you have all the police officers.
I'm sure some of them played both, and you have
these many children. You have the boxing kids, and you
have the ballet girls. Yeah, it's so good.

Speaker 4 (35:25):
Yeah, so with uh, well'll just go through the plot.
So it's Billy loves to dance and he kind of
his dad wants him to do boxing, you know, with
their free and he thinks.

Speaker 2 (35:37):
There's something I was gonna say, there's something in the
film that's not really addressed in the musical. So and
this is something that uh is it's in my my
parents' neighborhood where they grew up. They they were farm workers.
It's kind of a similar my parents were farm work

(35:58):
because my grandparents were similar kind of situation. Boxing was
a huge mongous is still a humongous deal there because
it's it keeps kids out of trouble. It's a great
it's creative, and a lot of famous boxers come out
of my parents' neighborhood. Is a huge, huge, Yeah, La Coloniea.

(36:20):
Boxing is a huge, huge deal. And in the movie,
Billy's dad was like a big deal boxer in the community.
Like he didn't become professional obviously, he became a coal miner.
And I think his granddad, we established, also was a
big deal boxer. So he's like a legendary. So he's
supposed to be. He's not only like pushing Billy to

(36:42):
do boxing because it's manly, it's what kids do and
all that. There's this great like generational mantle that's being
placed on this child to do to do the boxing,
and he's just not good at it.

Speaker 4 (36:57):
He's like it, he'll like it, he will like it,
and so instead he finds his way to the ballet
studio and he's a natural. He kind of picks up
the steps right away, and he's around a bunch of
girls and they and he's really cute and they like him,
and so it's it. And then Julie Walters becomes you know,
he lost his mother, you know, a year or two before,

(37:18):
so Julie Walters is this wonderful kind of presence in
his life. It's a it's you know, taking the surrogate
of his mother, but being a woman you know of
a certain age, like giving him attention and encouraging him
to be his best and do his best, and scolding
him when he's wrong, and really finding this light. And
turns out the kid is really really talented, and he

(37:38):
he also has a friend named Michael, who happens to
be gay and wears dresses, and you know, and the
dad is and his son and everybody else in town
is on strike, and so there's all this you know,
agitation adjita of people are feeling you know, they're the
money and politically fraud. It's very fraught, and it's in

(37:58):
the mute the way the movie is filmed. It's so
this mining town is so vibe, vibrant, like you could
feel it, like it feels alive, and it's and apparently
all the places have gone, you know, they had to
let it go.

Speaker 5 (38:10):
But it's Billy.

Speaker 4 (38:13):
His dad catches him and he's like, no, you are
gonna be boxing, and Billy fights back and says, no,
this is really what I want to do. And he
eventually he gets a chance. Julie gives him a chance
to audition in London for the ballet the ballet school there,
and he first he screws up.

Speaker 5 (38:32):
He doesn't go. It's probably because of his dad and.

Speaker 2 (38:35):
He he has the first he had the first audition
that she sets up for him. He's gonna go, uh
and I don't remember if he's he's gonna sneak out.
I think he's gonna sneak out to go to that
audition because it's in there. It's in their town, right.
But violence erupts in the strike and his brother gets arrested.
The cops come into their neighborhood and they addressed his

(38:57):
brother right as Billy is be going to this audition,
so he doesn't end up he misses it. And because
he misses it, then the teacher shows up at the
house and is like, this is what's been going on.
I think he's really talented, and the family don't want
to hear it, or the brother really doesn't want to
hear it.

Speaker 5 (39:17):
Both think it's very upset.

Speaker 2 (39:18):
Yeah, the brother gets very upset. And what I love
about and I think the movie and the musical both
to this super successfully, is you kind of you see
everybody's point. You see the teacher's point. Of course, you
see Billy's point. You understand the dad's point, and you
understand the brother's point. The brother is really really involved

(39:39):
in the union his best friend. His best friend has
turned a scab, so you know, it's really it's really
cutthroat out there, and they are. Yes, he realizes, the
brother realizes that cole is a dying industry, but he

(40:01):
also knows they don't have any other alternative but to
work in coal, not for the foreseeable future, and they
can't afford to gamble on this. What sounds absolutely out
of the blue, a pipe dream with a pipe dream,
it's just not does not make any sense to do.

Speaker 4 (40:22):
He's also word about him because of these the gay
implications too, Yes, because it's eighty four eighty five and
the AIDS crisis is just starting to perk up.

Speaker 2 (40:32):
But exactly there is a.

Speaker 5 (40:34):
Homophobia and he doesn't want his brother to get hurt.
He doesn't want his you know.

Speaker 4 (40:37):
So there's the homophobia of like, you know, not understanding
the lifestyle basically, but also just worry about the safety
of his brother. He doesn't want that to happen to him,
which we all can understand, and we can all you
know that everybody's understandable. Eventually, the dad figures out like
it's gonna it's the strike's gonna be over. They're going
to have to give up at some point, and they're

(40:58):
going to put their eggs in the back skin of Billy,
and like they're gonna put their energy in their time,
Like we're gonna we don't have time to feel depressed
or sorry for ourselves about this. Let's focus more on
like his future. Let's like, let's set him up for
success as best that we can. It's so it's so
heart heartwarming. And so then Billy goes and then he
does audition, but he gets in a fight with a

(41:21):
kid and hits him.

