Fanfare for the underdog as Brassed Off celebrated at Royal Albert Hall

You would expect it to be something from the James Bond or Harry Potter franchises, but instead a low-budget feature about “brass band music and suicidal miners” in Yorkshire is about to become the first British film to be screened at the Royal Albert Hall with the support of a live orchestra.

Following in the footsteps of the likes of E.T., The Godfather and Gladiator, underdog hit Brassed Off has been selected for the pioneering treatment in front of an audience of thousands.

The bittersweet comedy-drama, which is celebrating its 21st anniversary this year, is a particularly appropriate choice given that its famous final scenes are set in the Royal Albert Hall. But in reality the interiors were filmed at Birmingham Town Hall after the makers struggled to get permission to shoot their then little-known project.

Now members of the Grimethorpe Colliery Band – the inspiration for the film’s Grimley Colliery Band – will be joining forces at the venue with members of the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra to perform the score live at the venue next month as the film is played on the big screen.

The film, written and directed by Mark Herman, stars the late Pete Postlethwaite as Danny, the devoted leader of the Grimley Colliery Band, who is determined to show the Tories ‘we are not defeated’. Ewan McGregor, Stephen Tompkinson and Tara Fitzgerald are among those in the impressive ensemble cast.

The film is set a decade after the year-long strike in 1984/85 at a time when miners were facing the difficult choice between accepting pit closures or fighting for their survival – with the risk of losing out on redundancy payouts for their years of service.

In this context, the film depicts Gloria Mullins (Tara Fitzgerald) being sent to her home town of Grimley by British Coal on a secret mission to determine the pit’s profitability. She is a flugelhorn player who joins the local brass band and rekindles a childhood romance with Andy Barrow (McGregor).

The story follows the lives of the band as a decision on the future of the colliery hangs over them, while they attempt to fund a trip to the National Finals of a brass band competition at the Royal Albert Hall.

The special screening is being preceded by an on-stage Q&A hosted by Jim Carter, now best known for his role in Downton Abbey as Mr Carson, with other cast members including Fitzgerald, Tompkinson and Sue Johnston, as well as Mark Herman and producer Steve Abbott.

Herman, originally from Bridlington and now living in York, says the lasting success of the film is extraordinary.

“When we were making it, I thought it would only be a five-mile radius of people around Barnsley who would be interested. Twenty-one years later, we are selling out the Royal Albert Hall.”

Herman’s first film Blame It On The Bellboy, a comedy starring Dudley Moore, had not performed as well as hoped and he had been advised to write what he knew. Inspiration struck on a chance road diversion as the Yorkshireman drove down to London.

He says: “You can never predict where ideas come from. I was living in London at the time but my parents still lived in Bridlington. The diversion took me through the South Yorkshire coalfields. Before I went into film, I was a bacon seller for my father’s business so I knew the area from that.

“On this occasion I drove through places like Grimethorpe and it was a ghost town. I was aware of the strikes but not really aware of the effects of the closures. I was rather shocked.”

He said he quickly came up with the basic concept of the film and got Film Four interested in backing it. The idea of using a brass band as a way of framing a story about a community in crisis came about after hearing a news report about a band in Newcastle having to disband because the members couldn’t afford their subs.

After the script was written, it became clear that more money would be needed because of the size of the cast and they managed to convince American company Miramax, run by the colourful Weinstein brothers, to come on board.

“It was one of those where it sort of wrote itself. The first draft took two to three weeks. The process was quicker than on any other film I have worked on. I hated brass band music before doing it! But as I did the research, I found the real brass band music which was a real education.”

The cast included Ewan McGregor who was on the cusp of stardom. He had just filmed Trainspotting, but it was yet to be released in cinemas.

“Harvey Weinstein actually let us go with who we wanted. I just wanted to have an ensemble cast without anybody too famous. It was a great gang we got together. There was a great spirit on set.”

Filmed largely in Grimethorpe, Herman says it was initially a challenge to win the trust of locals.

“There had been a TV programme made about the area where they had paid kids to throw bricks through windows. So people were suspicious of us turning up with cameras. One reason we wanted to do pre-production there was just to try to make sure people knew we weren’t taking the mickey. It was very important that they got to know we were on their side as the film was very, very close to Grimethorpe’s own story. The very first screening we did was in Barnsley that was sponsored by John Smith’s. During the film people started walking out and I was quite worried. But then they were walking straight back in having been to the toilet because of all the free beers. At the end, there was a standing ovation which was terrific.

“I thought the film wouldn’t travel – it is about brass band music and suicidal miners. But it really took off. It relied heavily on word of mouth. People who went for the humour were surprised and taken by the politics, while people who went for the politics were taken by the humour.”

Herman says while the film did have international success, it didn’t quite make the impact in the US Miramax had hoped for – thanks to similar word-of-mouth success for another Yorkshire film released around the same time in America, The Full Monty.

“The Full Monty caught up and overtook us. Harvey Weinstein joked ‘If only we had got the band to take off their clothes...” Herman says the London screening will present a special challenge to the musicians involved.

“After they have done E.T. and the music of John Williams and The Godfather, filling the Royal Albert Hall for a little film like Brassed Off to do the same thing is quite something really.

“The interesting thing about the music side of things is that in the film we took two to three days to pre-record it all at Abbey Road Studios. That has been mixed to perfection for the film. For this screening, we have taken it all off and the Grimethorpe Colliery Band will have to match that live.”

Brassed Off Live is at the Royal Albert Hall on May 9.

Amazing history of colliery band

When the Grimethorpe Colliery Band was formed in 1917 as a leisure activity for colliery workmen, none could have predicted what was to come. The band have seen many highs, including years of competitive success, a tour with The Beautiful South and they even appeared at the Olympic Opening Ceremony for London 2012, but it was the story of their resolve in the face of the colliery’s closure in 1992 as told in Brassed Off that brought the band’s story to a global audience.

“The band kept playing and since the pit closed it has become a limited company – it’s a business now,” says director Peter Haigh. “I still have deep emotions about what happened The lads who went down the pit deserved every penny they earned and more.”