"Urban" Now in production

Urban and the Shed Crew is based on the bestselling

non-fiction book by English writer Bernard Hare

nominated for the Orwell Prize for political writing.

It is true story of account of Britain’s dispossessed youth

and inner city wastelands.

It only takes one person to care.


It’s been described as a tale of heroin and cement set in

Britain’s underclass in the 90’s.

Twelve-year-old Urban Grimshaw is Britains’ most

runaway child, he’s even been on TV’s Crimewatch. His

mother is a junkie and his father might as well be dead. He

can’t read or write, and he doesn’t go to school. His average

day is spent sitting round a bonfire with his mates smoking

drugs and stealing cars. When he meets his mother’s new

friend ‘Chop’, a 37 year old, disillusioned, ex-social worker

also living on society’s margins, on one of Leeds’ roughest

estates the two become firm friends. But even ‘Chop’

with his own penchant for drink, drugs and hard living

is shocked by the state of Urban’s life. After much soul

searching, he resolves to clean up his own act and do his

utmost to save the kid. But as their friendship deepens,

Urban introduces him to the Shed Crew – the anarchic

gang of kids between the ages of ten and fourteen; joy-

riding, thieving runaways, no strangers to drugs or sex

and it’s only then that we see exactly how long the road to

civilization really is.


When ex-social worker Bernard Hare turned his startling

experiences with a group of young delinquents into a novel it

was described as one of the year’s most compelling and best

selling books. “Urban and the Shed Crew” is a stunning piece

of ethnography described by ‘The Guardian’ as “moving but

never sanctimonious, another City of God, this time for

Britain rather than Brazil.”

“You seem like a good bloke, so I’ll give you some advice.

Don’t trust my mum. She’ll destroy your life”.

These were the prophetic words spoken by eleven-year old

Urban Grimshaw to Bernard Hare when they first met

in The Bulwell Children’s home in 1990; at the start of

what was to be a life changing friendship for both.

A friendship Hare would later realise was, as much

about answering Urbans’ needs as it was about

answering his own.

But for Hare the experience was not immediately

transformative. More a baptism of fire, into a world for

which even he, with his previously hard living lifestyle, was totally

unprepared, the life of the illiterate, glue-sniffing eleven-year-old

known simply to his mates as Urban.


The mates, an anarchic gang of feral kids known as ‘The Shed

Crew’ are all runaways, almost all of whom had been in care

and who occupy their time joyriding, twocking, (taking cars

without owners consent), generally dodging the Babylon and the

Scuffers (Police).

But Urban’s tale is not one in isolation... twenty years on and

there are still 3.5 million children currently living in poverty in

the UK alone. A fact made more shocking since the UK one of

the richest countries in the world.

These children are under-represented, under-nourished and

under the radar. A fact which Hare when he was interviewed

in ‘The Guardian’ said “has little doubt is because they are the

product of an environment in which everyone is ‘on’ something:

crack, the game, the run. He also has little doubt that they were

‘the product of 20 years of Tory government’. They replicate the

degradation suffered by their parents, but just do so younger

and harder. Fending for themselves, as they are too young to

have access to any subsidies, let alone a doctor or a dentist.”

But this problem isn’t just about a lack of money, authorities know

there are 1.3 million children with an addicted parent yet on the

“technical measure” this will not count as “poverty”. The charities

say “the tragic breakdown of family life, the bureaucratic care

system; intergenerational welfare dependency; parents with

addictions or mental health problems; unmanageable personal

debt; and an education system that fails too many, all play a part.

“Kids living in poverty in the UK are the least likely to be able

to get out of of the 12 countries studied.”

And this problem is not going away any time soon. In the UK in

the next three years under current policies child poverty is set to

rise by 11% which is why NOW is the time to make this film.


Leeds in the early nineties.

Deep underground, in the Victorian sewage pipes, Urban is sniffing

glue from a plastic bag. His Staffordshire terrier Tyson stands

guard. He’s run away, betrayed by the only adult, Chop, he’d ever

truly trusted.

Chop is looking for Urban, worried about what the kid might do in

his current emotional state. On a hunch he heads for the sewers

near the canal where he’s learnt the child goes to escape life when

things get too much. Relieved when he sees a pair of legs sticking

out of the end of the sewage overflow pipe, he makes his way into

the sewage pipe, slipping in the sewage as he nears the kid. But

just as Chop gets close enough to nab him, Urban and Tyson hurl

themselves into the river. Chop can’t swim but follows anyway.

As they’re all swept along by the rushing water it’s Chop who’s

dragged deep under the water and as he struggles for his life we

go back in time, three months to the start of their friendship.


The joys of being a social worker had ended for Chop in the sea

The joys of being a social worker had ended for Chop in the

sea of paperwork after ten years on the job. “I don’t know what

happened to me in the years between childhood and middle age,

but somewhere along the line the light had gone out in my eyes.

It just happened. Life had defeated me”.