Speaker 2 (41:24):
It's wonderful, Like they show up and that they established
that the dad has never been to London, he's never
left his down, he's never left this mining down, and
all this time so not only are they in London
for the first time, but here they are at this
ritzy fiwitsy, very posh ballet school, the Royal Ballet School,

(41:47):
with all of these middle class and upper middle class
definitely not working class parents and kids who have no
idea what this family has done just to get the
bus fare there.

Speaker 4 (42:00):
Yes, yes, and the the entire town gets into it,
like to raise money to help them.

Speaker 2 (42:05):
Yeah. So then Billy it's different than in the musical,
right because in the movie, the town puts on a
benefit for him, which I thought was going to happen
in the musical, but it doesn't. I thought, oh, we'll
get to see this whole benefit show in that, but
now they don't. They go different route. But anyway, in
the in the original film, the town throws a little

(42:25):
benefit like a cabaret and and that's how they get
the the busfair together for Billy and his dad to
go into London to go to the audition.

Speaker 4 (42:37):
Yeah, and he and then he they he's talking and
they're like, look, we can't have you here punching people
like this is not what we do here, like giving
him a chance, Like, dude, what's really going on? And
he's so, he's so upset, and he's just a kid
and he's just trying to get through it. And his
dad is doing his best to try to help his
son through it. And then they ask him. One of

(42:57):
them says, what do you feel like when you're damning?
Because they want to just figure out, like because he's
got some talent and somebody there his teacher writes this
glowing letter and they're like to try to fail out
what is this kid? Because all they see is this angry,
sullen kid. And then he starts talking about I feel
this electricity.

Speaker 5 (43:14):
And and then and it's like I'm gonna start crying
all over Itain.

Speaker 2 (43:18):
Okay, let's play the clip and we could just cry
in the background.

Speaker 8 (43:21):
Yeah, we shall let you know in due course.

Speaker 2 (43:33):
Just one last question.

Speaker 9 (43:35):
Can I ask you.

Speaker 2 (43:36):
Billy, what does it feel like when you're darncing?

Speaker 10 (43:55):
So it feels good, so shifting h But once I
get going, then I like forget everything.

Speaker 11 (44:07):
M hm.

Speaker 10 (44:12):
Short of disappear, so disappear like I feel a change
in me old body.

Speaker 3 (44:23):
Mm hmm.

Speaker 10 (44:24):
Let this fire on me body.

Speaker 12 (44:28):
Just there.

Speaker 10 (44:30):
Flying like a bird like electricity.

Speaker 2 (44:49):
Let him in.

Speaker 1 (44:51):
Masters, let me give him a chance.

Speaker 5 (44:58):
Just give him that chance.

Speaker 2 (45:03):
And it's so wonderful.

Speaker 4 (45:05):
He's so good in this movie because if he doesn't work,
this movie does not work. And there's some great people
and great scenes. It's not just all wonderful Killie. It's
a really great strong cast. I can't say enough about Michael,
the kid who plays Michael, who's his best friend.

Speaker 5 (45:21):
What I love and I love how.

Speaker 4 (45:23):
It's handled because you know, he's his friend. Michael likes
to put on dresses sometimes. You know, he don't care,
he's just you know, but he understands this is the
stuff they'll get you beat up from Eddy where else.
And then and I'm sure this happens all the time.
He has a best friend, and then he's like in
love with his best friend. Michael has a crush on
him because your feelings are all over the place and

(45:44):
the hormones are nice to him, and he's nice to him.
He doesn't judge him, and he doesn't you know, he
doesn't like act like you know, he's completely Oh you're
into dresses?

Speaker 2 (45:53):
Cool?

Speaker 5 (45:53):
All right. He's such a good kid. He's such a
sweet such a sweet boy. Do we have that scene
was like he says goodbye it's a oh gosh when
he says goodbye. This is it's a simple thing, but
it just.

Speaker 2 (46:04):
Had let me see if I can find it. Because
I I agreed like this spoiler alert. I like this
better than the musical a little bit, although I loved
the musical, and one of the reasons was was this
scene all the word Billy Elliott film says goodbye.

Speaker 1 (46:26):
Oh Dune, and boy, oh.

Speaker 7 (46:31):
My boy, can you stop being an older woman?

Speaker 13 (46:50):
See that?

Speaker 5 (47:11):
There's just so many ways that could be handled.

Speaker 2 (47:15):
The bit, yeah, they fully see that happen. Yeah, and
they're like, okay, let's go. I mean, and then then
the part where the brother is running after the I
just because that's not in the excuse me, that's not
in the musical at all. I just yeah, it just yeah,
I just want a movie with just the brother and

(47:36):
the dad. Could we have a movie with just the
brother and the dad and do that weekend?

Speaker 4 (47:40):
Yes, but yeah, maybe they opened a pub or something
like I'm just trying to think I would love that
for them.

Speaker 5 (47:47):
But yeah, he yeah, he gets the knee, he gets
his chance. And then in the end, So there's this
amazing production of Swan Lake and it took over the world.
So this was in nineteen ninety five, and it was
a reimagination and we were saying, like, what if the
men were what we had more men involved in Swan Lake?

(48:09):
What are the men up to? Please tell us? But
I'll allow it.

Speaker 1 (48:12):
I allow it, and but I'll allow it.

Speaker 5 (48:15):
I'll allow it here. So there's there's a ballet.

