Paul Burton

 

Louise Michelle & Vicki Michelle in a scene from Paul Burton's film, Resentment. © Paul Burton

 

 

Paul Burton's first main experience of the arts, in terms of producing his own productions, came whilst he was attending a Leicestershire college. In 1990 he staged two charity variety shows at the college theatre. But it wasn't until the end of 1991 that he started to plan his next theatre project. This was yet another charity variety show, but this time at The Y Theatre, Leicester. Entitled, A Night on the Town, this show was to see the start of Paul's working relationship with the theatre which included seeing him also working there as a house manager. One of his main interests and the most enjoyable parts of his time at the theatre was becoming an amateur in-house theatre producer.

 

During Paul's time at The Y Theatre, Leicester, one of the productions that he staged with his own amateur theatre production company was the West End and Broadway smash-hit cult musical, Little Shop of Horrors. This show tells the story of an all singin' and all dancin' life-sized plant which lives on human flesh and blood! This production, which had grant aided assistance from Leicester City Council, was staged for a short run between the 5th and 6th June 1993. The show was quite a challenge to stage at The Y Theatre as it is such a small theatre, especially with the large professional plant puppets and props which were originally built for and used in a large professional theatre. However, Paul found this production great fun to produce and direct.

 

The musical itself, which was first staged back in 1982 by the legendary West End and Broadway theatre producer, Cameron Mackintosh, and Paul has always believed that the show makes for an ideal summer night theatre-outing, because of its light-hearted book and a great catchy score! Paul still recalls this production as being one of the most memorable and enjoyable shows that he has ever staged, and recommends that all amateur dramatics companies who like a challenge should consider staging their own production of this musical.

 

The next production Paul staged at The Y Theatre, Leicester, was in April 1994. Entitled Out of the Cavern, this show was a dance-documentary which charted the history of The Beatles, by using the medium of dance and also with the use of recordings of the music of The Beatles, slides and narration. The choreographer on the production was Stephanie Moulds. The production, which ran from the 25th - 30th April 1994. In the latter half of the run Paul also ended up taking of the role of the D.J., a character who supplied the narration to the show, and thus helped to tell the history of the legendary band. This was after the original actor, Gary Roberts, was sadly taken ill.

 

Paul recalls that Out of the Cavern was an extremely enjoyable show to produce and stage especially because of the hardwork and company of Stephanie Moulds and her dancers. And his sincere thanks and gratitude stills stands to this day! The production also gave the opportunity to use the theatre's unique auditorium in way he hadn't used it before. A large dance floor was placed on the theatre floor and new lighting positions were fixed to the wall under the balcony in order to give a larger performance area for the dancers, whilst the seating in the stalls was adapted so that the audience sat watching the show in the round.

 

In 1995, Paul began to write, produce and direct work with his own not-for-profit television production company for the first time. And between 1995 and 2000 made a selection of light entertainment and drama programmes for Cable 7, a one-time community television channel based in Leicester, who under the various ownerships in that time broadcast to over 100,000 people in Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and parts of the East Coast of England.

 

The first television drama he wrote, produced and directed was entitled, Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, and was a drama set in Second World War. This drama pilot resulted in him making another three parts to this drama, in what came to be known as The Mirror Series.

 

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, told the story of a young couple, John Short, a 27 year old man, and Mary Williams, and 17 year old female. They were characters who, as well as facing the hardships and troubles of wartime life, had to face the disapproval of some of their family and friends as a result of the ten year age gap between them. This problems they encounter was then sadly increased by the news that Mary is expecting a child.

 

Always a person willing to face a challenge, Paul set this drama two eras, the early 1940s and 1995. But despite being faced with a comparatively low and self-funded budget, this drama included filming on the Great Central Steam Railway, Loughborough, Leicestershire. A location used in many professional films including Buster, which starred Phil Collins and Julie Walters, and The Hours, which starred Nicole Kidman.

 

This short drama featured a cast of talented amateur actors and a large cast of extras, all from Leicester and Leicestershire. Mirror, Mirror on the Wall also marked the television debut of a young actress called Emma Manton, who Paul met whilst they were both working at a Leicester theatre, and has since become a professional actress. Most notably she has been recently seen as a supporting actress and extra in Ricky Gervais's popular BBC2 sitcom, The Office.

