It seemed logical, almost perhaps inevitable, that ESSEX BOYS was produced by Granada Film. As Jeff Pope says: "I am a Granada employee, so obviously that was my first point of call. Thankfully Pippa Cross (Head of Production for Granada Film) shared our enthusiasm, and gave us the go ahead for it to be developed.
"Terry and I felt that we had made
TV mocies and now wanted to work on a bigger stage. We wanted
to go bigger with our thoughts for cast and scenes. With TV you
are squeezed that much more - this is a big story, and we wanted
a big canvas to paint it on. We conceived it as a movie from the
beginning for that reason. We always had this clear idea that
it was about Essex, but that it was also about a complex relationship.
Normally with a television budget you are asked to choose between
making it an emotional drama or an action piece. What we did was
to go for both. This gave us a load of problems, but we felt it
would be something fresh if we could pull it off."
The Green Light