Speaker 4 (48:18):
There's Swan Lake, and it has men dancing as swans,
and then it's Adam Cooper is the dancer. That's a
real dancer from the production. And it came out on
ninety five and it's one of the most successful ballet
tours ever and they've been touring with it every few years.

Speaker 2 (48:36):
It is if you ever get it, it is beautiful.

Speaker 5 (48:38):
It's gorgeous. I saw that, Yes, Yeah, had a yeah
me too.

Speaker 2 (48:42):
Yeah, And I actually I kind of think it works
better that.

Speaker 5 (48:46):
Way it does. It does work. I'm not gonna lie.
I think it is.

Speaker 4 (48:50):
I've seemed swan like a thousand times, so I'm great
with the reimagination.

Speaker 5 (48:54):
But yeah, in the movie, I guess we have like
that clip too. Week play. Oh, let's just look last play.

Speaker 2 (49:01):
Because the way the movie ends and this is different
than in the musical. In the musical, we end at
the scene we just saw or just talked about, where
Billy says goodbye to his best friend Michael and is
getting on the bus to London, and that's the end
of the musical. In the film, there's an epilogue where
we fast forward twenty years later and Billy's dad again.

(49:24):
I just can't with Billy's dad and the brother. I
just so there they are. They're on this subway, and
a contemporary audience would have realized, oh, that's a subway
from today. You would instantly have recognized that that's not
a London tube from the nineteen eighties. This is today now.
And there's older Tony, Billy's brother, and Billy's dad, Jackie,

(49:50):
a little like a little shoe, polish gray on the temple,
a little baking.

Speaker 5 (49:54):
Powder or whatever, the flower.

Speaker 2 (49:57):
And they are taking the they are taking the train
into London and they you see them show up at
the again, this big fancy theater and just get to tissues.
Just get them, just get.

Speaker 3 (50:10):
Them now, please, family function.

Speaker 2 (51:43):
I mean, I can't. Okay, there's so much going on here,
you guys, if you haven't seen this version, Okay, I
have to like collect myself. So, first of all, there's
a scene in the film Early On.

Speaker 5 (52:03):
This is where this episode is brought to you by
play Okay nexteen next tissues.

Speaker 2 (52:10):
There's this scene where Billy. It's Early On and Billy
is in the car with his dance teacher, Julie Walters,
and he asks if he can put a play of
music and she's like, oh, yeah, go ahead, and he
pops in a tape and it's Swan Lake and he's

(52:31):
hearing it for the very first I'm gonna cry. He's
hearing it for the very first time, and he asks
his dance teacher lake. He knows it's a ballet. He
knows it's Swan Lake. He's heard of Swan Lake, but
he doesn't know. He says, is there a story about this?
And so she tells him she has to him the
whole story of Swan Lake and that it doesn't have
a happy ending. And you see little Billy just like

(52:56):
get totally absorbed in the music and carried away. And
here he's on a smelly, gross, rusty fairy in the
car with his dance teacher, like it's a real yucky
It must have smelled just awful, but he is just transformed,
you know, just listening to this music and he's just

(53:16):
completely involved in the music and lost in it. So
there's that part. So the teacher's not there, but she's
there because it's Swan Lake, right. And then he's about
he's about to step out, and the guy, the stage hand,
stage manager says to him, Billy, your family's here. And

(53:38):
it's the dad and the brother, but it's also Michael
and his Parker, Michael and his partner because they're family too,
and the.

Speaker 5 (53:47):
Best friends this whole time, and they's gone through everything together.

Speaker 2 (53:52):
And then they had each other. Teacher's also there. The
teacher is also there, part of her family in the music, right,
So it's look, it's it's.

Speaker 4 (54:04):
I get it can seem so like so cloying or whatever,
because I mean it is a it's a fish out
of water story, it's a kid discovering it and there's
all these things. But it's done so well and it's
done with respect to the audience.

Speaker 5 (54:19):
They can't tell us anything they know, they really don't.
We got to do it on.

Speaker 4 (54:23):
Our own, and it's it's really worth it.

Speaker 2 (54:28):
I think the film and the musical is pretty successful.
This is again another reason why I prefer the film
the original film.

Speaker 9 (54:39):
The movie I feel like does a really good job
of it always has an edge and a grittiness to it,
where there's from the very beginning until he gets on
that bus, there's this under lying sense of bubbling doom

(55:03):
and violence that's going on.

Speaker 2 (55:07):
You're excited for Billy. You know that this is the
right thing. His family knows that this is the right thing.
Even his little best friend who's going to miss him
so much, they know. And he gets on that bus
and you think, what are the dad and the brother
are gonna do? Now?

Speaker 12 (55:27):
What?

Speaker 2 (55:27):
First of all, if nothing else, who's looking after Grandma?
Because that was Billy's job that alone? How are they
going to survive? What is going to happen? There's no way.
I don't think there's no way. There's still mining coal
in nineteen ninety five when when they go to see Billy.

(55:48):
So something they've gotten through it somehow and something you know,
but they obviously have had to been through more difficulty.
It didn't get better right away. So, like I said,
I want a movie with just Tony and the dad
and the other piece that I really love that's in

(56:08):
this and isn't really in the musical is The movie
opens with It's so wonderful. The movie opens with Billy
jumping on the bed because he's got this energy to move.
He has this passion to move, but he doesn't know
what to do with it, and boxing isn't doing it
for him right, And he's listening on his headphones. He's

(56:31):
sneaky listening as we all have done when we were
this age, but it's not a thing that kids do anymore,
to his brother's records. So I think it's really interesting
in the movie that the music that's so inspiring him
to move, and when the teacher asked him to bring
music in, it's his brother's music. Bring t Rex t.

