Tolerance Ability not In Ability A Producers Commentary 25th Anniversary Edition
Part 4 – Accessibility, Social Life and Relationships
My commentary of Tolerance continues and we are looking at the part of the film that deals with accessibility, social life and relationships.
14 minutes 29 seconds Robert goes into town to try and get a birthday card for Julie, but finds some of the shops and cash machines inaccessible. Does anybody know what the drum and bass music is here? Please let me know, so I can add it to the soundtrack playlist
Deleted scene
The next deleted scene is unnumbered in the script, but it would have seen Robert go into a bank to get some money for Julie's birthday present. In the final film, we only see Robert struggling to get some money from nearby cash machines. You can read about banking issues when you have a disability in another blog which is coming soon called Breaking the Bank
Robert wheels into the bank and we immediately see he has a problem with the height of the counters; he has to reach up to put his cheque book in the trough; the counter woman looks at Robert as if he has done something wrong. An assistant taps him on the shoulder and Robert turns with a start:
ASSISTANT: Can I help you?
ROBERT: Why, what have I done wrong?
ASSISTANT: Nothing, but I thought you might like to conduct your business over there.
She points to a table where it is easy for Robert to see exactly what he is doing.
ROBERT: But I only want some money from my account.
ASSISTANT: I can sort it out, so you can see what you’re getting.
ROBERT: OK
The Shooting Schedule says that if the bank scene had gone ahead it would have been recorded on Wednesday 18th August
17 minutes 05 seconds Mrs Jones gets what she deserves as her car breaks down. If you look in the background, you see Jeremy Walker making a sly cameo as Julie’s taxi driver. Well deserved too, as it was Jeremy’s idea to make Tolerance in the first place.
17 minutes 29 seconds
Odeon Cinema sequence it was part of the UCI Cinema chain when we shot the Tolerance film it become an Odeon Cinema in 2006.
Matthew my Brother tells me that that branch of the Odeon Cinema will be shutting soon because of a new shopping development being built as part of the Kingsgate shopping centre.
The pub which also featured in the film and where we had the wrap party The Ropewalk is now also closed for business. according to the camra guide the pub was closed on the 3rd of March 2020 and became closed in the long term on the 3rd of March 2022 its future uncertain.
The last of our film spoofs - this time to An Officer and a Gentleman. David remembers this scene vividly as he quotes it both in his introduction for Tolerance and in an interview he gave me later for the films publicity material.
I don’t know if you knew this but there was a bit of controversy on the making of the Tolerance film in hiring non disabled actors to play disabled roles if you remember we made all the cast and Crew for the duration of the shoot use a wheelchair 24/7 how did you find the experience?
I wasn’t aware of the controversy, but expressed my own reservations to Richard (the director) when we first talked about me playing the role. There’s a dream sequence in the film that required my character to walk, so ultimately I felt that was sufficient justification And David again mentioned the Officer and a Gentleman sequence for the introduction to The Tolerance film
‘I played Rob - a wheelchair user - even though I’m not a wheelchair user myself. At the heart of the film is a drive to see the person not the disability, so maybe it shouldn’t matter who plays the character - but it’s certainly worth thinking through.’
In fact, Rob needs to walk in the film (no spoilers!), and that was the principal driver behind using an actor who was not a wheelchair user.
You can judge for yourselves whether that decision was justified. Perhaps the producers would not make the same choice today. Perhaps the story would be re-shaped to enable the casting of actors with disabilities.
Watching the film again recently Gemma Blagbourgh remembered that her and Helen Batty had to Iron David’s officer suit quite a few times to give the pristine look that you saw in the finished film the flowers that Rob gave his girlfriend Julie proved a a bit of a problem too as Ben Brown remembers oh those flowers that came from one of the films sponsors who owned a flower shop called The flower basket and they were great looked really nice but they kept at my house as I recall over night and we had to water them quite a few times to stop the poor things from dying ha ha
The picture bellow Helen and Charlotte giving each other a hug if you look carefully u can see those dying flowers that Robert gives Julie in the Officer and a Gentleman dream sequence on one of the seats of the bus
Talking about Gemma she was the second member of Tolerance to appear in the film, Gemma appears as the cinema manager. I had the day off that day but the rest of the cast and crew had to get up at 5.30am to shoot the cinema scenes. Gemma said about her Tolerance experience afterwards:
‘Yes I really enjoyed the whole experience of working on Tolerance. The only thing I didn’t like were the early mornings; the earliest being half past five in the morning when I had to film my scenes. It was long hours, but I wanted to show people with a disability that you can work and you can work in positions of authority.’
