Gavin enters Hall of Fame with movie

Gavin enters Hall of Fame with movie

16 September 2020

TO be hailed as the ‘sixth Python’ is the latest accolade for Saintfield film-maker Gavin Irvine.

He was also entered into the Hall of Fame by the Brighton Rock Festival recently for being a winner two years in a row.

Gavin’s latest film, Daddy’s Note, was named Best Comedy at the festival which was held recently under virtual conditions. Last year he won the same category with another film, 2:40 to London.

Gavin — who was raised in Saintfield but now lives in London — admits that he was delighted to be linked to the famous Monty Pythons as he loves their work.

He has recently enjoyed a purple period with his work being acclaimed internationally and winning awards in Europe and beyond.

Gavin explained: “After watching Daddy’s Note, James Rowlins, the festival director, described me as ‘the sixth Python’. 

“I was like, ‘Wow’. What a amazing accolade. The film indeed has a link to the Pythons  as Terry Jones’s son, Bill Jones, lent me some kit to make the film. He runs Bill and Ben Productions in Soho. 

“While it’s a rather tenuous link I know, I love the work of Monty Python and the interlude technique they use within their films, especially in Monty Python and The Holy Grail. This something that I explored in Daddy’s Note via a cameo starring myself as a rubbish trumpet player.

“But to be inducted into the Hall of Fame is an accolade I’ll forever cherish and to have created a little bit of history is wonderful,”

Gavin’s latest short comedy film features the son of a government minister who buys drugs for his father from two dealers which sets off a dangerous precedent that he can’t control.

It’s viewed as a British-centric satire which plays into the theme of class with humorous Python-esque interludes.

The Monkey Bread Tree Film Festival called the film a “comedy genius” while Brian Mulholland, festival director of Film Devour Short Film Festival in Belfast, wrote: ‘Funny film, got a real Python feel to it’. 

Gavin said he was inspired by former cabinet minister Michael Gove’s admission during the Conservative Party’s leadership contest that he once took drugs.

“The big themes I wanted to explore were the British class system, the loss of innocence within the youth of our society and the hypocrisy that seems to be the norm within politics,” he remarked.

“I shot the film in a phone box, which the drug dealers use as an office, in Primrose Hill, a very affluent area of London. I liked the contrast of chavs working in a posh area — the ‘us verses them’ scenario exemplified what the film was about.

“For me the film is a satirical critique of modern day British morality — not unlike a Hogarth painting. It deliberately depicts brutal caricatures that are continuously painted across our daily tabloid press. 

The film was due to be screened at Film Devour as part of the Belfast Film Festival earlier this year, but that was cancelled owing to the Covid-19 lockdown.

However, there is hope that it will be screened at Belfast’s Black Box when the restrictions are relaxed further.