- Title: True Blue
- Date: 10th January 1999
- Description:SHORT SYNOPSIS THIS IS THE STORY OF THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY BOAT RACE MUTINY OF 1987. A group of American students arrive at Oxford, hoping to put some steel into a Boat Race crew still reeling from their recent humiliating defeat at the hands of Cambridge. But disagreements over training methods and crew selection soon bring to a head a bitter clash between the President of the Dark Blues and a fiery-tempered rower from California. In the resulting battle the Americans. having failed to remove the President, pull out six weeks before the Race. Will Oxford Coach Topolski manage to mould an inexperienced and demoralised reserve crew into a winning team? PRODUCTION BACKGROUND "TRUE BLUE is a gripping account of the 1987 Oxford University Boat Race mutiny, a story of honour, betrayal and triumph against the odds. Daniel Topolski, Oxford's coach at the time, explains: "Four high-flying trans-Atlantic internationals baulked at the training regime on the Isis and the coaches' selection method~ kicked the Scottish President of the club, Donald Macdonald, out of the crew. His fightback, their resignation and his ultimate victory against Cambridge is the subject of the film." TRUE, BLUE is a Film and General/Rafford production funded by Channel Four Films in association with Booker Entertainment and supported by the National Lottery through The Arts Council of England. The script is written by Rupert Waiters, based on "True Blue", the book written by Daniel Topolski and former Daily Express journalist Patrick Robinson, which recounts Topolski's experiences during the mutiny. Daniel had spent fifteen years as Oxford's coach. During that time Oxford won twelve Boat Races, ten of them in succession, and broke the speed record three times. Topolski and Robinson's unique story of human struggles and moral conflicts won the 1989 William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award, was number three in the best-seller list for six weeks and was serialised by The Sunday Times. Daniel was delighted when the film rights were sold: "I didn't think of the book as having movie potential until it was well reviewed, and 1 began to realise Just how visual it was." Director Ferdinand Fairfax had known Rupert for many years and felt he would be the perfect writer for the project. As Rupert explains: "It was a setting that I knew very well. I studied English at Oriel, a college that was very popular with rowers, and shared a house with a student who rowed with the Oxford University Boat Club and went on to row in the Olympics." He continues: "The good thing about Oriel was that almost everyone rowed. Except for me - I played rugby. A lot of them were hopeless, but it didn't matter - we used to put up about ten crews each year. So I was writing about a time I knew well, touching on something I was interested in writing about. It's a story about male friendship, about loyalty, compromise and the moral choices we make in our lives. I hope the script is fair and shows that the Americans made a decision based on principle." As well as being a rowing coach, Daniel Topolski is a broadcaster, journalist, photographer, travel writer and radio documentary maker. Returning to the events of almost ten years ago has raised a few ghosts for him: "The film has re-opened some of the old wounds. It was very bruising, a horrible experience," he recalls. "Most of it was a rnisunderstanding. People got into situations they couldn't get out of. It was a bloody, ugly business. "At the time, the incident was on the front pages around the world for fourteen days running, which wouldn't happen nowadays, unless it concerned the Olympics." Whilst rowing is the ultimate niche sport, for this one event the global television audience now exceeds 400 million people in 160 countries. It has taken Ferdinand six years to get TRUE BLUE to the big screen: "I was given the book by co-writer Patrick Robinson while still in manuscript and I have been trying to get it made ever since. It's been worth the wait.