www.flood-london.com
Contents
Introduction
Synopsis
About the production
Interview with Robert Carlyle
Interview with Jessalyn Gilsig
Interview with Tom Courtenay
Interview with Joanne Whalley
Interview with David Suchet
Interview with Nigel Planer
Cast biographies
Production biographies
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5-6
7 - 10
11 - 12
13
14
15
16
17
18 - 20
21 - 23
Publicist:
Luke Morrison – 084488 13038 – luke.morrison@itv.com
Picture publicist:
John Manthorpe – 084488 13045 – john.manthorpe@itv.com
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Introduction
Throughout history there are regular reports of the Thames flooding, the first on
record being in 1236. These events have been getting progressively more
destructive. The worst incident in recent memory was the flood of 1953. It devastated
the East Coast and the Thames Estuary, taking a toll of over 300 lives. However,
fortunately on this occasion, the flood did not reach the city centre.
In 2008, rapidly increasing global warming, rising sea levels and growing tides have
made a major flood a shocking probability. In recent years there has been massive
increases in central urbanization and geologists have discovered that London lies on
a bed of clay. This has caused many inhabitants to fear that a disaster of significant
magnitude could mean that one of the greatest capital cities in the world, a city that
has endured for more than 2000 years, could simply cease to exist. This time
London would find itself in a watery grave…
An exhilarating new two part drama, Flood, takes you there – to the staggering,
catastrophe on the day that nature's ultimate force tests every resource, human and
technological, of a great metropolis.
In Scotland, a storm of hurricane proportions crashes into the coast, devastating the
sleepy town of Wick. Mountainous tides barrel mercilessly along the North Coast of
Britain, heading for London. However the authorities remain sceptical that nature
could deal any blow that London’s Thames Barrier, the largest fixed tidal defence in
the world, could not withstand.
Rob Morrison, (Robert Carlyle) head of Defiant Engineering, is called to the Thames
Barrier for a maintenance check, but his ex-wife, Sam, (Jessalyn Gilsig) the
Barrier’s Director of Operations, is the last person he wants to see. Meanwhile his
estranged father, engineering genius Professor Leonard Morrison (Tom Courtenay)
is desperately attempting to contact the Barrier high command with a warning about
the potential ineffectiveness of the structure. With soaring water levels and a unique
set of weather conditions closing in, Rob realises that his father’s worst predictions
are coming true. Rob, Sam and Leonard must put aside their personal differences to
mount an operation to save London from certain destruction.
After a dramatic forecast of the devastation to come from crisis control centre, Cobra,
headed by Patricia Nash, (Joanne Whalley), the Deputy Prime Minister (David
Suchet) finally begins the evacuation of the capital.
Then the unthinkable happens: the Barrier is overwhelmed by an immense and
terrifying surge. Water flows into London at a terrifying rate and volume, causing
panic in the Underground as the torrent cascades through the tunnels. Thousands of
trapped passengers are drowned. The devastation continues as the city’s landmarks
-Tower Bridge, the London Eye and Big Ben - are all submerged. Eight million
Londoners are about to become heroes or victims as they struggle to survive the
biggest disaster Britain’s capital has ever faced.
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Directed by Tony Mitchell, Flood stars Robert Carlyle, Jessalyn Gilsig, Tom
Courtenay, Joanne Whalley and David Suchet. It is produced by Power’s Justin
Bodle and independent producer Peter McAleese with Michael Prupas of Muse
Entertainment and Philip Key and Genevieve Hofmeyr of Moonlighting. Shot over
eleven weeks in South Africa and over two weeks on location in London, Flood is a
co-production between Power, Moonlighting Films (South Africa) and Muse
Entertainment Enterprises (Canada).
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Synopsis
Short: Timely yet terrifying, Flood unleashes the unthinkable. When a raging storm
coincides with high seas it unleashes a colossal tidal surge, which travels mercilessly
down Britain’s East Coast and into the Thames Estuary, overwhelming the Barrier.
Torrents of water engulf the city. The lives of millions of Londoners are at stake. Top
marine engineer, Rob and his father Leonard Morrison rush to the aid of his ex-wife
and Barrier expert, Sam to try to save a city on the brink of annihilation.
Extended: A bright autumn morning. London shines in all its glory - its architecture,
its iconic river and the impressive edifice of the Thames Barrier gleaming in the
sunlight. Meanwhile, in Scotland, a storm of hurricane proportions crashes into the
coast, devastating the sleepy town of Wick. Mountainous tides barrel mercilessly
along the north coast of Britain, heading for London. However the authorities remain
sceptical that nature could deal any blow that London’s Thames Barrier, the largest
fixed tidal defence in the world, could not withstand. But the reality is that the storm
and seasonal high seas will soon converge in the Thames causing a colossal surge,
big enough to flood London.
Rob Morrison, (Robert Carlyle) head of Atlantis Engineering, is just back from
holiday and he’s annoyed to be called to the Thames Barrier for a maintenance
check. His ex-wife, Sam, (Jesslyn Gilsig) the Barrier’s Director of Operations, is the
last person he wants to see. Meanwhile his estranged father, engineering genius
Professor Leonard Morrison (Tom Courtenay) is desperately attempting to contact
the Barrier high command with a warning about the potential ineffectiveness of the
structure. Upon receiving the news that a colleague has drowned during the
devastation at Wick and with soaring water levels and a unique set of weather
conditions closing in, Rob realises that his father’s worst predictions are coming true.
Rob, Sam and Leonard must put aside their personal differences to mount an
operation to save London from certain destruction.
After a dramatic forecast of the devastation to come from crisis control centre,
COBRA, headed by Patricia Nash, (Joanne Whalley), the Deputy Prime Minister
(David Suchet) finally begins the evacuation of the capital. Is it too late? Reports
indicate that transport systems throughout the capital will come to a standstill in four
hours and anyone left behind will have no way out. As a pillar of authority, Nash
faces difficult decisions, knowing that her own daughters are lost in the heart of the
city.