 

In the autumn of 1995, Paul made the second part of The Mirror Series, entitled Reflections. Following this he made the final two parts of the series, Mirror Image and Sea Reflections, were made between 1996 and 1997. In 1998, Paul edited together a special 90 minute feature-length version of the series which was entitled, Changes. At the start of 1996, Paul was delighted to receive an award for the Best Drama Production 1995, from Cable 7, for Mirror, Mirror on the Wall. Sea Reflections was also nominated for Best Drama of the Year 1997.

 

The Mirror Series, as with many of Paul's theatre, film and television productions, gained a great deal of newspaper and radio coverage in the Leicestershire area. And Paul considers himself very fortunate that the Leicester press have always been a great help to him. This is not only with promoting his various projects, but helping him to recruit the many actors, actresses, extras and production team members that been involved with my many productions. And for this Paul says he will be forever grateful!

 

1995 was a prolific year for Paul, and this included seeing him staging, directing and appearing in my own amateur theatre company production of the West End farce, The Mating Game, by Robin Hawdon. Paul staged this farce at Countesthorpe College Theatre, Countesthorpe, Leicestershire, for a short run of just three performance at the end of September. Two of Paul's colleagues in the cast were Gary Roberts and Emma Manton, who had both appeared in his drama film, Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, and this was shortly prior to him reuniting them both for the second part of the drama series entitled, Reflections.

 

As well as writing, producing, directing and appearing in his own light entertainment programmes in the late 1990s, 1998 included seeing Paul return to writing, producing and appearing in another drama. And, having finished working on The Mirror Series, this time he turned his attentions to making a new thriller. Lasting one-hour, Memories Evoked, like Sea Reflections, the fourth part of The Mirror Series, that was made the previous year in 1997, also included location work on the North Norfolk Coast.

 

Memories Evoked has been one of the most ambitious drama films that Paul has made to date. Wedding scenes filmed at a church in Foxton, Leicestershire, alone featured over one-hundred extras. Filmed during the long hot summer of 1998, Paul found the thriller very hardwork but extremely enjoyable to make and prior to its first tx date on Cable 7 during the summer of 1999, received its premiere on the big cinema screen at the Phoenix Arts, Leicester, on Monday 19th June 1999. This marked the first of four cinema screening events that Paul staged at the Phoenix.

 

Memories Evoked featured Gary Roberts as David Lamden, and Charis Berry as Julie Weston, a couple whose relationship and eventual marriage is destroyed by the presence of an evil spirit. And Since Memories Evoked, Manchester-born, Charis Berry, has gone on to appear in several professional television productions including the ITV1 soap, Coronation Street, and the dramas The Butterfly Collector, for Granada Television, and Queer As Folk, for Channel 4.

 

Having won the Best Light Entertainment Production 1997 award from Cable 7, for his three-part television series, Televisual, in early 1998, Paul began work on a new chat show series in May 1998. Entitled, The Paul Burton Chat Show, guests who joined him for the series which was made between 1998 and 1999 included: the veteran singer and songwriter, Joe Brown, actor Denis Quilley, and actress, Gabrielle Drake.

 

In 1999, Paul had the great privilege of meeting and interviewing the television comedy producer/director, Dennis Kirkland, and the comedy writer, Vince Powell. Paul originally met Dennis Kirkland near to his Hampton Hill home in Middlesex, and Vince Powell at Teddington Studios, the former headquarters of Thames Television. Both men came up to the ntl: Cable 7 Studios in Leicester, in October 1999, where Paul recorded a special sixty-minute version of my chat show. Dennis Kirkland and Vince Powell then continued to help and support Paul with certain projects right up until their untimely deaths in February 2006 and July 2009 respectively.

 

2000 marked the end of an era for those people, who like Paul, were involved in Cable 7, Leicester's community television channel. Having been on air since September 1992 the channel sadly ceased broadcasting in July 2000. This was after ntl: decided to close most of its community television channels. After this sad event Paul decided to turn his attentions to hospital radio, and made a series of radio chat shows and a documentary on comedy for Radio Gwendolen, a hospital radio station based at the Leicester General Hospital.

