Why not a movie?

[Mikey]

I'd love to see a film of our heroes and I too think the '58 to '63 period would be the perfect portion of their history which to feature. However, apart from us die-hards, most of whom can remember first hand all the key events, I do wonder if there is an audience for it? I'd like to be proved wrong.
Now then, just for a bit of fun, let's have some thoughts on who would play the individual Shads? I wonder if Colin Pryce Jones can act........?!

[Moderne]

When I mentioned 'inaccuracies' I wasn't thinking so much of the shade of white of the knobs on Hank's Strat - more the completely made up parts of the story which seem to find their way into biopics. Regarding the 'Telstar' film...hugely entertaining as it was, large parts of it were completely invented - which when some of the people concerned are still alive I believe is a highly contentious practice. For example, Patrick Pink (Joe Meek's studio assistant) was extremely upset by a scene in which he was portrayed pointing a gun at and threatening Heinz - which he categorically states never happened. I'm looking forward to seeing the Brian Wilson film and, for all I know, it may be as close to 100% accurate as the film-makers could make it - but film-makers usually have no compunction about changing/inventing parts of a real 'story' for the purposes of making the film more entertaining. This is all academic, though, because as has already been said - a film about The Shadows is even less likely to be made than the TV 'Arena'-style documentary which was discussed here a few months ago. This is a shame because in truth there are several 'films-worth' of material in their story; "Jet's Story" on its own would make an amazing film....

[Stratgirl]

Why not a TV series along the lines of the Cilla story taking it from the early school years of Hank and Bruce in Newcastle up to the point of Apache when the rest is history.

[Fenderman]

say it did get made to get it accurate they could get Hank and the boys to clarify events to make sure they were correct.
As for books, Hank has been asked in the past to write his life story but refused as publishers wanted him to sensationalise it, and he wasn't prepared to do that (quite rightly).

[JimN]

For Hank in his heyday, I wonder whether Justin Daish can act?

I expect that Nathan J Hulse could do an excellent Jet...

Bruce, Tony, Brian B and Licorice might be harder to cast...

[RayL]

For a film-maker, there needs to be a strong story-line.

It could be: Hope - hopes dashed - try again - success!

For The Shadows it would be Hank and Bruce's teenage years 1957-58 that fit into this pattern.

So the story line might be: Two kids in the playground - Hank joins Bruce in The Railroaders - losing the talent contest - starving at Holly Park - first casual grouping of Hank, Bruce, Jet and Tony at the 2is - Hank meets John Foster - stepping on stage with Cliff at Victoria Hall, Hanley - fade and credits.

The Story Of The Shadows could only ever be a documentary, but as you can see, those couple of years would make a drama!

[Paul Childs]

and Jet with a stand up bass during his jazz era before joining Hank & Bruce.