--- BBC Films picked up the project for development, but let the option lapse after two years allowing Film and General Productions to come on board. The co-producer Clive Parsons, had been after the rights since the book was published. Despite the potential technical problems, Ferdinand had absolutely no doubts that he wanted to direct the project: "Visually the project is so suited to cinema. Eights [55 ft rowing boats] are an absolute natural for widescreen cinema. They are very sexy, sleek, sensual machines. Technically speaking, people have gone to the edge with them - carbon fibre this, titanium that. They're wonderfully powerful when low in the water. A major challenge has been to get that power on to the screen." Casting took place in London and Los Angeles. "Physique was important," says Ferdinand, tland most of the cast have some experience of rowing, if not at university, then at school -unless, of course, they lied at their audition!" This is where Daniel came in. As technical advisor, his job was to coach the inexperienced cast in top-rank oarsmanship. They were sent to Topoiski at the indoor rowing tank of the London Rowing Club to learn the basics. Fitness was not a problem: "All young actors nowadays work out." Daniel rowed in Oxford's 1967 winning eight and was also in the losing 1968 boat. "So my involvement with coaching Oxford since then has been atonement for that defeat because we were favourites but there was a bit of complacency." Shooting took two months to complete, but for six weeks in December and January, before the cameras began to roll, the London-based members of the cast, amongst them a lone Oxford man outnumbered by three Cambridge graduates, trained on the choppy and freezing waters of the River Thames between Putney and Mortlake under the rigorous tuition of Topoiski who was determined to make the rowing look authentic. The gruelling fitness regime involved a five mile run every morning, followed by several hours on the river. The squad then returned to the London Rowing Club for stretches, extra work on rowing machines and weight training in the gym. Meanwhile, the efforts of the American actors were overseen by the UCLA rowing coach at Marina del Rey. Daniel comments: "The experience of training actors is curiously the same as working with the Oxford crew. They did all the same things my rowing squads did and went really well. After five weeks they started to bond like a squad of rowers. We covered the Boat Race course and back every day, and they were very impressive. The cast became so enthused that when the rushes were viewed, their primary concern was not their acting or the frequency of the close-ups but how they could improve their rowing technique". Also on set were professional rowers, one of whom, Robert Dauncey, a member of the London Rowing Club and a sports science student, worked closely with Topolski. He comments: "Daniel is inspirational, and he managed to fill the actors with confidence. There is a certain mystique to him amongst rowers as he has broken so many records." The actors were also inspired by visits in January to watch the current Oxford squad training at their London camp. Despite a clear affection for rowing as a cinematic backdrop, Ferdinand confesses that he is "not.a sports fanatic. Except for tennis. 1 love playing tennis. But as for the rest - forget it!" He did row at school: "Not so much because 1 liked rowing but because 1 hated the idea of standing around on a cricket pitch all day for perhaps thirty seconds of fun at the crease before the inevitable humiliation of being bowled out first ball. "I imagined rowing would offer the far more pleasant alternative of spending a sunny afternoon drifting up-stream into a secluded creek with a good book. Unfortunately the reality was very different; progress is monitored at every bend and I can still recall the blistered backside and palms from hours of sweaty grinding up and down the Thames." He was, therefore, all the more delighted with the progress of the cast out on the water through the grey, blustery winter of 1996. As important as the quality of the rowing itself was the look of the film, which offered a unique opportunity with the Thames as principal location. Ferdinand explains that "huge stretches have remained unchanged for centuries. Watching the squad train, a line of figures running and rowing through this wonderful landscape, you realise that for all the lycra, leggings, back-to-front caps, T-shirts and trainers, these guys are doing pretty much exactly the same thing as their predecessors did 150 years ago." Equally important was the feel of the changing seasons and the weather: "Those guys trained through the bitterest winter for twenty years. I must be the only film director who actively hoped for atrocious conditions." His prayers were answered. The winter of 1996 was the worst for a decade. It rained, snowed, froze and blew. And all the time the cameras kept rolling. In fact the only two days on which it was not possible to film during the entire schedule occurred as filming of the actual race got underway, when