Speaker 5 (56:53):
Rex, which mark Mark Boland.

Speaker 2 (56:57):
You see the brother listening like the brother when he
comes home from these awful, awful days that he's putting
in just brutal, black eyes and stuff. And what does
he do. He puts on his headphones and he escapes
into his music. And that's it. So that's a piece
that I feel like is missing from the musical that

(57:19):
But I don't know how you would convey that exactly
in that sort of scenario.

Speaker 3 (57:26):
I just.

Speaker 2 (57:29):
I mean, what can you say it's perfect? It's absolutely perfect.
I love this movie so much. Yeah, so much. I've
been crying for days.

Speaker 4 (57:36):
Yes, So should we transition to the musical the twenty fourteen.

Speaker 2 (57:46):
What we looked at was the twenty fourteen filming, but
it started in like two thousand and five.

Speaker 4 (57:51):
Huh, right, it came out in two thousand and five.
I'm just saying that this particular recording is from twenty fourteen.

Speaker 2 (57:58):
And yeah, it's like an anniverse reproduction.

Speaker 4 (58:01):
Right, And there's it's it was. It was aired live
and then it was also in cinemas around the UK,
so there was a big, big audience for this.

Speaker 5 (58:10):
So let's see.

Speaker 2 (58:11):
Oh here I found the trailer for it. Here we go.

Speaker 8 (58:13):
Yeah music, it's a few minutes.

Speaker 7 (58:41):
Take me up.

Speaker 13 (58:44):
And told me gently raised me up and told me Hi,
through the night unto darkness, will commadi when we will fly,
come on soon, get over it.

Speaker 5 (59:07):
It's all part of the gig.

Speaker 14 (59:10):
Given me all asadle turn on the old bad there
won't be time to.

Speaker 13 (59:18):
Shilly shalli give it back to him.

Speaker 12 (59:22):
Well you won a woman off theme out. I'm what
like's all about. Given the old Red.

Speaker 7 (59:31):
And Jo.

Speaker 15 (59:56):
Brosnan warm wallogethers, this one all out that one when
you starting as one all out for mix erase start
the fun tell me one where we started as.

Speaker 12 (01:00:08):
One wall all out together, where we stand this one
all out that one.

Speaker 5 (01:00:12):
When you said as one for rex erase, the.

Speaker 12 (01:00:16):
Fun tell me one, when we said that's one all
together stands that's.

Speaker 16 (01:01:00):
Electricity spot in sid.

Speaker 4 (01:01:07):
I know, well we don't have there is One of

(01:01:39):
the Billy Elliott's that's been in the past is Tom Holland.

Speaker 5 (01:01:42):
Who's our.

Speaker 4 (01:01:45):
Because a lot of people talk about that and I
could picture it. He's he's super talented. I think he's
the one who does Rihanna's umbrella. When they did the
it was the that that that singing show that they
they thinking, should you have the lip sick show or
the dance and all that stuf. So this opens in
two thousand and five and it was Elton John saw
the movie and then went up to the stream writer

(01:02:07):
and said, this should be a musical, like I'll write
the music, but you know we should and so and
we see so many musicals now that come from a
show from a movie. Yeah, and they're fine. They're usually fine.
I mean, you know the material, you know the the beat,
so there's that comfort when you go in.

Speaker 5 (01:02:25):
But do they what can they do with it? What
can they actually exactly to you know?

Speaker 4 (01:02:29):
And I feel like they do a really good job
here of including the entire cast, and everybody has their
moment to shine. The grandmother's scene, I would be very
surprised when the grandmother sings in this wonderful Oh love Me.

Speaker 2 (01:02:47):
It's really good. That's such a good number. It's yeah
that the songs are very the I was impressed, and
I think one of the reasons it's so good is
that when the source material is excellent, that always helps.
But also, like with Color Purple, right, that was a
wonderful musical as well. But also you have so much

(01:03:13):
of the original team that made the original film involved
in this. So you have this amazing team that put
together this great work of art, plus Elton John, that guy,
that guy. So yeah, of course it's going to be great. Yeah,
I think, I think I like the choices that they

(01:03:34):
made on the whole. There are some differences. The grandmother
is not as ill in the musical as she is
in the original film, and she does I love her number.
I was, I was so and I was very surprised,
Like there were things that I thought I would see
that I didn't see, and things that they added that

(01:03:56):
I was like, oh okay, but I mean I would
saying before we got on the air. This kid, whoever
they how do they find so many kids to do
this ridiculous role? He is dancing and dancing and dancing
and singing and dancing and flying and dancing, and then

(01:04:18):
there's an encore and we have like three more numbers. Right.

Speaker 4 (01:04:23):
I saw this on Broadway when it came out. It
was very, very successful. This ran for until twenty sixteen.
I believe in London s why and I can see
because it's it's it's spectacular.

Speaker 5 (01:04:37):
Should we show a couple of these clips from the.

Speaker 2 (01:04:40):
Musical Let's show, let us show. I'm going to show
that the Solidarity number.

Speaker 7 (01:04:53):
Here we go, time says.

Speaker 12 (01:05:08):
Dody.

Speaker 5 (01:05:08):
Want to see you see before that's just stup beyond
the time.