Then the unthinkable happens: the Barrier is overwhelmed by an immense and
terrifying surge. Water flows into London at a terrifying rate and volume, causing
panic in the Underground as the torrent cascades through the tunnels. Thousands of
trapped passengers are drowned. The devastation continues as the city’s landmarks
-Tower Bridge, the London Eye and Big Ben - are all submerged. Eight million
Londoners are about to become heroes or victims as they struggle to survive the
biggest disaster Britain’s capital has ever faced.
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Having narrowly escaped the Barrier with their lives, Rob, Sam and Leonard realise
that to save London, they must return to its submerged machine room and implement
a high-risk plan to drain the city of water. It’s a race against time and the lives of
millions of Londoners are in their hands. What happens next will determine whether
the city survives or is wiped off the face of the earth.
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About the Production
The idea for Flood originally came from a book written by Richard Doyle, which
Power's Justin Bodle optioned. The book was a fictionalised account of a real
possibility – it imagined what would happen if the Thames Barrier was overwhelmed
and London suffered a major flood.
"This is a perfect story to tell,” comments Bodle. “The Americans are brilliant at
making this kind of film and they have cornered the market. So we asked ourselves:
how could we take on the Americans without taking on the Americans?"
Bodle approached independent producer Peter McAleese and asked him to coproduce the project.
"Justin and I had grown up with disaster movies like Poseidon Adventure and The
Towering Inferno, recalls McAleese. “We definitely wanted to make FLOOD in a
different way from films like The Day After Tomorrow'– we wanted to present a more
gritty, European take on the genre, looking at how real people would deal with the
situation”.
Tony Mitchell who had previously directed the docu-drama Supervolcano was
chosen to direct Flood. "Supervolcano was made for about $3 million but it looked
like a $50 million film," says Mitchell. The producers met Mitchell who was extremely
enthusiastic and energetic. They thought that his docu-drama background would
bring an edge to the material and ensure that FLOOD wasn't a simple clone of an
American disaster movie.
McAleese continues: "We knew that the film was financially ambitious in terms of
how we had envisaged the end product. Our budget was limited and because of this,
we had to make the decision as to where we could shoot the film. Everything
depended on that. We had a lot of comments and still have a lot of comments that
the picture couldn't be produced for our budget level. I must admit in the beginning I
felt the same. We had to work very hard to pull this off".
The producers researched the costs of shooting the film in four different territories:
The UK, Canada, Hungary and South Africa. The UK ruled itself out first as the most
expensive, followed by Canada and Hungary. This left Cape Town, South Africa,
which seemed an unlikely prospect. Peter McAleese travelled to Cape Town with
production designer, Jonathan Lee and director Tony Mitchell. "We sent back a
package of pictures to Justin and the financiers. This comprised a mix of 'Real
London' and 'Cape Town/London.' We didn't label them. We then got a message
back saying they loved the London locations but could we send the Cape Town
locations? They couldn't tell which was which.”
"When I first received the script it was an exciting half treatment/half script," says
production designer Jonathan Lee. "I was like a rabbit in the headlights – it seemed
so ambitious. The hardest thing was keeping the scale in of the project in mind.” Lee
continues, “Water is a leading character in the film and just like a character, it will
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show itself in different ways. Water is an unseen 'monster' that takes everybody by
surprise - you get glimpses of it here and there, first forcefully hitting Scotland – then
moving towards London. Sometimes it manifests itself as the open sea raging or a
tidal surge, sometimes it’s a sheer force coming down a corridor or an enormous
weight falling onto objects. There's a lovely little scene where instead of seeing water
we hear water above us. A drip comes through and that tiny drip tells a terrifying
story.
"Water is tremendously heavy. When you want to deliver a big effect of water on the
move you might be moving 30 tons of water around on a set with crew and actors.
You have to be extremely careful. You have to build to take that kind of weight. The
construction department did their homework and kept the art department on track as
to what was really achievable. Water piling down a corridor could blow the walls of
the set. So every time we constructed models with a great wall of water bursting
open a door and rushing down a corridor the construction manager had to be picked
off the floor and Mickey Kirsten, the special effects supervisor, was rubbing his hands
with glee", says Lee.
He continues, “When you have 27 sets that have water in some form or other you
have a problem. The solution was to create a water facility for the film. We used four
tanks; three of which were constructed in a large warehouse and the fourth tank was
a tidal sea pool in the Indian Ocean. Tank One was an indoor tank that had actors
and crew filming waist deep in water. Tank Two was also indoors was used for all the
underwater shots. Tank Three was an outdoor tank used for large dramatic effects
like 'diving off the Barrier Pier' and the destruction of the jetty at Wick. The tidal pool
exposed to the elements housed scenes like a flooded Shepherd's Bush High
Street.”
Similarly, Mickey Kirsten, in charge of special effects relished the chance to work on
Flood: "We went through the script and identified all the special effects requirements.
Then we did an effects breakdown. I have two favourite scenes: 'Granny's Cottage’,
and ‘the Destruction of the Jetty at Wick’". Both are opening scenes in the film: In
'Granny's Cottage,’ an old lady and her daughter are inside the cottage. The water
starts flooding outside; it starts seeping in through the doors, and then through the
windows. We then use the dump tanks, forty thousand litres of water, twenty
thousand coming in through the window and twenty thousand coming in through the
door, with 'granny' (or her stunt double) standing just behind the door; the door flies
open and the water comes rushing in and poor granny drowns.”
Kirsten continues: “To achieve this we worked very closely with the stunt boys. It's
dangerous and the timing needs to be precise. My other favourite scene is when an
enormous wave annihilates the jetty at Wick. It’s a massive six to eight metre wave.
