It has been dubbed 'MacMamma Mia' and Dexter Fletcher agrees it's a fair analogy. As Sunshine On Leith hits the big screen, the actor-turned-director tells Susan Griffin how a certain Scottish duo became the focus of his new film
THERE will be plenty of happy faces when the new musical Sunshine On Leith hits cinema screens this weekend.
One person who won't be smiling, however, is the gentleman who landed a part as an extra, as a man staggering out of a pub following a knees-up.
His scenes have been cut and the director, Dexter Fletcher, stepped in instead. "The guy we got didn't do a great job, so I was encouraged by our cameraman and cast to do it," the 47-year-old director says.
His is not the only cameo in the feel-good film. Identical Scottish twins Craig and Charlie Reid, better known as The Proclaimers, also crop up. "They were on set two times and I just said, 'Guys, will you walk out of the pub here?'" says Fletcher. "It gives us a great light-hearted moment, and you know you're allowed to laugh in this film."
In fact, the duo's songs feature throughout the narrative and are, to all intents and purposes, the reason the film came about.
Sunshine On Leith started life as a stage production. Well, more accurately, the title first belonged to a Proclaimers album from 1988. Then, in 2005, screenwriter Stephen Greenhorn was looking for a Scottish musical he could develop with his friend James Brining, artistic director of the Dundee Repertory Theatre.
One night, while listening to The Proclaimers, he drunkenly scribbled 'Proclaimers musical' on the back of an envelope and went to bed. He woke up with no recollection of his inspired idea - until he saw the scrawl.
After securing permission from the Reid brothers, Greenhorn and Brining spent two years developing the show before its stage premiere in 2007.
Then a film producer who saw the show thought it'd be a great idea for a film, says Fletcher.
It's little surprise that the movie's being dubbed 'MacMamma Mia'. Fletcher, who as an actor has starred in the likes of Press Gang, Band Of Brothers and Hotel Babylon, and made his directorial debut with 2011's gritty London drama Wild Bill, has no problem with the association. "That's no bad thing. It did fairly well," he jokes, referring to the global smash hit Mamma Mia. "This might be set in Scotland, and there aren't any Abba songs, but I think that's a natural comparison."
When production company DNA Films approached Londoner Fletcher he hadn't even seen the stage show. "I was kind of relieved I hadn't seen it, because it meant I didn't know how tough an act I had to follow," he says, laughing.
Following Wild Bill he'd been looking for something different for his next project "something that was as far away from that as possible," he explains. "Musicals were my first great love as a kid. The first film I remember sitting down to watch was Singing In The Rain, and of course, I was in Bugsy Malone." Indeed, a schoolboy Fletcher made his film acting debut as Baby Face in the 1976 Alan Parker-directed hit.
In the same way that Mamma Mia bears no resemblance to the lives of the four members of Abba, Sunshine On Leith doesn't focus on Scottish twin singers. Instead, the story explores the Henshaw family who live in Leith, just outside Edinburgh, and their relationships with assorted friends and partners.
At the head of the family are husband and wife Jean and Rab, played by Jane Horrocks and Peter Mullan. "As we had Jane and Peter, it gave us a bit more freedom with the younger cast. We could use undiscovered, newer talent, which is always an exciting opportunity to have," Fletcher says. Horrocks and Mullan were "the dream team", he adds. "Jane, we know, isn't only a great actress but has a fantastic voice."
Unlike Horrocks, who proved her musical prowess in Cabaret and Little Voice, Mullan had never sung on screen before. "He said to me, 'I'm no Pavarotti', but that wasn't what was required. It's about him loving the song and singing the way he does," Fletcher explains. "Besides, he's an old Proclaimers fan."
Although based in Leith, for financial reasons the majority of scenes were shot in Glasgow. "It's got a bad rep for some reason, but I think it's a cool, lovely place and the people are charming," he says of the city.
But the big closing number, which sees hundreds of people come together to belt out The Proclaimers' famous hit I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles), was shot in Edinburgh. "It's a song people know instantly and we played it loud and proud and the country pretty much joined in," says the director.
* Sunshine On Leith is in cinemas from tomorrow.
nSOMETHING TO SING ABOUT:Dexter Fletcher and, right, The Proclaimers