JULY 2019 • 27this turn. They begin breezily, but
quickly descend into deeper musings.
He’s easy company, but he’s also
quite clearly a philosopher. A trait
that ekes out again when I ask if his
perception of Britain has changed
since his orchestration of the much-
lauded London Olympic Opening
Ceremony back in 2012. A ceremony
that incidentally won the director a
knighthood, though he turned it down,
claiming it wasn’t his “cup of tea.”
“I don’t subscribe to the fact that
this is a different
country now,” he
answers, decisively.
“What has happened
is that politicians, for
whatever reason, have
chosen to emphasise
something that has
the potential to divide
us. And they haven’t
covered themselves
in glory in doing that.”
He draws out the “o” in glory, that
Mancunian accent satisfyingly in-
place despite years of working
in Hollywood.
“I still have great faith in people.
We’re not that different really. We
like to think [that Brits] have more of
READER’S DIGESTa sense of humour, or we’re better at
music but [the ceremony was] really
celebrating the potential of people,
and a belief in people. You have
to sustain that belief even though
it’s often challenged by weak or
duplicitous politicians. I wouldn’t
make a very different ceremony now.”
Another thing the ceremony
celebrated was our collective
memories of Britain. It’s a theme that
runs through much of Danny’s work,
whether that’s the world forgetting
The Beatles, Jamal
remembering all
the right answers in
Slumdog Millionaire
or an auctioneer with
amnesia in Trance.
“It’s how we hang
on to our sense of
self I think, memory.
But memories are
not that important
to you in your early
adulthood, I watch my kids who don’t
keep photographs or cards and think,
Don’t throw that away, in 30 years that
memory will mean so much to you! And
you wonder, what did I throw away?” nYesterday is in cinemas from June 28I WOULDN’T
MAKE A VERY
DIFFERENT
OLYMPIC
OPENING
CEREMONY NOWROAD RAGE
Fans were so relentless in their ploys to steal “Penny Lane” street signs in
Liverpool that the council eventually resorted to painting the name of the
road directly onto the surrounding buildings.
SOURCE: WHATSONSTAGE.COM