We use dump tanks and wave cannons. Wave cannons carry a thousand litres of
water, we pressurise those up to about eight or nine bar and we fire a ton of water
through the air at the set. Mario Rachiele, the visual effects supervisor, then takes
over and he builds it up again into this huge six meter wave. The great moment for
any special effects person is actually to beat the computer. To create an effect that
works so well that we don't need to resort to CGI."
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Mario Rachiele, head of the Visual Effects Team, says: "A lot of my work takes place
before the movie is shot – and then even more after shooting wraps. There’s a
tremendous amount of preparation for visual effects because you have to think in
advance – what could go wrong? Where will the camera be? How will the actors be
reacting to it? What does the director want? What is the producer willing to pay for?
So there’s a tremendous amount of variables that you have to analyse and decide
together with the creative team as how best to achieve the story you want to tell. The
preparation for a movie like this will take ten weeks and then after we've wrapped the
shoot I would go on for anywhere between six months to a year to finalise all the
visual effects and deliver. The actors often have to work with blue screen; therefore
everybody has to understand what is going to happen beforehand. If they don’t they
cannot react, It helps if you show them what the wave will look like and where it will
come from. We do a lot of what we call 'pre-visualisation,' which means very rough
animations in 3D so actors understand the timing of when these things happen. So
for example, you tell them the wave will come from the right, will hit two cars on top
of the ramp, those cars will flip, hit a wall and then the wave will turn around and
come towards you and flip you over. You make them feel prepared but also scared
and that often aids their performance.
“All natural elements like fire, water clouds, smoke, are extremely hard to reproduce
because you can never tell what they're going to do. It's hard to animate because
these elements seem to think for themselves. It's very hard to do great water on CG.
What I like to do is always to mix real water with CG water to get the blend. I will go
shoot some real water or miniature water shots at different speeds and mix all this
together to make it look real.
“What I like about this kind of project is you’re not creating aliens or spaceships or
things that don’t exist, you're actually trying to tell a story about something that might
happen. My job is to make it look believable. When you work on films like this you
learn so much. You have to research and understand how a storm moves and how
tides react. Then you can create your waves. You might then ask the director: ‘Do
you want the wave to be fifteen metres or five metres? Do you want reality or a bit of
exaggeration?’”
One of the most ambitious design challenges for designer Jonathan Lee was the
creation of Cobra 2, an enormous set and one that did not contain water in any form.
In the story, Whitehall is in the flood plain so if the flood hits London then Whitehall
will be submerged under three or four metres of water almost immediately. The seat
of government would be in jeopardy and all personnel will have to be evacuated.
Lee explains: "In an earlier part of the story you see Cobra, which is the real
emergency room at Whitehall. This is a room where, in the case of an emergency, all
the key people can sit round a table and run the country. For instance when the
London bombs went off, people were sitting in Cobra making big decisions about
what to do with London transport, with the cell phone network etc. In Flood Cobra is
going to be flooded and everyone has to move. Where do they go? Well we took a
leap of imagination and made a mobile version of Cobra.”
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“So for us these trucks come in. Hydraulic pistons inside open the walls up. The walls
become the roof; they carry their own computer equipment, lighting equipment,
generators everything. The Range Rovers can just pull in and the government
ministers can sit at the same table as before and the story can continue."
In preparation for Flood, Lee needed to learn how the Thames Barrier worked.
He says: "The scale of it is extraordinary. It's not obvious because the river covers
most of it but underneath the riverbed, that's where all the secret bits lie. The central
gates rise up in the river and in our story they become jammed so it all begins to
work against London because the water is trapped. This leads to a big dramatic
scene and the climax of our film. We've played with the Barrier quite a bit for
dramatic purposes."
The crew on Flood hails mainly from the UK, Canada and South Africa and the mix
really works well. Producer Peter McAleese comments: "Our approach to hiring our
crew was all about working with the right people regardless of nationality. We needed
to structure it to have a particular percentage of each nationality in order to qualify as
an official co-production but it was always about the right personalities. We spent a
long time selecting our creative heads of department.
“Our wonderful Director of Photography, Pierre Jordoin from Montreal, had
completely the right approach from the first day we met him in terms of his attitude
towards the project and his experience working on High Definition which is how we
decided to shoot the film. Of course, Jonathan Lee, our production designer is
English; Kate Carin, our costume designer, Scottish; Editor Simon Webb is
Canadian. They weren't afraid to say 'you guys are insane but we'll work with you to
make it happen’. The common thread is that they refused to be told that they couldn't
do this."
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Robert Carlyle Interview
I play Rob Morrison, a marine engineer who has particular expertise of the Thames
Barrier. He is the head of a company called Defiant Engineering. He’s clearly an
intelligent guy with a university background, but he’s certainly still one of the guys
despite finding himself in a really nice position in his life. He is separated from his
wife Sam who actually controls the Barrier so they are still inextricably linked and
really can’t get away from each other. They have worked together through the years
on the Barrier and because of what happens in the plot, they are stuck together for
the rest of the story.
When they first meet each other in our film there’s a bunch of flowers lying on the
desk and this really annoys Rob, because even though they have been separated for
the best part of a year he still thinks it’s a bit early for flowers. So he is really on the
defensive and he turns almost aggressive with the comments that he’s making
towards Sam and this boyfriend that she’s got. So they don’t get off to the best
footing, but once the film is underway and the surge is heading towards them, they
work very well together as a team. As the plot develops we begin to see exactly why
they got together in the first place because they know each other very, very well and
they don’t have to second guess each other. So, as this film progresses, they survive
largely because of their knowledge of each other.
Rob’s father, Leonard, played by Tom Courtenay is a professor who is an expert in
weather patterns and storm surge analysis. For many years he has been
championing this cause, of whether we are, or could be, prepared for what happens
should a storm surge coincide with the Spring tide in the Thames Estuary. Leonard’s
whole life has been about trying to warn the authorities what could possibly happen
should this take place. That’s the reality of the film - that it would be disastrous to
London should these sort of events happen, and would the Thames barrier in fact be
able to cope with it. So Rob’s life has been filled with his father’s obsession, and it’s
actually caused an awful lot of problems in their life. Rob blames his father and his
obsession because he feels that the possibility of this surge has basically destroyed
their life and family. So he has a chip on his shoulder about it, and during the course
of the film that comes to a head.
