He always wanted me to be artier

I thought it was a hardship having to work at Sight & Sound in the wake of the stockmarket crash in 2008. It was clear that – barring miracles – screenwriting would never again constitute ‘a living’. A friend in Manningtree said if you take this job, a little piece of you will die. But really it was a godsend. I used to meet you every month for lunch, at the Foyles Cafe, and that was a lifeline. (I’ve always appreciated stuff that I do regularly, every week or month, just because it doesn’t need setting up each time…)

From 1999 (when Premiere closed) to 2009, I basically just worked from home and did childcare etc. But jobs can be a good thing – if the people there actually ‘get’ you. At S&S, no-one really did. But you ‘got’ me! So for one lunchtime each month, I felt human.

It was during the Liability time. The entire staff of S&S NEVER EVEN SPOKE ABOUT IT – except for the editor. Ignoring the fact he’d known me 25 years, during which time we’d written songs together, he dutifully ‘had’ to see it to gauge whether it deserved a place in ‘his’ magazine. And a freelance sub was glad to borrow a dvd of it and (generously) gave it a 7 (when the received opinion was that it just scraped a 6…).

That screening that you came to – and Norman – I basically stopped asking people to. It was so depressing that NO-ONE wanted to come. It clashed with the latest Tarantino (the Django one), so…? Even a production exec at the BFI – who I’d known for 25 years too and was IN THE BUSINESS – didn’t come because she had ‘a work thing’. (And she still hasn’t – to my knowledge – seen it…)

So I thought: I’ll just take you and Norman (and D, who came to the screening but ran off without a word. Ah… He always wanted me to be ARTIER…)