the sun shone in a clear blue sky and the river became perfectly calm. Ferdinand continues: "As the early hopes linger we see Oxford in its full late summer glory; the Thames framed by autumn gold. As the struggle deepens, we move into the dark winter months on mist shrouded rivers, frozen lakes, in bitter cold, in rain, blizzard, snow and sleet with ice forming on the blades." When Ferdinand first went early one morning to watch the Oxford squad on a trial run along the Tideway in late January, he wrapped up well: "Then the squad appeared, barefoot in T-shirts and shorts and blithely lowered the eight into the water, breaking the ice at the water's edge in the process! It was both chilling and spellbinding in a monstrous way." The two week training camp at Thorpe Park is used in the middle of the film as a montage to cover all the ghastly things that rowers go through. The sequence begins with icicles hanging off the boat then continues with shots of the squad running through snow, standing barefoot in the ice, rowing in the rain at night and working their guts out on the ergo machines. The physical challenge is extraordinary." The key image would become a lone eight on a deserted stretch of water in winter. Here are moments of romantic but hideous beauty as the rowers strive against the elements but more significantly against each other. And all the time we see the faces: Topoiski, the forgotten hero, desperate to regain an illusory credibility; Macdonald searching for honour and redemption; and then the rowers, student faces and bodies taut with passion and pain. But it was the rain machines that really tested the actors' mettle, as they were continually doused in icy river water. Topolski recalls: "On the day of the 1987 Boat Race there was a thunderstorm, bolts of lightning, the lot. For the actors it was cold, and it was wet, and filming takes an insufferable amount of time. But it was a shared experience - and not surprisingly they bonded like crazy." The team spirit was vital, as Ferdinand agrees: "Rowing is a raw experience relying on trust, and it has to be spot on. At the same time it is one of the few sports where you don't look at your team-mates' faces; the paranoia of every rower is that the guy in front isn't really doing his job. Although you are as one, it is a lonely, uncomfortable pursuit." He continues: "The climax of this film should be astounding. The Boat Race itself, began in a thunderstorm. A fury of noise, thunder, lightning, wind whipped waves, lashing rain and dark skies, screaming coxes, oar smashing against oar as the two boats battle. The audience should feel that they know what it is to have rowed. From a spectator's point of view the Boat Race is a brief glimpse from the river bank. Also, you tend not to know who the people in the teams are. In TRUE BLUE you're going to care about who's in that boat." He adds: "Despite the muscularity it's all in the head. Look at the finish. The winning team could go out and row the course again. The losing team are ready to be carted off to hospital." Ferdinand noted how much television slows down the Boat Race: "Television finds rowing a hard sport to put over - the comment you hear most often is that it looks just like a dull procession, and indeed it does, with no sound except for the commentator's voice. But once you start to get involved with rowing, and with the Boat Race in particular, you realise just how exciting it Is. It is incredibly noisy and the impression of speed is enormous when the camera is low to the water." The actual events on which the film is based took place less than ten years ago. For many of those involved the memories are still vivid. As Daniel Topolski acknowledges: "It was a dreadful episode, fuelled by dramatic newspaper headlines. Some of those involved are still very sensitive about it. Some of the Americans had quibbles with the book, saying they were not portrayed in a fair way. And inevitably there are things in the film which will irritate them, as well as myself and Donald, because the story has to be told as dramatically as possible." When Ferdinand and Rupert Walters began their research into the story, they met up with several of the original crew members from 1986 both in London and in the US. It soon emerged that each person had a slightly different version of what actually took place. As Ferdinand concedes:---I loved the book, but no matter how enjoyable it might be, I think it's fair to say it is one person's viewpoint and it's equally clear that on some issues this viewpoint is very hotly disputed. Perhaps part of the problem