I guess the biggest character in the film is the storm itself, which is a constant
backdrop to the story, but there are three main character areas that are focused on.
The first area is Rob, Sam and Leonard’s stories who are the people who know
what’s happening and know what’s coming and are trying to save the day. The
second strand is Ralph Brown, who plays Neil, and his daughter Mel who represent
the ordinary public that are getting hit by this thing and how they cope with it and
manage to survive. The last area that we focus on is the political arena - we have
David Suchet as the Deputy Prime Minister and Joanne Whalley as the
Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police and we follow the choices, sometimes awful
ones, which they have to make. It’s about 24 hours or so in the life of these people
and how they actually manage to escape and cope with this disastrous thing.
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When I first read the script, I found it really interesting, I’ve read a few of these types
of scripts through the years and they generally come from America and it seems like
there’s a very American way of dealing with the disaster genre. I think they do it very,
very well but I think sometimes their stuff is missing heart. I really felt that this script
had a heart. I thought Rob and Sam’s relationship was actually quite touching and
certainly Rob’s relationship with his father was the clincher for me. Once I found out
that Tom Courtenay was going to be playing the father I thought it was absolutely
perfect. So you’ve got a big, big back-drop in terms of the surge and the devastation
it’s causing. But at the heart of it the story has got some real feelings and real
emotions going on and that’s really what appealed to me.
This is probably the most physical part I’ve ever taken and there are quite a lot of
stunts that I found myself in the middle of. I’m soaked through and probably up to my
waist in water for at least 75% of the film, but I knew that when I read it. When you
come to film it you know that you are going to have days and days of it, but I must
say that it was a challenge that I think I rose to and I really enjoyed it. I felt that I
knew the character much better because I did all of that. In so many things you have
stunt men going in, and then they cut it all together so as they land suddenly it cuts to
me bouncing to my feet. It’s actually been quite nice in this to go through the falls and
to realise what the character is going through. It gives you a sense of how sore it
would be and, how that could potentially feel. So it’s certainly the most physical I’ve
ever been – I’ve felt like a mini action hero. I don’t know if I would be jumping back
into that side of things in a hurry, but once the bumps and the bruises clear up I’ll
probably have another go.
Logistically it has been incredible to see how they can actually achieve all the things
they have. There’s so much stuff they have to carry down into these water tanks, and
I’d never experienced anything like that before, I just couldn’t see how we could
actually make a film in these tanks. But all of the crew have a lot of experience under
water; they are Jack Cousteau type guys. So they knew what they were doing and
they were confident. But when you are in the midst of filming, with water plunging
down on your head, you can’t see anything at all - you can barely see the other actor,
let along anything else. The camera and the camera man are inside this situation
with us, so they are experiencing 50 gallons of water hitting their heads per second
along with us. But going back and looking at the monitor after the scenes were shot I
think they really captured it and really caught the atmosphere.
I think the film has got a lesson in it - that this is possible. When I took the script on
and even during the shoot I didn’t really think much about it, but now that I’m back
here in London seeing the city stretched out in front of me I’ve really begun to think
about it. The film really shows a worst case scenario, it’s a total nightmare but so
was New Orleans. So you’ve always got to keep in mind that nature is mighty and
you have to be aware that even if these exact events aren’t possible that terrifying
events are. We hope not and we hope that the Thames Barrier can stop anything like
this happening, but if it means we have to look at plans to build another barrier,
maybe just a couple of miles further away then the public have to realise that to save
lives, it might cost a billion pounds to do it but I’d rather spend a billion pounds on
this than spend it on a war.”
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Interview with Jessalyn Gilsig
When I first read the script for Flood I thought it was an interesting take on a disaster
film. It has a lot of adventure and is really fun and I love movies like that, I love the
energy of them. But then it’s also very human and has all these great stories about
families and relationships and parents and children – I think that’s quite unique so it
was really good to be a part of it.
My character, Sam, is in charge of the Thames Barrier so she’s probably having the
worst day of her career, if not her life, and wrapped up in that is a romantic
reconciliation with the love of her life, Rob. It’s kind of the worst day and the best day
of her life combined. When the film starts she’s a little reserved and bruised from life
and then, by going through this experience with Rob, she reopens her heart and
finds a lot of her compassion.
Shooting with water was fun. It was really active and we were actually pretty scared a
lot of the time - it seemed like there was a lot of force in the water. It’s just the waiting
between shots when you’re sitting in your trailer and you’re freezing cold that’s not
particularly exciting. But working with all that water was great - you don’t have to
work your imagination so hard, as you’re fighting real elements. I had to take scuba
diving lessons, which I’d never done before. I’m not a great swimmer but it was great
to try. They wanted us to feel as safe as possible but it’s certainly an experience I
never thought I’d have. I don’t mind swimming underwater so long as I can pop my
head up and I know that the air is there - that’s my comfort zone. I have worked with
the blue screen before in a different context, so that was quite spectacular to me,
working in this tank, for want of a better word, and imagining that we were in the
middle of the Thames.
The idea of a flood hitting London has always been understood as a very real
possibility. I think that the events of the past few years are a reminder of just how
fragile we are and that we’re really nothing in the face of nature. I certainly hope it
never comes to something as tragic as this - I would hate for people to have to suffer
as we’ve seen them suffer with the tsunami and in New Orleans. This is purely
entertainment, an imaginative piece.
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Interview with Tom Courtenay
I really wouldn’t say I was an action hero. I play a scientist who really isn’t that heroic
but the circumstances are such that someone has to go and save the day and he
thinks it ought to be him rather than his son who is put at risk.
