Friday the 18th March the ‘Phantom of the Open’, a British made film, was released in cinemas nationwide. The film is based on a true story about Maurice Flitcroft and his family. Maurice, who is a humble crane operative in Barrow-in-Furness, randomly decides to take up golf but also decides to have a crack at the 1976 British open. Being somewhat novice attracts great attention from the golfing community and media alike as his persistence continues to grow despite how bad he plays. We see this humble family man catapult into stardom and notoriety as he refuses to give up, even though the odds are against him as he gate-crashes his way in. His family and friends watch on from the side lines but, there are non-believers in his midst. This humour driven but endearing film Starring Mark Rylance and Sally Hawkins, was filmed during 2020 by a small team of creatives, and one of those creatives was a fellow Newtonian ‘Bill Gibson’. Bill, like many others who work in the creative industries and suffered a loss of work due to lockdowns, was lucky enough, whilst the easing of lockdowns happened to be offered work building the scenery and sets for this film, which was filmed in London. The screenplay for the film was written by Simon Farnaby who is from Darlington and is well known for being part of the ‘Horrible Histories’ bunch. Ironically, in 1976 Bill’s dad oversaw the building of our very own town golf course…bit of an odd link.
The ‘Phantom of the Open’ is now showing at cinemas across the county. Go and see it and support British film-making and your local cinema…and local creatives!
