Episode 44. ‘This Blessed Plot’: Thaxted Revisited

SYNOPSIS

This interview follows the fascinating story of the experimental screenwriting and filming of This Blessed Piot (2024), which is set in contemporary Thaxted, but incorporates historic pre- and post-war footage. It explores how Marc and Adam’s previous collaboration, The Filmmaker’s House (2021) led to the making of a ‘documentary fiction film pageant’ about Thaxted and its history, after one of its cast, Keith Martin, moved there. Encountering Thaxted with fresh eyes and with no previous knowledge of it, Mark and Adam weave a modern story about a young Chinese filmmaker, Lori , who visits Thaxted to shoot material and starts to hear the ghostly voice of the Red Vicar of Thaxted, Conrad Noel.

Having decided on their place and subject, Marc and Adam then came across the Boulting Brothers film, Ripe Earth, featuring Conrad Noel, his son-in-law Father Jack Putterill, a harvest festival service at the Parish Church, and shots of Morris dancing. The content of This Blessed Plot was further enriched by an understanding of how the composer and local resident, Gustav Holst’s collaborated with Conrad Noel. Holst’s The Planets features in the soundtrack to This Blessed Plot.

GUESTS

Marc Isaacs is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, known for Men of the City and All White in Barking. Adam Ganz has written for the screen and radio, and is Professor in the Department of Media Arts at Royal Holloway College. This Blessed Plot is their second film collaboration.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/This-Blessed-Plot-Yingge-Lori/dp/B0CFPH3QYT

https://tv.apple.com/gb/movie/this-blessed-plot/umc.cmc.4ahaebnrr35vyawmat2zwktxm

 Marc and Adam’s interview with Simon Machin was recorded in Bloomsbury on 8 March 2024.