Stella Street

Over Christmas 1997 BBC Two showed Stella Street. Each episode was ten minutes and there were three or so every night spread over the evening. It is completely bonkers in a very good way.

It is a soap opera depicting the lives of celebrities living in a street in Surbiton. It has a huge “cast” but all the characters, including Mrs Huggett the cleaning lady, are played by John Sessions and Phil Cornwell. It appeals massively to my schoolboy sense of humour. Let’s meet the “cast”:

Played by John Sessions			Played by Phil Cornwell
Dirk Bogarde Marlon Brando Richard Burton Alec Guinness Tony Hancock George Harrison Alfred Hitchcock Anthony Hopkins Dustin Hoffman John Hurt Steve McFadden (as Phil Mitchell)	Laurence Olivier Al Pacino Joe Pesci Keith Richards Alan Rickman Princess Margaret Paul McCartney Patrick Moore Roger Moore Van Morrison Yoko Ono		David Attenborough (voice only) Tony Blackburn David Bowie Wilfrid Brambell (as Albert Steptoe) Michael Caine Tommy Cooper Harry H. Corbett (as Harold Steptoe) David Essex Jimmy Hill	Mick Jagger John Lennon Des Lynam Ross Kemp (as Grant Mitchell) Jack Nicholson Jimmy Savile Ringo Starr James Stewart Sting John Thaw Kenneth Williams

May I wax philosophical? So much of what we watch, read and listen to is escapism. The Greeks got there first: catharsis. A comedy like Stella Street is pure enjoyment, not to be taken seriously; off-the-wall fantasy.

Well … if you come to Margravine Gardens next Sunday and Monday you will be in Stella Street. Richard Gere, Helen McCrory and Billy Howle will be here filming MotherFatherSon for BBC Two.

I think it might be rather good. Here’s the storyline:

The eight-part original drama was created and written by Tom Rob Smith (Child 44, London Spy, The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story) and will be made by BBC Studios Drama London for BBC Two

Richard Gere will play Max, a charismatic self-made American businessman with media outlets in London and around the world. Helen McCrory will play Kathryn, a British heiress who has been estranged from Max following the breakdown of their marriage some years before. Their 30 year-old son, Caden (Billy Howle), runs Max’s UK newspaper and is primed to follow in his father’s footsteps as one of the most powerful men in the world.

But when Caden’s self-destructive lifestyle spirals out of control, the devastating consequences threaten the future of the family, its empire, and a country on the brink of change. (BBC website)

It sounds jolly good to me. Before you ask, yes, a Location Manager did ask if the filming could be done in/outside my house but I declined. As there’s no trailer for MFS, if you have ten minutes to spare watch the first episode of Stella Street.

https://youtu.be/3r-bYi36OQo