RUSSELL TOVEY - No.804

It's amazingly good news

for "IN PASSING"...

Russell Tovey made a deeply moving and poignant short film called "In Passing" in early 2009. About a month back I asked Chris Croucher for permission to set his film up on this blog for Russell's fans to see...and because Chris was kind in allowing me to do so, it has started a renewed interest in the project. In fact the film started "trending" on twitter and the BBC site has had numerous hits due to Russell's fans becoming very active. After setting up the initial link I also asked Chris if he could let us have some more information on the shoot and some inside knowledge of Russell's involvement.

To watch this stunning short film please click here

To visit Chris Croucher's production site click here

Here is Chris's reply:

25-10-2010

Tom,

The current response to the film “In Passing” is amazing - thank you so much and do please keep plugging the film. I will let you know ASAP when the film gets a TX date on HD and i-player. I have been thinking about the paragraph you asked for about 'In Passing' - here you go:

After the great response for our first short 'The Beachcombers', Mark (my writing partner) and I wanted to make an epic short film, a story that pushed the boundaries. It was then when I was presented with a single photo, a picture taken during the blitz. The image was hundreds of people crammed into an air raid shelter and from that image 'In Passing' was born. The script was quite a fast process; I suppose it is only 12 pages, and Russell's subsequent casting a no brainer. My bread and butter job is as an assistant director and I had just spent the previous year working with Russell on Little Dorrit, so I definitely had him in my head when I wrote it and his on screen chemistry with Lesley Sharp is wonderful.

We shot the film over two days in January 2009 in Shoreditch, London and the entire cast and crew worked for free. We pulled in a huge amount of favours to make (I hope) a different film to the usual dark urban shorts out there. I am so pleased that the BBC has picked up the film to screen on their Online Network, their HD Channel and i-player. It was always my intention to make a mini BBC Period Drama and I hope that In Passing is exactly that.

Hope you all enjoy the film as much as we enjoyed making it. - Chris