Speaker 3 (01:05:14):
Want to some more?

Speaker 12 (01:05:17):
I don't be shaite. You're when you along the miging
line and watching miss Solidarity Solidarity Solary forever A one
for all Solidarity forever. So Solidarity Solidarity forever for one

(01:05:42):
am for all Solidarity forever.

Speaker 1 (01:05:47):
Girls to the senner.

Speaker 2 (01:05:49):
Great, here's the lesson.

Speaker 7 (01:05:51):
You've all the dagging fall pirouettes.

Speaker 1 (01:05:53):
God help us Great.

Speaker 5 (01:05:55):
I want Joel to find.

Speaker 3 (01:05:57):
A spot on that book.

Speaker 5 (01:06:00):
M that'll be this wall Susan Hawk's, and I want
you to.

Speaker 11 (01:06:05):
Focus on that spot. Do not take your eyes of
that spot, right, and you turn your bodies around and
your head follows. But your head is the last thing
you leave, but the first thing to come back. All
of a sudden, everybody in the sunner, thank you, mister Braithwait.

Speaker 1 (01:06:23):
And here we go and want.

Speaker 17 (01:06:40):
That's Elliot Hannah. Who's the I mean, he's he's wonderful.
I like the I like the use of mister Braithwait.
I really do love the way that they use everybody
in the production really really well.

Speaker 2 (01:06:54):
And I really like that they because it's the film
is not hitting you over the head with anything, right,
so so they're there. They're themes and all that are
very nuanced in the film and just kind of they
all just kind of blend into the whole general atmosphere.
And I love that the musical kind of picks out.

Speaker 12 (01:07:16):
That you have.

Speaker 2 (01:07:20):
This this miners. You know that the miners who are
desperately trying to stick together and and have some kind
of a gain in this untenable situation. And ultimately what
undoes that miners strike is that they can't they can't
come together. They can't as a union come together to

(01:07:40):
pass the vote they need to pass. And but that
the but the community come does come together to set
Billy up for success in this one way, like that
they that that they managed to do, like in the
in the wake of this crushing defeat, they still managed
to put pull it all together and and do this

(01:08:02):
one thing. So that does give you like a little
bit of hope for them, Like if they did this,
so they maybe they can come together and recover from
this awful strike that they've just all lived through, and
the and the you know, I can't even imagine what
they must have been subjected to after they went back
to work and the kind of retaliation that they probably faced.

(01:08:23):
I don't really want to think about it. So so
I love that the that the musical, it has a
lot of that. From the very beginning we open that
tiny little blonde kid, the tiny little blonde boy that
comes in and out with the and he plays the
grim Reaper.

Speaker 4 (01:08:40):
Yes, the merry, the merry Christmas, Margaret Thatcher, Oh my,
so uh if you're not familiar with the with the show,
but we're assuming that you are. If you're not familiar
with the show. There's the Chris in the movie, the dad,
who's a tough guy.

Speaker 2 (01:09:00):
He's a miner and he was a boxer, Like these
are tough, tough guys, the dad and Tony, and it's
Christmas during the minor strike. They've been on strike for
months and months at that point, and the dad is
has to bust up his dead wife's beloved piano to

(01:09:23):
burn for fuel so they don't freeze to death on Christmas.
And they're sitting there around this meager little fire that
they have and they are, you know, putting piano keys
on the fire, and the dad just bursts into tears.

(01:09:47):
He's been holding it together all this time and he
just breaks and it is just and the whole families
just don't know what to do. They're just sitting there like, yeah, here, yeah,
it's so And it's a very intimate, just that very

(01:10:09):
close family moment that we're being let in on in
the musical. It's very different in the musical. They're having
you know, again, they're having a benefit like a pantomime
for the miners with the raffle. They're trying to feed people,
they're trying to raise funds to keep these families going.
And so it's a big public thing, this Christmas celebration,

(01:10:32):
and which makes more sense. You know, it would be
weird if they did it like they did it in
the movie. So I agree with that. And I'm trying
to find the note about when Margaret Thatcher died. Oh
but when Margaret Thatcher died. So this whole song is
is lampooning Margaret Thatcher. And we're so happy that it's
Christmas because it's one day closer to when you're gonna die.

(01:10:54):
And there's this adorable little blonde kid who's like three
or four years old. He comes in and out of
the musical and in this scene he's like playing a
little teeny grim reaper with a side like Now, this
show ran for so long that it was running when
Margaret Thatcher died twenty thirteen.

Speaker 5 (01:11:14):
She died in.

Speaker 2 (01:11:15):
Twenty thirteen and before the show started, and by this time,
the show has been a hit for a long time.
People know the music and all that, so they're coming
to see what they already know it's not like a
brand new debut and they don't know what's coming. But
before the show opens, the producers come out and are like, okay, listen, everybody,

(01:11:35):
we've got this song in the film, in the musical,
and you all know it, and but you know, in
line of the fact that she has just died, we
do have we have a we have an alternative number
that we've prepared. You know, So if you all think
it's way too soon and we shouldn't do this number
celebrating Margaret, that's your's dead, show of hands, we'll do

(01:11:57):
the other number, you know, that's fine. And three people
raise their hands. Three people in the must have been
packed house, so they were like, okay, guess we're doing
this number.

Speaker 5 (01:12:11):
They went ahead and dish she deserves nothing less.

Speaker 2 (01:12:17):
So yeah, yeah, it's And we don't get the epilogue
no of him being the swan and Swan Lake, but.