I play Leonard Morrison who is an ecological scientist who has felt all along that the
Thames Barrier should have been built further out in the Thames Estuary, in which
case there wouldn’t have been this great head of water coming up the river at high
tide on a stormy night. So the character is really proved correct.
I think the film does have some resonance. I mean tides are getting higher year by
year because of global warming, so it’s quite a real possibility that the Thames could
flood. They close the Barrier to stop flooding but if it wasn’t high enough then once
the water’s gone over it, the only way to help the water to get back with the outgoing
tide would be to reopen the Barrier which is a tricky thing to do – at least that is the
theory in this film.
I live in Putney, so really near the river, but it isn’t a fear for me. When I’m walking
along the tow path I don’t feel that the Thames is going to get me but when the tide
does come up very high you see people who’ve parked their cars and have made a
mistake, because the cars are now in a couple of feet of water. One sees that quite
a bit but I don’t have any personal fear of it. However, many years from now, there
might be a flood that’s worse than any we could imagine.
I only did a bit of filming in water - they give you a wet suit but that only seems to
make you even wetter, I didn’t realise that was why they called it a wet suit.
I end up clinging to lots of things to escape from the water and I get wet an awful lot.
Filming this has meant that I’ve learnt scuba diving so I could do my underwater
swimming and my wife is very excited about that - she thinks we’ll be going off to the
Red Sea for our holidays and it will be a new hobby for me. Really it just was not the
sort of thing I could pass up, coming to Cape Town for twelve weeks and being in
something truly epic like this.
It wasn’t too odd filming in Cape Town because a lot of the flood stuff they do in
tanks in studios anyway. We have been shooting stuff on the real Thames and on
the actual Barrier but generally they are able to find places that look like engineering
places and all sorts of sets that look very genuine. People really won’t know that it
hasn’t been shot in London. Working there has been wonderful because you have
the beauty of Cape Town which is a very lovely place to be and that’s been fun. My
wife came over to visit, and she had a holiday where we visited a game reserve on
my week off so it was a very pleasant experience, I have to say.
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Interview with Joanne Whalley
The nice part of this story is that you get to see two sides of Patricia. She is the
Police Commissioner with all the responsibility that entails but she also has two
children who are missing in London, which is facing the worst crisis it has ever seen.
Her daughters went to the cinema and decided to go off with friends afterwards so
they’re unreachable.
I have the professional versus the personal to contend with. As a professional
woman she has to do her job – although she obviously has her own family, there is a
population of over eight million people to protect. Within that context, she’s very
professional - there’s no time to be anything other – but the fact that her two children
are missing breaks through every so often.
The buck stops with Patricia mostly. We have the Deputy Prime Minister who takes
responsibility for certain decisions but he can only decide in the light of the advice
he’s given and it’s her job to give him the best advice possible. Patricia is based at
the COBRA command centre, where she receives all the information she needs - she
knows what’s going on in every corner of London. From Met Office statistics and all
the information that is fed through this unit, her team organise all of the evacuations.
This situation gives you food for thought. We could all be washed away in a second,
which really makes you think. Who knows what they would do in that situation. I
certainly wouldn’t be able to organise evacuating London and saving everyone else
but I might be able to get myself to high ground.
A lot of my scenes were in the COBRA command centre from which the whole crisis
is managed. When I heard that it was shooting in Cape Town I thought ‘well its great
for me because I’ve never been to Cape Town’ but it was a bit strange because I
spend most of my time at my ‘headquarters’ dealing with this situation. I could have
been anywhere.
15
Interview with David Suchet
This is an interesting role in that throughout the film this character is under pressure
– truly enormous pressure. The Prime Minister is in Australia so the weight of the
responsibility of looking after the country in this terrible situation falls squarely on his
shoulders. But I think it’s very cleverly written because you see him more as a human
being than simply the public face of a Deputy Prime Minister. That’s what makes this
role very interesting to me - to play the human predicament all the time with the
weight of this tragedy on his shoulders. My research is happening every day because
I’ve lived through enough Deputy Prime Ministers to know certainly their public face,
but of course we never ever see their private face. One hopes that they’re as human
as the rest of us, which is what I’m trying to portray.
The whole story takes place over a very short period of time - when making a film
you tend to think “oh well, we’re here for a few weeks and we can relax a little” but
not at all on this. The entire story is really not much more than 15 hours at the most,
as the storm moves from Scotland down into London. London is where the film really
centres so every scene has a sense of urgency and it’s very fast moving. If the storm
is fast moving then the characters need to be too - if they’re too laid back you don’t
get that sense of urgency. So the Deputy Prime Minister is flying up to Wick and
coming down to London and people are telling him different things and he just
doesn’t know, at points, how to cope with it all.
Situations like you see in this film not only could happen but have happened, in
Britain in 1953. We had a storm surge that killed almost 300 people on Canvey
Island. Certainly global warming could create the conditions for a storm surge and it’s
terrifying - the power of nature is a very humbling power because it makes you
realise that with all our knowledge, with all our skill, with all our science, we are
nothing against a strong wind and a flood.
It’s very interesting as an actor to come all the way to Cape Town, to make a film
based in London. I’ve often been asked whether that is confusing but it’s not,
because as soon as you walk on to the set, you feel that you really are in London.
Then of course you go outside and you hear the accent and you see the people and
feel the climate and you realise that you are, indeed, thousands of miles away.
16
Interview with Nigel Planer
My character is called Keith Hoskins and he is the head of the Meteorological
Department, which is in charge of trying to forecast and predict the weather.
The character’s journey is quite distressing actually because he starts by following
the storm and claiming London is safe - because forecasting is not an exact science
it looks as if the storm is going eastwards into the North Sea. Of course he’s proved
more and more wrong as the story progresses as the storm causes a surge which
coincides with extremely high Spring tides, which means that London becomes
disastrously flooded. So gradually not only his authority is lost but his credibility is
completely destroyed. As the disaster unfolds he becomes more and more
distressed and depressed and ends up taking drastic action because he feels so
responsible and feels that it is entirely his fault. Of course it’s not his fault that the
storm came but he feels responsible that he should have given more warning earlier
on.
