Scotland At The Movies

24 February 2009, 16:46

Comfort and Joy stars Bill Paterson and Clare Grogan took to the red carpet at the Glasgow Film Festival to relive their memories 25 years after the film was first released.

The film festival celebrated the silver anniversary of Bill Forsyth’s Glasgow-based follow-up to Local Hero with a special screening of the movie at The Mitchell Library. 

Asked how it was to see the movie again after 25 years, Paterson joked: “There’s none of us that looks a day over... well, there’s one of us that looks a day over that, but one of us doesn’t! It’s not often you do this, you revisit something that was so iconic in your past.”

“We saw a clip of it, because I don’t think either of us have seen it in many, many years,” Grogan added. “I don’t think I’ve seen it since it opened the Edinburgh Film Festival, but we saw a clip of it this afternoon and we were both quite taken with our hairstyles!”

Paterson, who is current starring in Law & Order UK, took the lead role in Comfort and Joy as Glasgow DJ Alan “Dicky” Bird, a man who longed for a release from the trivial reality of his daily job. Salvation came from the oddest source; an ice-cream war in the heart of the city.

“A lot of it was shot in winter, because it was a Christmas theme,” Paterson recalled. “Sometimes people are clever and they shoot these Christmas movies in the summer and just pretend it’s dark, but we shot it in November and December. 

“The hours of daylight were so tiny, and everything may look casual and relaxed, but it was incredibly rushed. My memories are of just saying: ‘We’re losing the light,’ and that usually happened at about 12 o’clock in the afternoon...”

“My memory is eating practically the entire contents of the back of the ice cream van, which was propped to perfection,” Grogan said. “Penny caramels, the whole thing... also giving out 99 cones to the crew, and getting a row for it because it cost money!”

When talking about how Glasgow has transformed since Comfort and Joy was shot, Paterson explained: “The movie shows how much it’s changed. Our memories are like everybody’s, they go on, everything changes around you, but the picture shows it very strongly.”

Grogan added: “I think that when the film was shot, it was at the start of a big change in Glasgow in terms of the year of culture. I know that was a bit later, but Glasgow was heading towards a big change.”

Last updated: 10 April 2009, 17:47