Interview
How we made Wish You Were Here
‘It was wonderful to see the film’s phrases – like “Up yer bum!” – enter the vernacular’
Monday 17 April 2017
David Leland, writer and director
The inspiration for this film was the famous British brothel-keeper Cynthia Payne, in particular her rebellious adolescence spent in Worthing and Bognor, but it was just as much about my own memories of growing up in a village near Cambridge. That parochial life we captured – with every kid’s party taking place in the British Legion and all the men wearing blazers and playing crown green bowls – is taken from my dad and the older generation in my village.