at the start was the two sides being, as they say, divided by a common language, with neither fully understanding what the other was trying to say." Whatever the actual truth, the film-makers were not interested in making a documentary re-creation of the story. "What ultimately fascinates about the story is not the rowing or the Boat Race, it's human emotions, the battle for control and the fight for right to triumph over might. It's a classic tale told against a new backdrop. In the end we wanted to make our own version. I believe the film is fair on both sides. "There's no value in saying anyone behaved badly ten years ago. Many of us behave with some sense of passion and idealism in our twenties. It's what youth is for. Life would be very dull without it! "There are no outright villains. It's much more complex than that. My ambition is that the real and palpable triumph of Donald and Topolski - which is nothing short of extraordinary ~ should be underscored by a poignant sense of loss from all sides at never having seen what could have been the greatest crew of all time." When Dominic West met Donald Macdonald prior to shooting, this feeling soon became clear: "Usually when you're involved in school or college teams for great sports events such as the Boat Race, the relationships that develop become the basis for friendships that last a lifetime. Here the sadness is that it all went sour and some remain enemies for life. That's not what anyone wanted." Ten years on, Rupert and Ferdinand found that many are still haunted by what happened. "You sense that the urge to re-write history.. to say "what if" and "if only" will remain for the rest of their days." Whilst the crew were working in Eton College, Donald Macdonald, with his wife Ruth and their children, came on set, as did Michael Suarez, a Jesuit priest and close friend of the Macdonalds', who made a speech in 1987 that was instrumental in getting the Oxford rowing community to swing behind Topolski and Macdonald. Donald, who now works in the City, was involved with the project as it developed He explains that "in one sense, the Race is a small event, but the mutiny had universal dimensions. It reflected a microcosm of universal struggles - it is a story of political drama, courtroom drama, sporting endeavour and, ultimately, it was a fight for right over wrong. "When the mutiny made world headlines, I was under siege from all angles. I remember taking my oldest son lain, now 13, to nursery school and being followed by cameramen and journalists all wanting the story. It was very stressful. I don't see myself as a hero, but the lessons I learnt at that time have never left me." In order to pursue his dream of studying at Oxford, Donald had studied mercilessly through the night while he held a full-time job with an insurance company. This in turn led him to qualify, at the age of 31, as the oldest man to row for the Dark Blues in the Boat Race: "The problem was that the Americans didn't understand the uniqueness of the Boat Race. Because you can only row when you are a student at the university, you only get two chances at it at the very rnost. That is why it is such a crucible." Donald acknowledges that he is still affected by the experience: "It will never go away. At the time I was like a tortoise without a shell. I was being attacked for defending what I believed was right - I was under siege. It was a huge physical and emotional burden to carry, and a big lesson to learn. "It all became very personal and nasty. The focus shifted from beating Cambridge to pitching our strengths against each other. Winning became secondary as other bigger issues took over. "Nobody goes out to look for trouble, but you should always defend what you believe. The lessons I have learnt from the mutiny have equipped me well for survival in the competitive world of the City. The message was simple: do the right thing and the rest doesn't matter." Belgian actor Johan Leysen plays Daniel Topolski: "It was an odd experience playing someone who is still alive; normally the characters you play are fictional or dead," says Johan, "and it was even odder with that person on set every day watching me portray him and the events he lived through." Daniel laughs: "It was pretty strange for me too, as technical advisor, watching johan being me. It was possible most of the time to stand back and watch dispassionately an actor playing a role. But what was a little unsettling was having to double for him - pretending to be him playing me; in effect, me pretending to be me." When anyone shouted 'Dan' on set they both turned