The son of a miner is living from day to day, making ends meet

with odds and sods. His main source of income comes from

working as a removal man with a van, while any spare time is

spent playing chess. He’s unbeaten locally. After giving his mate,

the local GP a sound beating on the chess board, he meets Greta

on his way home, as she’s searching in between parked cars for

something, her social security book it turns out. After a sharp

exchange, the pair become friends, at first with benefits, and

Chop is introduced to Greta’s life of chaos, mayhem and heroine.

“She was the only person I’d ever met who hated social workers

more than I did”.

All of her four kids have been removed by social workers, so

Chop and Greta hatch a plan to try to save the two middle kids,

Urban and Frank from the Children’s Home, acknowledging the

others are now too deep in the system to be helped.

At the Care home Chop feels a strong connection with Urban, “I

instantly knew Urban, I’d seen a thousand lost souls like him. I

liked him straight off even though he presented himself as sulky

and sullen. His attitude seemed justified, given his circumstances:

he was in some kind of trouble and was being punished.”


Chop takes the family under his, albeit broken wing and decides to

do everything he can to help, letting Greta stay in his flat, arranging

home visits for the boys. But helping them is not as easy as he first

envisioned. Greta seems to be permanently pissed or high….she’s a no

show to meetings with solicitors, doctors, even the social…Meanwhile

Chops’ daily life starts to spin out of control. “The thing about Greta

was you couldn’t help but drink and take drugs with her. She bought

out the worst in you. Like Oscar Wilde I can resist anything but

temptation”. Urban’s older brother Frank steals from him, the scuffers

(police) regularly break down Chops front door to take the runaway

kids back to the care home. Greta knocks someone out in the lifts,

which doesn’t go down well with the neighbors. But it’s only when

Chop arrives back from a long day’s removal job to discover Greta

naked with a strange bloke in his front room that he decides he’s had

enough. He finds Greta a flat and even pays the deposit.

“I had opened the Gates of Anarchy and I’d had enough”.

When Urban reappears a few days later at Chop’s flat as if nothing

has happened asking if Chop has “any jobs for him today” and telling

him he’s hungry, Chop is forced to explain he can’t take any more; not

unreasonably he wants his old life back. Urban goes ballistic, swearing

he’ll never see his face again, pushing Urban to run away from what

he now believes is the ultimate betrayal by the only adult he’s ever

come to truly trust.


Back under the water in the canal, the fast flowing current is

pulling Chop down into its depths, in the moment after Chop

valiantly tried to save Urban from the river we see that Urban

and Tyson the dog have come to the rescue and are in fact

saving Chop from a watery grave. Having recovered on the

bank the wet friends are reunited and go back to Greta’s new

place where Chop finally gets to meet Urban’s runaway friends,

the Shed Crew.

“Sparky “the twocker” (car thief), Tyson the dog, Thieving Little

Simpkins, Kara and Molly (“the strangers to logic”), Skeeter

(“who’ll thump you”), and Pixie, (“who’ll hump you”).

Like Urban, the kids are in and out of care, having slipped out

of the gaze of the authorities. Abandoned by their parents,

abandoned by society. In its place, they have formed one of

their own, with a complete charter of preaching, sharing and

denouncing ‘grasses’ and ‘nonces’.

But the day aint over yet, later that afternoon, Urban tries to

electrocute a heroin addict the boys find upstairs in Greta’ s

flat. And before the night ends Chop is taken, via a hair raising

joy ride, culminating in the stolen car being torched, to meet

the Shed where most of them live and the rest of the crew. It

all culminates in “even more mess and mayhem”, when Urban

accidentally slices open another boy’s hand with a machete.

But Chop’s in too deep now, there’s no going back. He lets the

gang sleep in his flat, tries to educate them, calm them, teach

them to read, play chess, paint, teach them poetry. They learn

to write, all the while mixing with the insanity of their growing

up. In the midst of which Chop’s own awakening comes as he

realises he has become a disturbing mix of Fagin and ‘Mr Chips

on smack’. At the same time we come to understand that Chop’s

affinity with the children has been born from his own childhood

being cut short, the day his best friend was knocked down and

killed by a reckless driver.


Shot in a documentary style, the oppressive and suffocating

presence of the inescapable concrete jungle will dominate every

skyline to bring home the inhumanity of these concrete sink

estates. The fast pace and action will take us from the brawls in

the street and in lifts to full on fights on bouncy castles with the

local Scuffers (slang for Police) to chess-playing Yardie dealers

who insist on choosing the disadvantaged black pieces every time.

‘Beating white, despite the odds, was part of the game as far as

they were concerned.’ to break neck joy riding, chases and high

comedic moments; Chop drives under a low bridge and loses half

his van and all of it’s contents belonging to an angry albino. To

truly unforgettable moments of tenderness: when the kids briefly

become kids again, discovering the alphabet, playing Monopoly, or

Urban’s sheer boyish joy when Chop takes him to the countryside

in the Lake District and then all of them camping.

The final turning point for Chop and Urban comes when a child

from the estate, is kidnapped and murdered, they both realise it’s

time to change. Urban tells Chop they must mark this moment

with an event. So to throw off the shackles of their joint past

they go back to the Lake District with the gang and launch their

version of Excalibur into the murky depths of Lake Windemere.