Speaker 5 (01:12:29):
There's that scene.

Speaker 4 (01:12:30):
It's a scene with a chair that's really well done
where the kid is dancing and then they has like
an adult version of him and they're both dancing with
this chair and then at one point he puts him
on the thing to help him fly around the stage
and it's really well done, and it's it's beautiful and
they're playing swan Lake music and it's it's Tchaikovsky, and it's.

Speaker 2 (01:12:52):
Yeah, it does a lot. It does a lot of
the same It does a lot of the same job
of that epilogue in the original film, but we don't
have that setup of him with the teacher hearing the
story right. So and and just like the minor strike,
swan Lake has an unhappy ending. So there's a lot

(01:13:16):
of like layers in the film that aren't quite here
in the musical. But that's okay. It's a gorgeous scene
where we have the older billy dancing with the little
billy and they're wearing the same clothes and I'm crying.
It's it's very well done, and it's the Swan Lake
And also, i mean, let's face it, most people who

(01:13:38):
were seeing this had seen the movie. They know the
significance of that. You kind of don't have to tell them.
They kind of know already, just like they sort of
know about the strike, and certainly in Britain they would
have known what that was. Like people who lived through
it would definitely still be you know, watching this live,
so you know, I'm not mad at it for that reason.

(01:14:01):
It's super good. The music is that thinding, it's I
think the staging is wonderful. We have a lot of
numbers where everybody is dancing. Some of them are minors,
some of them are cops, some of them are little
girl ballerinas, and some of them are but they and
they all super well done.

Speaker 5 (01:14:20):
It's just really well done. Do you want to play
There's one that Billy Elliott musical and it's Electricity.

Speaker 2 (01:14:31):
Ah, yes, I see it.

Speaker 16 (01:14:42):
I can't really explain it. I haven't got the words.
It's a feeling that you can't control.

Speaker 1 (01:15:03):
I suppose it's.

Speaker 16 (01:15:04):
Like forgetting, losing who you are, and at the same
time something makes sure. It's like that there's some music
playing in your ear and I'm listening, and I'm listening,

(01:15:25):
and then I disappear and then I feel a change,
like a fire deep inside, something bursting me, wide open,
impossible to hide, and suddenly I'm flying, flying like a
bird like electricity. Electricity sparks inside of me, and I'm free, free.

Speaker 2 (01:16:04):
I know, I'm just that's Nipper Walmsley as the dad.
He does a great job. We should say also that
in that scene we were just talking about where Billy
is doing the ballet in his mind to Swan Lake
with the older version of himself. That's an actor who
was one of the original Billies. Oh okay, and that's

(01:16:25):
I think that's why there's so many Billies because because
they are children. Yeah, it would be I think maybe
illegal to force them to do a role like this
night after night after night and twice on Sundays. So
they have multiple Billies for every production.

Speaker 5 (01:16:44):
Well, how do you find them? But I guess they're
out there.

Speaker 2 (01:16:47):
I mean, obviously they found a ton of them.

Speaker 4 (01:16:50):
We should you just popped in my head, we should
do newsies if they ever cover, like, make a movie
from that because I've never seen it. I've seen the
original movie, yeah a bunch of times. Yeah, same, but
I've never seen but I had friends who saw it
on Broadway and said it was amazing.

Speaker 2 (01:17:02):
It was, Yeah, I heard I heard it very good things.

Speaker 5 (01:17:06):
Do we want to play just one more clip?

Speaker 12 (01:17:08):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (01:17:08):
So it's Jamie Bell he won the BAFTA and I'm
gonna I know, and Goldie Hawn is giving him his flowers.

Speaker 2 (01:17:18):
Yeah, and the what's his name? He plays the Dad
Louis Gary Lewis. Gary Lewis was also nominated for a BAFTA.
It's an outstanding performance that he gives as well. But
let's watch Jamie Bell win a BAFTA.

Speaker 13 (01:17:46):
This is a really great I just oh God, Okay,
there's a lot of great guys up for this.

Speaker 7 (01:17:55):
It goes to Jamie Bell. H m hm, wow.

Speaker 14 (01:18:36):
This is actually the I think. I think this is
the first time been actually nominated for Best Actor and
to be nominated with all these guys like Tom Hanks
and Russell Crown, Jeffrey Ross and mc dougas and all
these guys, and I was kind of thinking not bothering coming.

Speaker 3 (01:18:54):
Because I just know what is the point.

Speaker 14 (01:18:57):
And lots of people give me a tremendous opportunity. Stephen Dolgey,
the director Billy Ellick, who chose me out of two
thousand boys after I went to about seven auditions. So
thanks a lot for that, Stephen. Julie Waters, a tremendous
star who I had the honor of working with. John Finn,
Greg Breman from working Title in Tager Respect, Tim Bevan

(01:19:20):
and Eric Felner from Working Title. Russell Crowe said that
I have to thank him. So thanks a lot, Matte,
and really thank you BAFT as well for this tremendous award.
Thank you all.

Speaker 3 (01:19:40):
Thanks a lot.

Speaker 5 (01:19:53):
Fourteen.

Speaker 2 (01:19:56):
Now, Goldie, if you could just go out there and
really american it up.

Speaker 5 (01:20:01):
I love her, ditsy bye.

Speaker 1 (01:20:04):
Did you see her?