round; "and," adds Daniel "having to play the part of the umpire Colin Moynihan, former Minister of Sport, increased the sense of unreality. " He continues: "To add a further schizophrenic edge to all of this, I once more supervised the coaching at Oxford for this year's Boat Race, and the crew contained four American rowers just as it did in those rebellious days ten years ago. But there were, thank goodness, no mutineers." johan stresses: "I play a character called Topolski, not Topolski himself. I wanted to understand his motives, why he was so passionate about rowing and so on, but how he scratched his nose was not important. However, it was great having Daniel around to teach me the technical aspects of rowing, about which I knew nothing - how to hold a megaphone whilst riding a bike along the river bank, things like that." Whilst coming from a Polish background - his father was the legendary artist Feliks Topolski Daniel was born in England and educated at Westminster School and Oxford University. But Daniel's difference in nationality actually helped johan: "As a Belgian, I try to speak good English but I do have an accent. To me this emphasises the 'outsider' element - the fact that Topolski the character is not part of the blazered British rowing establishment. I also realised that Topolski commanded great respect but was keen not to be authoritarian - and the Americans had found that hard to understand. He comes across as a man very much on his own with the river." Donald Macdonald is played by Dominic West, who left drama school just one year ago. had appeared in two films previously, one of which had involved several weeks lying on a beach in the South of France, which makes this quite a contrast!" Once Dominic had made a decision that he was not going to imitate Donald Macdonald, he arranged to meet the Oxford Blue for a drink: "It was an opportunity to ask him what was going through his mind at the time, a luxury you don't normally have. He was very happy to talk to me, very articulate. I was surprised at how mild-mannered he was. It struck me that he is bit of a loner and quite shy, which can come across as being aloof. He is a remarkable man - and had recently rowed across the Channel in a two-man scull-" Dominic continues: "The Boat Race is one of those curious events: not everyone is interested in rowing, but everyone seems to have an interest in the race." He found the rowing a terrific challenge: "I had done a bit of rowing at school, but that was all. One of the good things about the film is having the opportunity to be trained at something you're not very good at by the best people. "In some scenes I am in a single scull, which I haven't really mastered. It's a bit like sitting on a matchstick, and very difficult to keep your balance. We were out on a reservoir on a freezing day and I think I was beginning to get over-confident, and I managed to turn the boat over. I had just about dried off and recovered and got straight back in - only to have the same thing happen again!" With just six weeks to go before the 1987 Boat Race, an emergency meeting of all of Oxford's college boat captains was called at forty-eight hours' notice. At this meeting, Donald's close friend, the brilliant American priest Michael Suarez, stood up and made a speech in defence of Macdonald. Suarez is played in the film by American actor Dylan Baker, who plays 'Detective Arthur Polson' in "Murder One", the cult American courtroom drama. Rupert Walters was struck by the physical resemblance between Dylan and 'the real Suarez': "On set I kept being deferential towards Dylan, thinking he was a priest and that I shouldn't swear in front of him - that's never happened to me before, muddling an actor with the real person!" Michael Suarez, now a qualified Jesuit priest, has recently returned as a tutor to Oxford's Campion Hall. He first met Donald Macdonald at the Boat Race Ball in 1986, when he offered to take a group photo of him and his wife Ruth in their kilted finery. Michael explains that at the time of the mutiny, Campion didn't have a boat crew: "There had been one before the First World War, which was nicknamed 'the hearse' because of its funereal pace and the fact that, for modesty's sake, the oarsmen were clothed in black from head to toe, right down to the tips of the oars." However he became the self-styled President of the new 'Boat Club of Campion Hall' in order to help a friend in need: "I was also aware that, as an American, I might help dispel the 'them and us' feet of the mutiny. "When the problems first started I told Donald 'If the coaches don't