 

By the start of 2001, Paul decided to write, produce, direct and appear in a new short film and to screen it at the Phoenix Arts, Leicester. Entitled, Love in a Hospital, this short comedy film was made in June 2001. Many of the cast and crew had never worked with each other before, but Paul was also pleased to gain both cast and crew members from the old Cable 7 days too! The most amazing part of the whole production was how the veteran magician, Paul Daniels, came to appear in the film! Paul's involvement in the film came about after a journalist, who had interviewed both Paul's seperately about their respective projects, put them both in-touch. Paul Daniels had expressed an interest in becoming involved in acting in film and television productions. And, having discussed with Paul Daniels the set up and a little about the film, the end result was that Paul Daniels played Paul Burton's father in this short film, which was his homage to the Carry On... and Doctor... films of the 50s, 60s and 70s!

 

A large unit, which featured a large team of actors, actresses, extras and production team members, took part in the long, one-day 'shoot' in Oadby, Leicester. With a church hall doubling as a hospital in the film. A wedding scene at the end of the film was shot across the road at nearby St. Peter's Church! Paul recalls that one of the most memorable parts of the day, however, was when Paul Daniels started to direct the traffic in the nearby road as the unit crossed from one location to another!

 

Love in a Hospital was screened at the Phoenix Arts, Leicester, on Sunday 19th November 2001, with an accompanying 'behind the scenes' documentary.

 

A month or so after the Love in a Hospital screening, Paul began to work on my next film production. Entitled, Run for the Shadows, this was a murder thriller based in a fictitious business in Leicester. Gary Roberts returned to play Dave Mansfield, the lead male in the film, whilst Emma Jane-Redman, (now Emma Jane-Wright), and Kerry Coeshaw, played the lead female roles, Sophie Winters and Jane Douglas, respectively. Roberts played a bitter man whose bad divorce had resulted in him losing access to his two children. The events of the break-down of his marriage caused him to resent women. As a consequence of this anger, resentment, and frustration, Mansfield turns to murder.

 

As with Love in a Hospital, and all of the films that Paul made since the Cable 7 days and up until 2004, the production equipment and post-production facilities were provided by a Leicester City Council funded film and video facillity in Leicester. While Alan Warner, who had been the Boom Op. on Paul's very first film, became the camera operator on this and Paul's post-Cable 7 films until mid 2004.

 

Run for the Shadows was filmed in April 2002, and by the May of the year, Paul had decided that he would make a series of other short films that, along with Run for the Shadows, would be screened at the day long screening event at the Phoenix Arts, Leicester, in June 2003. And thus between October 2001 and June 2003, Paul wrote, produced and directed another four short films to be screened at the self-funded event which was entitled: The Big Screen Project. The other short films were called: I'll Be Seeing You, The Country Murders, The Passenger and Watching Over You.

 

The day-long screening event took place at the Phoenix Arts, Leicester, on Sunday 1st June 2003, one of the hottest days of the year. And those involved viewed the films, along with their friends and famillies as well as other members of the public, with the best-attended screenings being in the afternoon. The films were seperated into two screening programmes. The first programme featured: Run for the Shadows, I'll Be Seeing You and The Country Murders, whilst the second programme featured: The Passenger and Watching Over You. The same two screening programmes were then repeated in the evening.

 

The autumn of 2003 saw Paul return to film-making, and he wrote, produced and directed a new pyschological thriller entitled Premonitions. As with Sea Reflections and Memories Evoked, location work on this film took place on the North Norfolk Coast during a cold very cold weekend in October 2003. Despite the very cold weather, the picturesque coastline and scenery of the area surrounding Cromer, helped provide an atmospheric backdrop to the film.

 

Premonitions tells the story of Chrissie Newsome, a woman who starts to have premonitions. At first she has a reoccuring premonition about a young woman being involved in a road traffic accident. She then begins to have a reoccuring premonition about herself being attacked by a man whose identity she cannot make out. Eventually she discovers that the girl, who turns out to be called Nicki Young, who Chrissie saw in her premonitions when she was awake or asleep, has really been killed in an accident. Finally, Chrissie, unable to cope any longer and sacked by her boss for her constant lateness, travels to Norfolk to surprise Alistair Robins, a man who she has been emailing after meeting him in a internet chat room. It is only then that she truely realises how close to home the true effect of her premonitions can be.

 

Filming on the pyschological thriller, Premonitions, also took place in the Leicestershire countryside including at Foxton, location also used for Paul's films Memories Evoked and I'll Be Seeing You. Post-production on the film was completed by late November 2003, and, as with Run for the Shadows, Paul decided that this film would be supported with other short films. In the event these would be called A New Start and Abduction.