I did a certain amount of research with a friend of mine who made a documentary
about the Meteorological Office so I really grilled him. Also the research that the
production team have done has been really extensive, so we had an induction
course from the team and from Tony Mitchell, the director. They showed us a lot of
video footage and pictures - that’s where I’ve got most of my information from. But for
the personal and back story of the character, I chatted to my friend who made a
documentary about the Meteorological Office to work out for myself where he came
from, what his education and family might have been like.
I find the concept of Flood particularly alarming because I live on the South Bank of
the Thames, right in the area that is flooding in this film. I think we’re getting more
and more used to nature’s power coming at us from surprising directions these days.
I think it is alarming but one develops a sort of ‘off switch’ with the terrible things in
the news. You end up with a sort of numbness because you can’t go through twentyfour hours a day thinking about all of the terrible things that could go wrong and are
going wrong because you wouldn’t be able to get out of bed.
I feel an affinity with this character’s sadness and his lack of control which is helpful,
because you need to feel some kind of affinity with a character. Over my career I’ve
done about as much straight acting as I’ve done comedy and sometimes the thing I
most like is where there’s comedy in the straight acting or where there’s something
moving within a comedy. Personally I like that grey area in between.
The main difference between filming in London and Cape Town is the heat but one’s
used to acting in all sorts of wrong temperatures. I find myself between takes wearing
just my shirt but then every time before they say ‘action’ I have to put on a heavy
corduroy jacket and imagine the weather in London. The next job I do will probably
be the other way round, I’ll be in shirt sleeves in the freezing cold pretending I’m in
Bermuda or something.
17
Cast Biographies
Robert Carlyle play Rob
FILM
The Tournament, Stone of Destiny, 28 Weeks Later, 28 Days Later, London,
Eragon, The Mighty Celts, Marilyn Hotchkiss, Dancing and Charm School,
Dead Fish, Origins of Evil, Black and White, Once Upon a Time In The Midlands, The 51st
State, To End All Wars, Jimmy Grimble, The Beach, The World Is Not Enough, Angela’s
Ashes, Ravenous Plunkett & Macleane, Face, The Full Monty, Carla's Song, Go Now,
Trainspotting, Priest, Marooned, Being Human, Riff Raff, Silent Scream, Apprentices
TELEVISION
The Last Enemy, Human Traffic, Class of 76, Gunpowder, Treason and Plot, Looking After Jo
Jo, Hamish Macbeth, Cracker, Safe, The Advocates, Arena: Byrne on Byrne, Taggart, The
Bill
THEATRE
Twelfth Night, Dead Dad Dog, Nae Problem, City, No Mean City
Cuttin a Rug, Othello
Jessalyn Gilsig plays Sam
FILM
XIII, THE Horse Whisperer, A Cooler Climate, Chicks With Sticks, See This Movie
TELEVISION
Nip/Tuck, Prison Break, Heroes, Friday Night Lights, Boston Public, Snoops, The Practice,
NYPD Blue, Law & Order
THEATRE
Fifth of July, Gun Shy, Mere Mortals
Tom Courtenay plays Leonard
FILM
The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner, Private Potter, For King And Country,
Operation Rainbow, King Rat, Dr. Zhivago, The Night Of The Generals, The Day The Fish
Came Out, A Dandy In Aspic, Otley, One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovitch, Catch Me A
Spy, The Dresser, Happy New Year, The Last Butterfly, Let Him Have It, Whatever happened
To Harold Smith?, Last Orders, The Golden Compass
TELEVISION
A Round With Aliss, Me And The Girls, Absent Friends, Chekhov In Yalta, Redemption,
Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, The Old Curiosity Shop, Kavanagh QC, A Rather English
Marriage, Nicholas Nickleby, Ready When You Are, Mr. Mcgill
THEATRE
Konstantine Treplieff, Poins, Feste And Puck, Billy Liar, The Cherry Orchard, Macbeth,
Charley’s Aunt, Romeo,The Playboy Of The Western World, Hamlet, Peer Gynt, Charley’s
Aunt, Time And Time Again, The Norman Conquests, The Fool, Prince Of Hamburg, The
Rivals, Otherwise Engaged, Clouds, The Dresser, The Misanthrope, Andy Capp, Jumpers,
Rookery, Nook, The Miser, Poison Pen, Moscow Stations, Art, King Lear, Uncle Vanya,
Pretending To Be Me, Philip Larkin, The Home Place
Joanne Whalley plays Patricia Nash
FILM
The Californians, Before You Go, Breathtaking, The Man Who Knew Too Little, Trial By Jury,
Good Man In Africa, Mother’s Boy, The Secret Rapture, Storyville, Shattered, The Big Man,
Kill Me Again, Scandal, Willow, To Kill A Priest, No Surrender, The Good Father, Dance With
A Stranger, A Christmas Carol
TELEVISION
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Lifeline, The Virgin Queen, Child of Mine, Criminal Minds, Forty, Scarlett, Save Your Kisses,
Edge of Darkness, The Singing Detective, A Kind of Loving
THEATRE
Lu Lu Plays, Three Sisters, Women Beware Women, The Edward Bond Season: The Pope’s
Wedding & Saved, As I Lay Dying, The Genius, Crimes of Vautrin, Peter Pan, Rita Sue And
Bob Too, Kate, What The Butler Saw
David Suchet plays Deputy Prime Minister Campbell
FILM