Speaker 4 (01:20:05):
Andrew Garfield and her at the Oscars this year? Hit
so he brought they they Oh it was so beautiful.
They were giving an award and he walks out Goldiehan
and he lost his mother to cancer a couple of
years ago.

Speaker 3 (01:20:19):
Oh, I didn't know that.

Speaker 4 (01:20:20):
Yeah, came pancreatic cancer the same and he said to her, Goldiehan,
he said, my mother was your biggest fan.

Speaker 3 (01:20:29):
Ah.

Speaker 1 (01:20:30):
I didn't see it.

Speaker 2 (01:20:31):
I didn't watch the OCAR. I hadn't seen any of
the films except Wicked.

Speaker 5 (01:20:34):
So Goldiehn is just something we can all agree on.

Speaker 2 (01:20:37):
Is a beautiful yes person, and yes she is.

Speaker 5 (01:20:41):
All of this is just is that's all making me cry.

Speaker 2 (01:20:44):
I know, it's a lot. It's so it's so great.
They're both They're both really I loved them both. I
really did. And I really loved the use of the
newsreel and the opening and like the prologue to the
thing to put us in the give us a sense

(01:21:07):
of the history of of the miners labor movement and
how it had been again chipped away at and eroded
and put in this in this really awful position or
where they were, where they were in the eighties. And yeah,
it's super well done. Of course that it's Elton John.
You know what am I going to say it's terrible music.

Speaker 3 (01:21:28):
It's not.

Speaker 2 (01:21:29):
No, it's great.

Speaker 1 (01:21:30):
It's great.

Speaker 2 (01:21:30):
It's great music. Of course it is. And because we
have our original writer doing the lyrics, doing the book,
of course we're going to capture a lot of that
same spirit and.

Speaker 5 (01:21:45):
Subtlety we didn't know.

Speaker 2 (01:21:47):
A lot of it does come come into this musical,
which I really appreciate.

Speaker 4 (01:21:51):
But they in the in the movie, and the mother
stuff also gets to me. But yeah, you know there's
a there's a letter that she wrote him and he's
supposed to open it was eighteen and he he opened
it already, like I would do the same thing. And
it's so in the movie. It's in the musical they
actually have an act an actress come out and sing
as his mother.

Speaker 5 (01:22:12):
And it's like stop it.

Speaker 2 (01:22:13):
I know, I know, I can't. I cannot. I can't
get through. I can't get through that scene in the
in either version. I cannot because he's got it memorized.

Speaker 5 (01:22:23):
Yeah, the letter he's not supposed to open yet because
he's like, he just misses her so much, and he
just yeah, and it's just so, it's it's it's really
it's good tears. It's good tears.

Speaker 2 (01:22:34):
Yeah, it's super good. Yeah, they're both, and I also somehow, Look,
I just watched them back to back. I literally just
watched them back to back, finished the first one and
immediately started watching the musical, and I thoroughly enjoyed both experiences.

Speaker 5 (01:22:52):
I'm gonna so if.

Speaker 2 (01:22:53):
You're yeah, if you're a fan of one, you will
love the other one. If you've not seen either one,
if you've seen one but not the other, you you
I was missing out. I did not realize how super
good this musical was. I still like the other one
a little better.

Speaker 7 (01:23:08):
I'm going to.

Speaker 5 (01:23:09):
Actually I'm going to give them not to the musical,
then I'm gonna I'm just going to give it that
little extra.

Speaker 2 (01:23:14):
I get it, I get it. It just it's it's
a tight it's a tight one for me. But I
think I just love that. I don't know, I like that.
I think I like the the locations to do a
lot for me.

Speaker 4 (01:23:26):
And the soundtrack is incredible. You know, town called Malice
and they.

Speaker 2 (01:23:30):
All see that. That for me is that put That's
what put me over the top with the whole town
called Malice thing, Like, how do you beat that? That
song is so class that moment.

Speaker 5 (01:23:38):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (01:23:38):
Yes, it's got great music and it and it's beautiful.
And that's the filming and the kitchens, the art direction,
and like the homes and I mean they're just home.

Speaker 2 (01:23:47):
I love their home. Yeah, there are houses that were built.
There are houses that were built, and there's like they
have some of these preserved as museums in Britain that
you can go and visit. They built homes for the
miners at a time where you could tell they had
a lot more respect for the miners. Yeah, you know.

(01:24:07):
But one of the things that I loved, I mean
I was so moved and did not expect and I
just loved the way that they did this in the
musical and when I saw it when I was watching
it in the movie, because I forgot about that this
was even in the movie. There's a scene in the movie,
they've I can't remember, it's after the strike is over,
and I think it's it's either right after they've put

(01:24:30):
Billy on the bus or right before they put Billy
on the bus and the strike is over, and you
see the strikers going back to work and they all
cram into the elevator and they're going down into the
earth to breathe that awful no masks, no ppe of
any kind. Down they go, and they're doing it for Billy,

(01:24:51):
and I'm crying, and I thought, well, how on earth
are you? I love the way they did that scene
in the musical.

Speaker 5 (01:25:00):
It's really really beautiful.

Speaker 2 (01:25:03):
It's like goosebumps. It's they you know, they the sound
of them going down and down and down, it's so moving.

Speaker 5 (01:25:12):
It's really well done. Wow, Yeah, it's gorgeous.

Speaker 2 (01:25:16):
I just.

Speaker 5 (01:25:18):
Yeah, no, no ites, I'm totally you know.