Deleted scene
Scene 26: (Internal) Cinema Auditorium
The last scene left on the cutting room floor was a short scene that takes place after the montage where we see Robert get the job at the cinema.
I have a feeling that this scene was cut because it didn’t really add much to the overall film. Robert is making a reference to Rocky Balboa’s girlfriend, Adrian, played by Talia Shire in the film series.
Robert and Julie are sat at the very front of the auditorium and are straining to see the screen.
ROBERT punches the air: ADRIAN!!!!
JULIE looks across at him: Who’s Adrian?
ROBERT: Nothing, nobody, just thinking.
JULIE: Well think on this. If you get this job, you can devise a way we can sit in the middle of the cinema and see properly.
Julie laughs at him and grabs his hand.
So Robert gets the job at the cinema and we see a montage of shots of him enjoying his new role to the music of the The Professionals theme music. I like the scene but I would have used the classic Pearl and Dean Cinema Music.
If you don't know what I am talking about click here thanks to YouTube (5) Pearl and Dean 1970s - YouTube
21 minutes 41 seconds Ropewalk scenes. These were all shot on the last day of shooting, so if we all look the worst for wear, you know why. Quite a bit of footage from the Wrap Party was used to form the film end credits
Rob Martin took 3 photos of the last day Some other photos from that last day have recently been unearthed by Tolerance member, Helen Batty, and I have included a few in this blog. Thank you Helen for letting me share these.
*Party scene at the end. If you looking for me in that scene, you will have a job finding me. Blink and you miss me! In addition, there are also a couple of errors with people’s credits; Helen Rees, for example, is incorrectly credited as Helen Briggs.
It goes without saying that I would like to say thank you to all the members of the Tolerance cast and crew, and to all those companies that provided us with donations big and small that made up our £8000 budget.
** The introduction for the film was published on Tumblr website on 6 April, 2018 ahead of the films re-launch on the same day. https://yestolerancepro.tumblr.com/
If you have read this and want to help the Tolerance Project, please follow us on Facebook for up-dated information:or to give a donation please click on the above link to our gofundme page
https://gofund.me/5cf25de4
Or on Twitter @TolerancePro
Notes
Thank you to David Smith and Gemma Blagbourgh for the interviews The Cast and Crew of the original Tolerance film for allowing me to use the behind the scenes photos Rob Martin for taking the photos in the first place and finally Ruth Sharpe for the editing duties.
Also thanks to Gemma Blagbourgh and Matthew Brown for helping me fill in some of the blanks
Like part 3 of the making of blog Part 4 has had quite a bit of new material added to it the making of the Officer and a Gentleman spoof was originally detailed in a Tolerance Project extra piece which has been deleted from our Tumblr page so I have included that material in this new version of the blog as well an extra photo which also came from the Tolerance Extra blog and a load of Screengrabs from the Tolerance film are also new to this version of the blog .
If you have read this and want to help the Tolerance Project, please follow us on Facebook for up-dated information:or to give a donation please click on the above link to our gofundme page
The Tolerance story so far A group of plucky young people who called themselves the Toler… Ben Brown needs your support for Tolerance: Abi
Also Thank you to Doctor who magazine for letting me nick there Fact of fiction format ha ha
Photo captions
Screengrabs from the Tolerance film thanks to Ian Medley
1 Robert (David Smith trying to get his money out of an ATM
2 Jeremy Walker making his cameo apperance in the Tolerance film as Julies Clare Abbot Taxi Driver if it wasn't for Jeremy we wouldn't be making the Tolerance film in the first place thanks Jeremy
3 David Smith Doing his best Richard Gere Impression for the Officer and a Gentlemen spoof
4 The Ropewalk Pub Huddersfield
5 Gemma Blagbourgh playing the Cinema manager
6 and 7 Robert in his dream job working for the UCI cinema
Behind the Scenes photos with thanks to Rob Martin and Helen Batty
1 Paul Lockwood Soundman with Claire Abbot and David Smith
2 Paul Lockwood Soundman 2 with Richard Hellawell Claire Abbot and David Smith
3 4 and 5
The Wrap party
Charlotte Helen Batty and Micheal Weaver Claire Abbot Ropewalk Kevin Spencer Playing pool with Laura Brown Jonathan Lyndley and Richard Hellawell