Baker Street, Act of God, Foolproof, The In Laws, Live From Baghdad, Sabotage, Wing
Commander, A Perfect Murder, Sunday, Deadly Voyage, Executive Decision, The Lucona
Affair, Big Foot and the Hendersons, When The Whales Came, Iron Eagle, Gulag,
Hunchback of Notre Dame, Song For Europe, Falcon and the Snowman, The Last Innocent
Man, Red Monarch, A World Apart
TELEVISION
Maxwell, Dracula, Agatha Christie’s Poirot, A Bear Named Winnie, Henry VIII, George
Carmen Q, The Way We Live Now, Murder In Mind, NCS: Manhunt, Victoria & Albert,
Separation, Bingo, Once in a Lifetime, Cause Celebre, Ulysees, Playing Shakespeare, Blott
on the Landscape, The Life of Freud, The Muse
THEATRE
The Last Confession, Once in a Lifetime, Man and Boy, The Play What I Wrote, Amadeus,
Saturday Sunday Monday, Who’s Afraid of Viginia Woolf?, What a Performance, Oleanna,
Timon of Athens, Separation
Martin Ball plays Wyatt
FILM
Doomsday, Ali-G Indahouse
TELEVISION
Summerhill, Bernard’s Watch, Home Farm Twins, Keeping Mum, Chalk, Little Lord
Fauntleroy, Casualty, Down To Earth, Family Affairs, Doctor Who, Doctors, The Thick Of It,
Pinochet In Surburbia, Strange, Animals, Hotel Babylon, The Only Boy For Me, According To
Bex, Wild West, French and Saunders, The Armando Iannucci Show, My Dad’s The Prime
Minister, Clare In The Community, Back Home, Human Remains, Preserves, The Missing
Postman, Genghis Cohen, Badger, Wycliffe
THEATRE
Wicked, Mamma Mia, Dead Funny, Charley’s Aunt, Absent Friends, The Taming Of The
Shrew, The Importance of Being Ernest
Nigel Planer plays Hoskins
FILM
Angels & Virgins, Bright Young Things, Thunder Pants, Wind In The Willows, Clockwork
Mice, Carry on Columbus, More Bad News/Strike, Brazil, Supergrass, Yellowbeard
TELEVISION
How To Sci-Fi, How To be 18th Century, Hogfather, Gil Mayo, The Last Detective, The Bill,
The Grimleys, Cuts, Shine On Harvey Moon, Wake Up With, Bonjour La Classe, Two Lumps
of Ice, The New Magic Roundabout, The Naked Actor/Masterclass, Frankenstein’s Baby,
Blackeyes, Number 27, King And Castle, Filty Rich And Catflap, The Comic Strip Presents,
The Young Ones, Roll Over Beethoven, Blackadder III, The Lenny Henry Show, French And
Saunders, The Trials of Oz, Songs From The Show, Saturday Night Live, Boom Boom Out
Goes The Lights
19
THEATRE
Wicked, The Rocky Horror Show, Darwin In Malibu, We Will Rock You, I An Actor, A Small
Family Business, Feel Good, High Life, Chicago, All’s Well That Ends Well, Die Fledermaus,
Nicholas Craig, Man Of The Moment, Evita, Neil, Outer Limits, Comic Strip, Badnews Live
Ralph Brown plays Neil
FILM
The Shooter, Eragon, Wild And Wicked World Of Brian Jones, The Puritan The Exorcist:
Prequel, I’ll Be There, Mean Machine, The Final Curtain, New Years Day, Star Wars –
Phantom Menance, Amistad, Up ‘N’ Under, Wayne’s World Ii, Psychotherapy, Under Cover
Blues, The Crying Game, Alien III, Withnail & I, Impromptu, Diamond Skulls, Buster, Scandal
TELEVISION
Cape Wrath, Life On Mars, Nighty Night, Coronation Street, Spooks, Sex Footballers &
Videotape, Big Dippers, Lawless, The Agency, Lenny Blue, NCS, Waking The Dead, The
Lock, Extremely Dangerous, Last Train, Cleopatra, Respectable Trade, Ivanhoe, Place Of
The Dead, A Touch Of Frost, Dalziel And Pascoe, Devil’s Advocate, Hello Real Doctor Snide,
Rules Of Engagement, A Curious Suicide, The Black And Blue Lamp, West, Merry Wives Of
Windsor, Coppers, Piggybank, Van Der Valk, Christabel
THEATRE
Macbeth, Deadlines, Return To The Forbidden Planet, West, Panic
Tom Hardy plays Zak
FILM
Rocknrolla, Waz, Scenes of a Sexual Nature, Marie Antoinette, Minotaur, Layer Cake, LD50,
Dot the I, Nemesis, Deserter, Black Hawk Down, The Reckoning
TELEVISION
Cape Wrath, Stuart: A Life Backwards, A For Andromeda, Sweeney Todd, The Virgin Queen,
Gideon’s Daughter, Colditz, Band of Brothers
THEATRE
Man of Mode, Festen, Blood, The Modernists, In Arabia We’d All Be Kings
20
Production Biographies
Tony Mitchell
Director
FLOOD is Tony Mitchell’s feature film directorial debut. His previous work includes the highly
acclaimed drama-documentaries Supervolcano (BAFTA and Emmy Award nominated for
Best Visual Effects) and Ancient Egyptians (which won a BAFTA Award for Best
Photography), the Emmy award nominated documentary Threads of Life and the RTS award
winning factual drama Neanderthal.
Justin Bodle
Producer and Co-Screenwriter
Founder of Power JUSTIN BODLE has worked in the television industry for 20 years and
spearheads a company which, has become a leading international distributor and producer of
some of the UK’s highest profile, big event international dramas. With a background in airtime
sales, Justin is considered one of the world’s experts in international programming
syndication and has used his experience in television sales and advertising to create a unique
business model. Power’s productions include the International Emmy award-winning mini
series Henry VIII (ITV) and the original action-packed epic disaster mini series, Flood (ITV).
Power's ongoing TV movie productions, Power Thrillers, include six newly commissioned
movies for the Lifetime Channel in the US. Power’s current slate includes the 13 part network
series, Robinson Crusoe, for NBC and XIII: The Conspiracy, starring Val Kilmer and Stephen
Dorff.
