Spotlight with Sir Alan Parker

The Creator and Director of Bugsy Malone talks with us about his passion for movies and music

SING UP: What were your original intentions when you were writing Bugsy Malone? How did you come up with the idea and what was the journey like?

SIR ALAN PARKER: At the beginning of the 1970s I had four small children of my own. During long drives I daily tried to soften their considerable car-sick boredom by inventing and improvising a gangster story which, on my eldest song Alex's insistence, was peopled with kids, just like the four of them sitting in the back of the car.

It was a very difficult time in the British film industry, and 'English' stories were hard to get made, so I began writing my 'American script.' I didn't know America at this time - except for the movies - so my script was an amalgam of the Hollywood musicals, and gangster films I had enjoyed as a kid growing up in Islington.

Once I had decided to do the film with just kids, the casting became the hardest thing.  The idea would only work if the kids were brilliant. I spent a year casting it and in all, we saw almost 100,000 kids - the shortlist along amounted to 20 hours of videotapes, which I whittled down to the 200 kids who made it to the film.

SING UP: What was it like working with such a large cast of children? What were the challenges?

SIR ALAN PARKER: Well, they were all staying at the local Holiday Inn and ran riot there, but at the studio things were pretty disciplined. I said from the beginning that this wasn't just a 'kids' film so I treated the young cast like adults and expected them to behave accordingly. Ironically, unlike many adult actors, everyone was always word-perfect with their lines.

SING UP: What is your favourite memory from the making of Bugsy Malone?

SIR ALAN PARKER: The final custard-pie fight. I called 'action' and it was bedlam - in seconds the rich, brown colours of the set were turned white by an avalanche of flour bombs and custard pies!

SING UP: Bugsy Malone has become such an important musical in its own right...was this a surprise to you?

SIR ALAN PARKER: When we made Bugsy Malone, it never occurred to us that we were attempting the absurd. It was a labour of love and probably, in its own curious and bizarre way, is why this daft film works. Thirty years later it's still popular and not a week goes by when it's not performed in schools somewhere around the world. Recently there was a production in Ho Chi Minh City.

SING UP: You've been involved in so many musicals throughout the years, which one was your favourite to work on?

SIR ALAN PARKER: My favourite was The Commitments. I think it was the fun of being in Ireland - the 12 main actors were such a pleasure to work with. They were all so talented but were also nice people - most of them had not acted before so there was no movie star tantrums. The atmosphere on the set, playing the music live, was wonderful. The whole crew was inspired by these young people, their love for music and their Dublin sense of humour. I used to wake up in the morning and couldn't wait to get to work. That's not always the case when making a movie.

SING UP: Why do you have such a great interest in musicals?

SIR ALAN PARKER: I think of them as films with music. Each of them is different. Evita is an opera, which is different to Pink Floyd The Wall, which is different to Fame, which is drama at a place where music is created. ITallulaht's very rewarding using music and images to communicate, and very uplifting on set when you're doing it.

SING UP: If your next film had to be a musical and budget wasn't an issue, what would you choose?

SIR ALAN PARKER: I worked very hard preparing a film version of Willy Russell's musical, Blood Brothers. Willy and I wrote what I thought to be an excellent script but we were unable to raise the necessary finance in today's difficult economic times. So if budget were no problem, I'd do that one.

SING UP: What do you think about Sing Up and the work we're doing to get children singing?

SIR ALAN PARKER: I agree wholeheartedly. two of my sons are musicians and I can only say how much pleasure and satisfaction that singing and music has given them.

SING UP: Do you have any specific childhood memories of singing?

SIR ALAN PARKER: When I was a small boy in Islington I was in the Lifeboys - sort of like the cubs. I didn't have a great voice, but I remember singing the hymns with great gusto and can still remember the words.

SING UP: We're including 'Bad guys' in this issue. What should teachers keep in mind about the song when teaching it to their students?

SIR ALAN PARKER: Well, it's meant to be fun. In the film, we use comic New York voices but that isn't really necessary. It's a sort of vaudeville song, really. Quite broad. Ironically, in the film, the song was performed by the boys in Fat Sam's gang who had been cast for their acting, and hence they mostly had two left feet and were tone deaf!

SING UP: Have you ever been to see a school production of Bugsy Malone?

SIR ALAN PARKER: Yes, quite a few. I recently was sent a video of a production by a school in Bethnal Green, in the East End of London. It was a predominantly Bangladeshi school but the cast was pretty multi-racial in that Bugsy was black, Fat Sam was Indian, Dandy Dan was Chinese, Knuckles was white and Blousey and Tallulah sang their songs dressed completely in hijab headscarves.

SING UP: Do you have any tips for teachers who are putting on school musicals this term?

SIR ALAN PARKER: I really admire teachers who put so much effort into school musicals. I know it's not easy; you have to work with the kids you've got, and unlike film it's live, and has to be 'alright on the night'. I suppose the secret, as with everything, is to create an environment where the process is good fun. To my mind, a production where everyone is having a heck of a good time usually more than makes up for the musical imperfections.

SING UP: If 'you could've been anything that you wanted to be' what would you be?

SIR ALAN PARKER: Oh boy. I pinch myself every day that I have been so lucky to be a filmmaker.

Interviewed by: Celi Barberia, Sing Up