Thatcher and Nelson films in the works

Margaret Thatcher and Admiral Nelson features head up a slate of new films from Pathe and the BBC.

Jun  5 2007

Margaret Thatcher and Lord Nelson are to be the subject of new films from a development deal between Pathe, BBC Films and the UK Film Council.

'Thatcher' is being written by Brian Fillis and will document the 17 days leading up to the Falklands War, while Julian Fellowes is writing 'Emma & Nelson', which will detail Admiral Nelson's affair with blacksmith's daughter Emma Hamilton and the way in which society turned on her after his death.

Other films being jointly developed between the two companies include 'The Thirteenth Tale', based on Diane Setterfield's gothic novel about a dying author looking back on her life, and 'The Choir', Paul Andrew Williams' follow-up to 'London to Brighton' about an elderly widower who joins an unconventional choir.

But the film that will probably garner the most attention is a big-screen adaptation of the TV classic 'Upstairs Downstairs'. Fay Weldon, who wrote the first episode of the series in 1971, will pen the script, which follows the trials and tribulations of an aristocratic Edwardian household struggling to come to terms with the loss of their fortune during the Boer War.

All of which is great news for the British film industry, with home-grown writers and directors making home-grown films based on home-grown stories, and rest assured we'll have news on all five films as they near production.