Power
Power has produced an impressive, premium slate of feature-film quality mini series over the
past few years and has been distributing television programming internationally for 11 years
now. The company supplies primetime drama to more than 100 broadcasters and millions of
TV viewers across the world and has produced more than £125 million worth of high quality
TV drama to date. Collaborating with some of the world’s most respected broadcasters,
Power’s productions include the International Emmy award-winning mini series Henry VIII
(ITV), Power's original action-packed epic disaster mini series, Flood (ITV); International
Emmy nominated Virgin Queen (BBC), World War II epic Colditz (ITV), the adaptation of
Robert Harris' contemporary thriller Archangel starring Daniel Craig (BBC), lively drama
Casanova starring Peter O’Toole (BBC) and the double award-winning The Incredible
Journey of Mary Bryant (ITV/Network TEN). Power's ongoing TV movie productions, Power
Thrillers, include six newly commissioned movies for the Lifetime Channel in the US last year.
Power’s current slate includes the 13 part network series, Crusoe, for NBC and XIII: The
Conspiracy, starring Val Kilmer and Stephen Dorff.
visit www.powcorp.com
Peter McAleese
Producer
Peter McAleese’s wide range of production credits include John Maybury’s The Jacket,
starring Adrien Brody and Keira Knightley, Walter Salles’ award winning The Motorcycle
Diaries and the highly acclaimed, multi-award winning Touching the Void. His other credits
include Charlotte Gray, Once Upon a Time in the Midlands, Bridget Jones’s Diary and
Intimacy.
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Michael Prupas
Producer
Michael Prupas is founder and President of Muse Entertainment Enterprises (1998) and
Muse Distribution International (2000). He practiced entertainment law for 20 years, including
15 years as a senior partner at the law firm of Heenan Blaikie as head of their entertainment
law practice. Mr. Prupas has produced and executive produced award-winning television
series, mini-series, MOWs and feature films such as This is Wonderland, The Neverending
Story, Human Trafficking, and The Many Trials of One Jane Doe.
Philip Key and Genevieve Hofmeyr
Co - Producers
Philip Key is Managing Director of Moonlighting, Southern Africa’s premier production
services company. He has been involved in the South African film industry for more than 25
years and is one of its most respected and knowledgeable players. He started his career as a
technician working across all the filmmaking disciplines.
By 1989, he had recognized South Africa’s considerable potential to attract foreign
filmmakers to the region and founded Moonlighting. He was one of the first producers to
travel abroad to market the country as a film production destination. Since then, Moonlighting
has become South Africa’s largest and foremost production services company, incorporating
Commercial, Film, Photographic and tabletop facilities. The company’s production capabilities
now extend beyond African borders to Chile, with Moonlighting + Rojas Films, & to Romania,
with Eclipse Films. Both ventures combine South African production experience with local
expertise.
Philip has, since the start of his career, played an active role in industry affairs. He was a
member of the crew union SAFTA in the 1980’s and is on the board of both the Cape Film
Commission and the Commercial Producers Association (CPA).
Genevieve Hofmeyr is a producerfor Moonlighting Filmmakers and has worked extensively in
both television and feature films. Her credits as a producer include the feature films; Ali, The
Interpreter, Racing Stripes and Home Alone 4. During her career Genevieve Hofmeyr with
Moonlighting Filmmakers has worked with 20th Century Fox, Working Title Films, Columbia
Tristar, Mandalay and Sony Pictures Television.
Moonlighting
Moonlighting has serviced more than 800 commercials for clients from over 30 countries and
many international feature films for major studios such as Columbia Tristar, Universal
Pictures, Sony Pictures, Working Title Films, Cruise / Wagner, Disney and Mandalay
Pictures.
Matthew Cope
Co-Screenwriter
Following an 18-year career in radio, television and print as an entertainment journalist and
film reviewer Matthew Cope fell, almost by accident, into Montreal’s burgeoning TV animation
industry, writing scripts and story editing for a variety of shows including Bob and Margaret,
Caillou and What’s With Andy. He has also written for an array of live action TV series in a
wide variety of genres. Cope is currently juggling development work for entertainment giant
Cirque du Soleil productions and writing a book about the making of their latest show LOVE,
which was produced in partnership with Apple Corp. Inc. and the Beatles.
22
Jonathan Lee
Production Designer
Jonathan Lee’s previous production design credits include Rob Cohen’s Stealth with Jamie
Foxx and Jessica Biel, Head in the Clouds directed by John Duigan starring Charlize Theron
and Penelope Cruz which earned him a Genie nomination for Best Production Design and the
Best Production Design Award at the Milan Film Festival, the television film Footprints in the
Snow for ITV and Power’s mini-series Colditz. As Art Director, Lee has worked on Star Wars:
Episode 2 – Attack of the Clones, the action film xXx, Michael Mann’s Ali, The Haunting,
Elizabeth for which he received a nomination for an Art Directors’ Guild Excellence in
Production Design Award, the James Bond blockbuster Tomorrow Never Dies and the lavish
period drama Restoration.
Pierre Jodoin
Director of Photography
Among Pierre Jodoin’s previous features are the ghost story Believe, the drama Ne dis rien,
directed by Simon Lacombe, two films for director Stefen Pleszcynski: L’Homme Perché and
L’Espérance, Yves Pelletier’s Les Aimants and Luc Picard’s awards winning L’Audition.
Jodoin’s television work includes the films Baby for Sale, When Angels come to Town,
Forbidden Secrets and Living with the Enemy.
Simon Webb
Editor
Simon Webb has worked extensively in television and among the many series he’s worked on
are The Hunger, The Lost World, Live through This, Tales from the Neverending Story,
Seriously Weird, Smash, Fries with That and Charlie Jade. His television films include the
award winning The Investigation and Black Widower. Webb has also edited many short films,
including his directorial debut Virtual Insanity which won the Jury Award for Best Short Film at
the 2002 Valleyfest Film Festival, and the feature L’Incomparable Mademoiselle C.
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