pick you, you don't row, you know that. It's the only moral way to act.' So when he was chosen, I was incensed by the behaviour of my fellow countrymen and felt that Donald had acted with competence and integrity." Suarez himself was a keen lacrosse player, a major sport in America, which gave him some clout amongst the sportsmen. Strapping Californian Brian MeGovern plays Rick Ross, the charismatic but fiery tempered American rower. A keen collegiate rower at the University of Washington, Brian was denied a trial for the US Olympic team when, determined to get an early night and to be on top form whilst his friends went out carousing, he managed to fall out of his bunk~bed and fractured his wrist. Nonetheless, despite screws and plates in his arm, he continued his fitness training and rowed later that year, winning the Pacific Coast Championships. From the age of two, when he appeared in a soap commercial, Brian wanted to act, and that passion soon took over. So he was delighted to be offered a role in TRUE BLUE and to be able to combine acting and rowing: "I had figured I would never row again. At the last two Olympics I felt little regrets bubble up when I saw guys I knew rowing. Because I hadn't rowed for years, I began training in earnest. The first day I felt a lot shakier than I had expected, and my back was much stiffer." "Having spent only a short time in England when I was a young boy, it was also great to row on those famous stretches of river in Oxford, Radley, Henley and, of course, along the Boat Race course. It was really exciting rowing with the rest of the cast. The blade work was terrific. But TRUE BLUE isn't just about rowing. It's about passion; it doesn't matter if you're a rower or if you're American or British. Everyone understands about passion, and about wanting to achieve and to be the best." The other Americans are played by josh Lucas as Dan Warren, Ryan Bollman as wise-cracking New Yorker cox Morrison Black, Robert Bogue, who was spotted in the acclaimed theatre production "Burning Blue", as Jeff Chambers, and Canadian Andrew Tees, an aspiring opera singer, as John Smythson. For josh, the lone East Coast cast member, training represented both a challenge and a duty. His sister was a member of the US Olympic squad: "I had to get it right for her - to portray the tremendous allure of the sport, the beauty and almost hypnotic quality of its physicality." Josh's commitment took him to Seattle to Join his sister's squad on the icy waters of the Charles River. By the time he arrived in London, josh was an accomplished sculler and oarsman. Andrew is the most experienced oarsman - but he was impressed by the progress the actors had made by the time he and the Americans joined them for training just after Christmas. "Time is the main problem in filming. We were rowing in the freezing cold, and rowing is not a 'turn on a dime and shoot again' sport." The English crew are played by a cross-section of young British acting talent. Ruth Macdonald is played by Geraldine Somerville, very familiar to television audiences as the long-suffering policewoman 'Penhaligon' in Granada's award-winning "Cracker" opposite Robble Coltrane. Geraldine saw the script as being "not so much about rowing as about relationships, personalities, power struggles, about undermining competition and about obsession. Ruth was very much a part of all that. She was Donald's rock during the difficult times. They had such a strong relationship. Considering she had two young children and another on the way, it was incredibly generous spirited of her to let him go to Oxford as a student. It was a big risk, not least financially. But I believe more people should be prepared to take those sorts of risks - it makes life much more interesting!" Ruth herself recalls: "It was very hard for all of us. Donald would arrive home so exhausted that he used to go straight to bed. He was on a diet of 7,000 calories a day and used to set his alarm in the middle of the night to eat. He left to train while it was still dark." Royal Ballet prima ballerina Darcey Bussell appears in one scene. In real life she is Daniel Topolski's god-daughter, and couldn't resist the temptation to take a cameo part in the film. Filming the Race itself was incredibly demanding, not least because the moment the sun came out filming had to stop. But Ferdinand Fairfax, the director, enjoyed the challenge: "The Race was a palpable triumph for Topolski and Macdonald in winning, and a triumph over themselves. They made the mistake at the beginning of getting five people who had an alternate point of view