David stays cool amid the Bafta razzmatazz
Feb 20 2010 by David Whetstone, The Journal
IT’S a big weekend for Bafta. DAVID WHETSTONE talks to its chairman, former child star David Parfitt.
Theatre led to film and David gave up acting to concentrate on the producing role for which he had proved himself so well suited.
David’s film credits now include The Madness of King George, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and, most spectacularly, Shakespeare in Love which won seven Oscars, including best picture, and four Baftas.
Shakespeare in Love, a fictional account of a love affair which may have inspired Romeo and Juliet, had been nominated in 13 Academy Awards categories.
"They had to pick me up off the floor," David said at the time, proving that some things can get to him.
He is happy to point out that the North East has a few things to celebrate this weekend. Not only is he a Sunderland lad but Bafta’s chief executive, Amanda Berry, is from Middlesbrough.
Meanwhile TV coverage of the Baftas is masterminded by Whizz Kid Entertainment whose founder and chief executive is Malcolm Gerrie, born in Newcastle.
There has been some talk about the number of American films nominated for Baftas but David points out: "Obviously we’re a British academy but we are about promoting the moving image in general.
"Everyone who wins an award can join so we have members from all over the world. We have about 6,500 members and about 1,500 of them are from the United States."
You might assume the chairman of Bafta knows who will be giving the winners’ speeches tomorrow.
Not so. "We don’t find out until the envelope is opened. Everyone votes online and the auditors from Deloitte make sure there has been no jiggery pokery.
"For the first time last year we had the auditors carry the envelopes up the red carpet and we’re doing the same again this year."
David says he has nothing nominated this year but fellow Bafta trustee Finola Dwyer, chair of the film committee, has had to take a back seat on several occasions as producer of An Education, which is nominated in several categories.
Now aged 51, former child star David Parfitt says he still gets back to the North East occasionally. He and wife Liz, a film accountant, walked along Hadrian’s Wall not so long ago with sons Bill, 19, Thomas, 11, and eight-year-old Max.
His company, Trademark Films, has some interesting projects on the go.
"We are working on a project with Madonna which has a working title of WE and is about Wallace Simpson and Edward, Prince of Wales," says David.
"Madonna is directing that and we are hoping to shoot it in May."
But his own pet project is My Week With Marilyn, a film based on a memoir by Colin Clark who was Laurence Olivier’s assistant on the film The Prince and the Showgirl, starring Olivier and Marilyn Monroe who, famously, did not get on.
Michelle Williams has been cast as Monroe and the film it is to be directed by Simon Curtis, who also directed Cranford for the BBC.
The Baftas are being shown on BBC 1 tomorrow at 9pm, presented by Jonathan Ross.
There will be extra reason for North East pride if Jade, by Samm Haillay and Daniel Elliott, who are based in the region, win in the short film category.
