PAUL DUANE, television producer and documentary maker
Your new film owes its existence to the work of a high-class prostitute. Explain. In 2004, I came across a sensational new book called Belle de Jour, which purported to tell of the adventures of a well-educated, highly intelligent woman living a double life as a high-class prostitute. Sex in the City was winding down at around this time and it occurred to me that this story could be adapted into a fantastic television series.
It was a high-profile story of sex and intrigue. Presumably, you weren't the only TV producer chasing the rights? Amazingly, I was. British television is very prudish. I contacted the author of the blog and she gave me first refusal on the idea. But nothing was signed. At one point, I spotted a two-page article about her in the London Times. The opening read like the a pitch for a TV show. I panicked, thinking someone else is going to nab this. But they didn't.
At what point did you meet her and was she concerned about her real identity leaking?A year and a half into the process, we had contracts to sign so we arranged to have coffee. She was terrified. She was studying for a doctorate at the time, so her life would have come crumbling down around her ears if her identity came out. But we bonded, eventually, over our love of country music.
'The Secret Diary of a Call Girl' ran for four seasons, with Billie Piper starring. What did you decide to do with the money you made?Well, I should clarify that the show that made it to air was not what any of us had originally intended. If the show had been made as I envisaged it, it would never have run for four seasons. It'd have been taken off after one. But to cut a long story short, I decided to use the money to make a documentary about an almost forgotten London-Irish writer called John Healy.
Healy has a really extraordinary life story. Could you summarise it for us?John was born in 1943 to a London-Irish family. He took to drink early. Eventually he joined the British army, was discharged, and lived on the streets as a wino for 10 years. In prison, he became a chess master. In 1988, he achieved meteoric success with his first novel, The Grass Arena. I'd read the book when I was in college and actually attempted to buy the rights back then.
I couldn't have bought the rights to a pair of socks in college. What did you offer?It was a sign of my incredible naivety and hubris that, at 22, I thought I could buy the rights to a best-selling novel. But I'd just sold my first film for £1,500. It was the era of the Pogues. The London-Irish thing was big and it was a world I knew well, having lived in various squats. Obviously, I was unsuccessful with the bid. In 1991, John's book was taken out of print, all remaining copies were destroyed and John vanished off the map completely.
In 2007, he resurfaced to give a reading a the Cúirt Literary Festival in Galway.Yes, and a piece appeared in the Observer warning readers to stay away if they valued their lives, because John was a dangerous character. Being me, of course, I thought, wow, I have to meet him. So I took a camera along and spent the next four years filming what has become the Barbaric Genius documentary.
Would it be fair to say that film points the finger of blame for John Healy's banishment from polite society in 1991 at one person?No. There was a duty of care towards John by his publishers, which I think was neglected. But it's not any one person's fault. It was the culture of publishing.
John was dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder after years on the streets living the savage life. When he felt threatened, when he felt like he was being ignored or even cheated, he reverted to an aggressive vocabulary. But he was never physically aggressive to anyone.
What's perhaps most striking about the film is how casually the literary world discarded him. Do you think they appreciated what a devastating effect their actions had on him?I think people who live lives of privilege rarely know, or care, what it's like not have the same advantages. Irish people who've seen the film have a very empathetic reaction to John. But I'll be interested to see what English audiences make of it. Class is a live issue in the UK again, with the election David Cameron.
Barbaric Genius runs at the IFI in Dublin from May 25th to 29th. John Healy and Paul Duane will take part in a Q&A on opening night.
