The film maker
Ken Loach, defying old age, has won the Palme D'Or and praise in many quarters
for his latest film "I, Daniel Blake" set in what he regards as his
home intellectual territory, the lives of those at the bottom of the heap and
having a bad time.
There is
interest in how much he would make on this in that film making is one of the
those ruthless capitalist activities that are red in tooth and claw. That his
film had other support has been an interest. So what will he do with the loot,
sorry, the rewards of work and thought?
My suggestion
is that he revisits one of his early successes, "Kes, A Kestrel for a
Knave" to tell us what happened to Billy Casper the boy at the centre of
the film. Ever willing to be
constructive, a plot line is suggested below.
Billy, now in
his 60's is a retired former social worker who made it to the higher grades
only to be early retired after an internal reorganisation following a
management consultancy review. His hobby is stuffing birds for sale online but
he has become the target and victim of eco' warriors.
After one
divorce and then the failure of the second marriage, unwilling to pay for
another divorce Billy has had several partners. His latest, Millie
Glossop-Wooster is a former Guardian journalist who went to Barnsley to
research poverty only to realise that if she sold her suburban home in
Hampstead she could buy a decent large house and small holding up in the
Pennine area of Barnsley.
Millie has
created a bird breeding centre as a tourist attraction and source of income. It is the old birds that
Billy kills and stuffs to ply his trade. They live a quiet and ordinary life
between Barnsley and their other homes in the Costa del Sol and Caithness. The
plot deals with the stresses in their lives and partnership now they have
become local hate figures.
A lot of noisy
rows, debates, incidents and the rest involving much of the local community,
the police and other services mean that Millie decides to go back to Hampstead
and leave Billy. His only consolation is his season ticket in the main stand at
Oakwell to watch Barnsley play.
Billy is lost
and bereft. One day wandering in a part of old Barnsley he is drawn to enter a
church where the door has been left open. Somewhere high up a choir is singing
"You'll Never Walk Alone" as he goes to the altar and feels impelled to
kneel and pray.
Then there is
a tap on his shoulder. He looks up and sees Clarrie Hirst, his old Head Teacher
who so often told him to get stuck in on the football pitch or else. But
Clarrie has long since gone. "Come on lad," says the ghost of
Clarrie, "Time for t' Big Kick Off, Barnsley are in the heavenly
Premiership and you are the centre forward. The lads from Longcar will be there
and Brannan has promised to put it down to expenses."
Billy follows
Clarrie through the wall. The film closes with a cleaner, being paid below
minimum wage, discovering the body of Billy, beside him is the feather from the
tail of a kestrel.
Would crowd
funding do the job?
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