Speaker 2 (01:25:20):
I love them both. But to me, the the town
called Malice, Yes, I got jam.

Speaker 5 (01:25:31):
It's it's all great though, it's wonderful, love it.

Speaker 2 (01:25:34):
I absolutely love it. I just think it's I think
it's wonderful, super well done, both of them, just beautifully done.
Those kids, where did they find all of these children?
I just the little girl.

Speaker 4 (01:25:47):
We didn't even talk about Julie Walter's little girl in
the movie. Oh, the girlfriend who wants them to stay
because she likes him.

Speaker 5 (01:25:55):
I don't blame her. Yeah, I know, I would have
been the same way.

Speaker 4 (01:25:59):
They have them pillow fight and then there's like feathers
over and then she's like touching his face like there's aye.

Speaker 3 (01:26:06):
I do.

Speaker 5 (01:26:06):
I love it, all of it.

Speaker 2 (01:26:07):
I love it all. It's also good.

Speaker 5 (01:26:09):
That's also good to all. So yeah, I mean, get
into it, get some tissues. You have to game it.
Have some tissues ready, Yeah, glass of water, you're gonna
need those things.

Speaker 2 (01:26:20):
But yeah, don't don't do this like right before picture day.

Speaker 5 (01:26:23):
Yes, Or you're gonna be on a zoom call.

Speaker 2 (01:26:27):
Oh yeah, don't be on a zoom call. Oh my gosh,
I've just been crying and any makeup. Yeahs, Like, there's
no point, I'm just gonna cry it all off. Uh yeah,
super good, super good. Loved them both, great, great, great choice.
I wish I could have found that original play. I
would love to have just even seen a little bit
of it. I also, I want to mention read. I
mean it's at the end now, but there was also

(01:26:48):
a book that he was looking at. It was and
I think it was written the thirties. There was another strike.

Speaker 5 (01:26:54):
I tried to find the Stars look Down.

Speaker 4 (01:26:56):
As a novel by A. J. Cronin, and that's where
you originally got the idea and then he's transposed it
to the eighties and then picked that.

Speaker 5 (01:27:04):
So yeah, it's all just wonderful, just wonderful.

Speaker 3 (01:27:11):
Yep.

Speaker 4 (01:27:12):
So I don't think for our next one we're going
to cry as much. I don't know though, probably not,
but maybe we're in unprecedented times here here, folks, we
are we are we because we have done a movie
to a movie.

Speaker 2 (01:27:31):
We have done it. We have done a musical adapted
from a non musical before, and as we said with Hairspray,
this is arguably a movie adapted from an album. Arguably
it's a Jobby Tommy Tommy was that. Definitely Tommy was that.
But this is definitely a jukebox musical like this is.

(01:27:53):
If you're going to give an example of a jukebox musical,
it's gonna be Mamaea.

Speaker 5 (01:27:58):
That's what we're covering next.

Speaker 4 (01:27:59):
So it's Abba Gold, We're gonna We're gonna go things,
all things Abba because we all need Abba in these
in these dark times. And then we're gonna go right
into Mama Mia. And this movie the first movie, not
the one to share, but it's the first one.

Speaker 2 (01:28:14):
It's with Julie Walters again.

Speaker 5 (01:28:16):
Julie Walter's Meryl Streep is in there.

Speaker 4 (01:28:19):
It's it's got amazing people, and it's got the Abba
music that we all love, and it's gonna be super
super great. Cause so that's coming up next. But as
you can tell, we're always looking for ideas and suggestions.
You know, we do all kinds of books and movies
all year round. You don't have to just pick a month,
So please reach out to us all those places I
mentioned at the top of the show. Our email once
again is Book Versus Movie Podcast at gmail dot com.

(01:28:40):
And if you'd like some stickers, send us your address
via that email and we'll drop them in the mail
for you and Margo. Where can they find you?

Speaker 2 (01:28:47):
You can find me online at Coloniabook dot com and
all my social media call outs are at She's Not
Your Mama? And where can They Find You?

Speaker 4 (01:28:53):
You can find me at Brooklynfitchick dot com. I'm at
Brooklynfichick for Threads and Instagram, and I'm at Brooklyn Margo
for TikTok and Blue and at my YouTube it's at
my name, Margot Donahue. All right, everybody, I'm gonna go
get another box of Kleenex and uh we'll be back
soon with a new episode. Thank you so much for
listening to the Book Versus Movie Podcast. We're a part

(01:29:14):
of the Spreaker podcast network. Go to spreaker dot com
to check out all of the shows they offer. We
askedid you make sure to subscribe to our podcast Book
Vsmovie in your podcast app so that way you'll never
miss an episode. If you want to interact with the Margos,
the best place to do that is in our private
Facebook group. Go to Facebook and type in book Vsmovie

(01:29:37):
podcast group and ask to join. On social media, you
can find us on Instagram and threads. You spell out
book versus and Movie. Our email is Book Versus Movie
Podcast spelled it all out at gmail dot com.

Speaker 5 (01:29:52):
This is Margo D.

Speaker 4 (01:29:53):
And you can find me at my blog Brooklynfitchick dot com.
And I'm at Brooklynfitchick for threads and Instagram, and on TikTok,
I'm at Brooklyn Margo. I'm also at Brooklyn Margo for
Blue Sky Margot Pee. You could find her on all
social media at She's Nacho Mama.

Speaker 5 (01:30:12):
We really appre

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