 

Filming on A New Start, which again Paul wrote, produced and directed, began in March 2004. This film told the story of Rebecca Buxton, a woman who is still grieving after the death of her brother in a motorbike accident. Her best friend, Melanie Potter, encourages her to join the same night school as her. It is here that Rebecca meets and starts a relationship with her english tutor, Nick Baker. Baker has once had a relationship with Melanie, and, despite the relationship having ended, Melanie still has feelings for Nick. This causes a rift in Rebecca and Melanie's friendship. As a result Rebecca, who is also Melanie's boss, decides to close her firm and go to stay in Spain with Nick. However, both Rebecca and Melanie are brought together in England again when a mutual female friend dies. Both decide to talk about the events that lead to the end of their friendship, after the funeral's wake. It is only then that the two women decide to sort out their differences.

 

Again several amateur extras from Leicester appeared in A New Start,  playing students at the night school.in the film. Clare Hanson, who had by now appeared in Paul's previous six films, was joined by Teresa Hodson, in her first main role. Teresa had first shown how professional she is when she took over a small role in my previous film, Premonitions, right at the very last minute, when another actress had to pull out. 

 

Premontions was screened at the Phoenix Arts, Leicester, on Monday 28th June 2004, with A New Start and Abduction as support. To date this has been Paul's favourite screening event, and he also firmly believe that Premonitions, despite all of the ups and downs he experienced along the way during production, turned out to be the best film he has made to date. Certainly this film also turned out to be the best-received film that he has made to date too.

 

Following its first screening in 2004, Premonitions was shown at another short film festival at the Phoenix Arts, Leicester, in October 2004, and A New Start was shown on a community television channel in Brisbane, Australia, called Briz31 TV.

 

A large part of 2006 saw Paul setting up Paul Burton Radio, a not-for-profit hospital radio project. Paul wrote, produced and directed radio plays for hospital radio stations in the UK with this project until 2008.

 

Paul was lucky enough to persaude several well-known actors, actresses and writers etc. to become patrons of his radio project. These ranged from actress Vicki Michelle, who is best-known for having appeared in the classic BBC sitcom, 'Allo 'Allo!', to the legendary sitcom writers Ray Galton & Alan Simpson, who are well-known for writing and creating the sitcoms Hancock's Half Hour and Steptoe & Son.

 

Paul was delighted when in the latter part of the summer of 2006 the TV magician and entertainer, Paul Daniels, agreed to star in a new radio play that he was writing entitled The Wedding. And so it was that after the script was completed that he set about publicising this new radio drama. The aim being to find both professional and amateur actors and actresses to join his new not-for-profit company, Paul Burton Radio - Radio Repertory Company. The main idea being that each time he wrote a new radio play, he was able to cast the roles using members of this company. And during October 2006 both the Leicester Mercury and Leicester Mail newspapers both featured the radio play, the latter publication even putting an article on their front page!

 

Paul also took part in Julie Mayer's BBC Radio Leicester lunchtime show one Monday in October 2006, to discuss and promote The Wedding. The production team of the show also had Paul Daniels as a guest on air via a phone link-up, and both Paul's were able to talk on air about the radio play.

 

With the casting complete for both radio plays, the day then finally dawned for everyone to assemble at Quad Studios in Leicester on Sunday 5th November 2006, the venue for the recording of The Wedding. Paul Daniels had fortunately been working in nearby Loughborough the night before so his drive wasn't as long as back in June 2001, when he appeared in the short film he had been making. Back then, Paul had to drive down to Leicester from Southport, where he had been appearing in his one man show the night before.

 

After coffee and a meet and greet, Paul held a read-through for The Wedding. Here lines that didn't scan correctly Paul quickly rewrote on the spot for the cast, before finally everyone went into Studio One at Quad Studios to record the radio play. Sitting beside the studio engineer in the control room, Paul directed the radio play whilst the cast which included Paul Daniels) performed their roles in the studio next door.

 

In late March 2007, Paul was approached by Apex Publishing Ltd. to write his autobiography. Now on-sale, Paul's autobiography, Making My Own Space, with a foreword by the actress & crime writer, Linda Regan, and an afterword by Paul Daniels, is available to buy from various high street and online retailers.

 

Following on from the completition of this first book, Paul was asked to co-compile The Official Carry On Quiz Book. This book had the blessing of the creator and producer of the Carry On film series, Peter Rogers, which was a great thrill for Paul, a life-long fan of the Carry On film comedy series. Sadly, Peter Rogers passed away during April 2009.