which is where things began to fall apart. The Americans were just as principled as Macdonald and Topolski. I hope that the film is very fair on both sides, and when the victory comes at the end, I hope that it will be underscored by the poignant sense that you never saw on the river what could have been the greatest crew of all time." Followint his triumphant spell as coach, reversing Oxford's catastrophic run of defeats with ten victories in a row, Daniel Topolski is now back coaching Oxford on a part-time professional basis, along with former Olympic coach Penny Chuter OBE. "I said I'd do it in a consultancy capacity because I didn't want to get deeply involved again, but I am," says Daniel. "Penny Chuter is the chief coach and my input is specifically Boat Race stuff, knowing the Tideway, knowing what motivates the guys." Donald Macdonald recalls this ability in Daniel and the moment when the '87 Race was about to begin. Daniel told the Oxford team to put all their energy into the first three miles and then to relax: "Winning seemed an impossibility. As individuals we were very good, although obviously not as good as Cambridge. But as soon as the boat took off, you could feet an incredible explosion of anger and relief. Everyone had a private mission of some sort, and it was as though we were taken over by superhuman strength. As the Dark Blues hurtled over the finish line, Donald stood up in the boat and punched the air in triumph: "I use the experience of the mutiny as a springboard. As long as you do what you believe with passion and determination, nothing else matters." Co-producer Davina Belling dismisses the idea that TRUE BLUE might be the next "Chariots of Fire". "TRUE BLUE doesn't have the romanticism of "Chariots of Fire" and it's not a period film. There's only one female role in the film, Donald Macdonald's wife. I think it's much more akin to a British "Top Gun". It's a male movie that women will love because it's beautiful to look at." Daniel Topolski admits that he is now unlikely to give up rowing: "It's a bit like a drug, the Boat Race. And rowing as well - it's a very attractive and seductive sport. High-level sport gives you a real sense of well-being, confidence and assurance." He concludes: "The most important thing is that TRUE BLUE is going to be a great film about the sport, about the Boat Race. Rowing is a boom sport in this country. Redgrave and Pinsent won gold in this summer's Olympics and the Searles brothers, johnny and Greg gained bronze. But TRUE BLUE is not just a rowing movie, because it has loyalty and betrayal, triumph and defeat, battles against adversity and all the wonderful things that make a great film." And Ferdinand adds: "In asking and examining the questions: What price success? How much and at what emotional cost will a man go to gain what he wants? TRUE BLUE becomes much more than a sports film. It offers a superb metaphor for life." CAST LIST Daniel Topolski . JOHAN LEYSEN Donald Macdonald DOMINIC WEST Michael Suarez, S.J DYLAN BAKER Rutli Macdonald GERALDINE SOMERVILLE Dan Warren JOSH LUCAS Rick Ross BRIAN McGOVERN Morrison Black RYAN BOLLMAN John Smythson ANDREW TEES Jeff Chambers ROBERT BOGUE Nick Bonham NOAH HUNTLEY Freddy Prideaux-jones EDWARD ATTERTON David Ball NICHOLAS ROWE Patrick Conner JONATHAN CAKE Ed Fox ALEXIS DENISOF Mike johnson PATRICK MALONE Rob Atkins ANDREW CLOVER Sam Peterson TOM HOLLANDER Alan Palmer DANNY WEBB jack Garnet CLIVE MERRISON jeremy Saville BILL NIGHY Porter TIMOTHY BATESON Receptionist HELENA MICHELL Annabel DARCEY BUSSELL umpire DANIEL TOPOLSKI Cambridge Coach DAVID QUILTER Cambridge President ANDY GIRLING Rowing Squad DAVE BUSHNELL EDWARD CLEGG ROBDAUNCY ALEX DUNCAN SUSIE ELLIS JIM GOODWIN MARK HUSSEY JOHN KAWAJA ROB PERRY JUSTIN WALLER Cambridge Boat MEMBERS OF IMPERIAL COLLEGE SQUAD CREW LIST 1 1 Producers CLIVE PARSONS DAVINA BELLING Director FERDINAND FAIRFAX Screenplay RUPERT WALTERS Based on the book by DANIEL TOPOLSKI and PATRICK ROBINSON Executive Producer ................................................ ALLAN SCOTT Director of Photography/Camera Operator BRIAN TUFANO, B.S.C Production Designer ALISON RWA Music by STANISLAS SYREWICZ Editor LES HEALEY Costume Designer DELPHINE ROCHE-GORDON Casting Director CELESTIA FOX USA Casting LINDA LOWY Line Producer AL BURGESS Music Supervision ROGER WATSON Technical Advisor DANIEL TOPOLSKI Dialogue Coach CONSTANTINE GREGORY 1st Assistant Director GERRThis is the story of the Oxford University Boat Club Mutiny of 1987.
- Broadcaster:Channel 4
- Collection: Channel 4
- Transmission Date:10/01/1999
- Decade: 1990s