It’s in this moment that the Shed Crew come together and vow to

try and forge a life beyond the oppression of the concrete jungle

and that life, especially theirs, is for the taking. It doesn’t stop

them riding off on bicycles they twock-ed earlier.


The film story will use the soundtrack of the time; as well as

graphic text pop ups (in the style of Scott Pilgrim) to explain all

the slang used by the gang such as dog shelf (floor) mispering

(missing) etc…While the grown up Shed Gang will read the

poems penned by their younger selves at judicious intervals.

Finally the story will be brought up to date as we close with

the latest news.

Urban has a career and is a successful family man, living in the

upwardly mobile part of Leeds. Other ex-Shed Crew children

have done well too. Sparky’s now a law-abiding man, with a

house, wife and regular job. Kara is training to be a television

researcher…et al…


Executive Producer by Rose Ganguzza’s latest feature film

credits include Trashed, Margin Call, The Romantics, New York,

I Love You, Afterschool and The Guitar.

Produced and directed by the award winning team from

Blenheim Films. ‘Trashed’ with Jeremy Irons was Candida

Brady’s first solo documentary feature film as a writer/ director,

selected for Cannes, 2012 and it has won numerous awards.

Previously the pair have produced and directed countless

television documentary series before emabarking on their first

full length documentary feature Madam and The Dying Swan

premiered at the BFI also in 2012.

IF YOU THINK WASTE IS SOMEONE ELSE’S PROBLEM...THINK AGAIN

JEREMY IRONSIN

B L E N H E I M F I L M S P R E S E N T S

WWW.TRASHEDFILM.COM

SOUNDTRACK COMPOSED & PERFORMED BY VANGELIS DIRECTORS OF PHOTOGRAPHY SEAN BOBBITT BSC TITUS OGILVY & PETER DITCH ART DIRCTOR GARRY WALLER

EDITED BY JAMES COWARD KATE COGGINS & JAMIE TREVILL POST PRODUCTION BY THE MILL & CREATIVITY MEDIA ASSOCIATE PRODUCER TABITHA TROUGHTON EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS JEREMY IRONS CANDIDA BRADY TITUS OGILVY & TOM WESEL

WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY CANDIDA BRADY

B L E N H E I M F I L M S P R E S E N T S

Madam and the Dying Swan

DIRECTED & PRODUCED BY CANDIDA BRADY & TITUS OGILVY

Four ballerinas share one piece of dance history A n n a P av l o v a D a m e N i n e t t e d e V a l o i s M a r g u e r i t e P o r t e r M a r i a n e l a N ú ñ e z

BFI SOUTHBANK Belvedere Road, The South Bank CentreLondon, SE1 8XT

Premiere screening followed by Q&A Thursday 23rd August, 20126:15 pm www.madamandthedyingswan.com

Director of Photography, Sean Bobbitt DOP of ‘Trashed’ career

is exceptional. His most recent feature film credits include 12

Years of Slave, A Place Beyond The Pines, Shame, Hunger,

Lawless Heart.


Jack Davenport (Chop)

* Subject to contract

Andrea Riseborough (Greta)

* Subject to contract

***** ***** (Urban)


And did those feet in ancient time

Walk upon England’s shit tips green?

And was the holy Lamb of God

In England’s carbon monoxide seen?

And did the Countenance Divine

Shine forth upon our genetically modified hills?

And was Jerusalem cloned here

Among these dark Satanic Mills?

Bring me my Dig of burning gold:

Bring me my Viagra of desire:

Bring me my Foil: O clouds unfold!

Bring me my Milligrams of fire.

I shall not cease from Mental Flight,

Nor shall my Pork Sword sleep in my hand

Till we have trashed Jerusalem

In England’s green and fucked-up Land

(Based on a poem by someone else because I’m thick)

Skeeter

Have you ever seen things that aren’t really there?Like giraffes with green and purple hair,Or live mannequins, or cardboard streets, Or little people with massive feet?

I’ve seen things you’d never believe,Butane gas made my eyes deceive,It took me to a different placeWhere things were pretty, all dressed in lace.I’ve seen statues move and come to life,I’ve been chased through a maze by a carving knife,I’ve fallen from trees, floated through time,I’ve watched my oen hands shimmer and shine.

I’ve travelled right through to Heaven’s stationOn my holiday of hallucination.Quite fantastic, but to my shame,It made a good job of destroying my brain.

Kara MacNamara

Prison boy wrote home one day,Found his true love gone away,When he asked the reason why,She answered him with this reply:If you choose the honest life,Surely I will be your wife,If you choose the life of crime,Prison boy do your time.

Late that night in his cell,Prison boy rang the bell.Screw came running to the door,Prison boy was on the floor.In his hand a note all red,In his hand a note that said:Dig it wide and dig it deep,Plant red roses at my feet.On my chest a turtle dove,Tell the world I died for love.

Thieving Little Simpkins



www.blenheimfilms.com

01494 481537

"Urban" Now in production

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