Taken from the programme from Withnail & I at the Birmingham Rep, May 2024
Pour a glass and enjoy the link...
When Toby approached me about being part of this book frankly, I was sceptical. I’ve had many of these books pitched to me over the years and they pretty much all run out of steam, money or interest.
I’ve seen the proofs for this one and I think it’s the definitive source for Withnail fans and I can hazard a guess that this will be the last boom that so many of us will contribute to.
Get a ticket and hear Bruce and get your book signed, there’s plenty of boozers nearby! MC****UPDATE****
I was sorry to miss this fabulous event. It is always a pleasure to hear Bruce talk about Withnail. My excuse on this occasion was a bit more meta in that I was photographing Richard E. Grant in Budapest. Pour a glass and enjoy the link. MCLink to Q&A below:
UNCLE MONTY'S SUMMER SOIREE
It’s time again for the annual Withnail screening at Sleddale Hall aka Uncle Monty’s Cottage. This fabulous annual event has been hosted by Picnic Cinema and provides a brilliant opportunity for fans of Withnail to get together and behave inappropriately. Let’s hope it doesn’t rain.. Chin Chin! MCCRABS
Our lovely friends at Rebel Reel are having a screening of our favourite film at Dungeness Beach so if you fancy hanging out with people who are mainly from London and critiquing some of my work why don’t you drag your lazy arses there… MCChristmas comes early for Withnail fans
Having just approved the layouts for this book, I can honestly say this is the definitive book on our beloved ‘Withnail & I’ I encourage you all to pre-order on the Titan website. Sadly not free to those that can afford it. MCAuthorised by author and director Bruce Robinson, who provides an exclusive foreword, Withnail & I: From Cult to Classic charts the extraordinary journey of a beloved cult film from being ‘just thoughts really’ to becoming a permanent feature in any list of the Best British Films ever made.
For the first time the surviving players have been interviewed for this book about their parts in the making of the movie, and the lasting effect it had on their lives. Bruce Robinson offers detailed insights into his creative process and influences, while new interviews with the film’s stars Richard E Grant and Paul McGann provide personal insights into the impact that making and living with Withnail & I had.
Illustrated throughout with never-before-seen photography and archive material, and featuring contributions from famous fans like Sam Bain, Margaret Cho and Charlie Higson, this is the definitive, must-have book on Withnail & I.
RELEASE DATE 5th September 2023
Sometimes I love social media...
…An old crew member got in touch and sent me this picture of my good self photographing Paul in Kensal Rise with hairdresser, Sue Love overseeing just before the wrecking ball hit and Jimi kicked in. Why he took the picture god only knows …but I’m happy to have it. MC
2020 in the rear-view mirror..
What a bloody year! It’s difficult to know where to start as we’ve all got our own stories, highs, lows and in between.
I began the year innocently, as we all did, in San Francisco on ‘The Matrix’ with Lana Wachowski at the helm and I have to say that I would never have put a shilling or two on shooting Neo and Trinity at this point in my career. To say it has been a remarkable experience would not do justice to any of the creatives involved but you can make your own minds up next December.
After the US we travelled to Germany in March to continue production at Babelsberg Studios but then the pesky pandemic kicked and I was sequestered in Berlin which turned out to be piece of good fortune for me except for the fact that my cameras were locked down at the studio for 4 months but my chums at Leica DE took pity on me and loaned me some cameras to keep me quiet.
I’m writing this with the impending chaos of carnets and packing ahead before a return home to, hopefully, a better 2021, and have printed 25 prints in 5x7” size of a lovely personal moment of the boys between takes in Regents’ Park mounted and signed and ready to drop into an 8x10” frame. For no particular reason I’m offering them at £45 including shipping which, for those paying attention, is cheaper than last year!
Blessed are the vaccine makers.
Chin chinMurray
Breaking News! Bruce comes out of isolation....
My spirits soared this week when I read that Esquire UK are hosting a Bruce Robinson live commentary of a screening of ‘Withnail and I’ on May 17 at 7pm BST followed by a Q&A. This is truly ‘one off’ event and I urge anyone who has the slightest interest in this tired old film to join in. I’ll be getting a few ales in and hopefully remain sober enough to remember I watched it.It’s not as if you have much else to do..Chin Chin!**UPDATE**Video below
Boris made me do it...
Press articles globally celebrated our PM’s Covid recovery aided by viewing Withnail & I featured this image. In a moment of rare clarity today I recalled that I made a series of prints of said image signed by Bruce, Richard, Paul and myself and had stored them in the wine cellar.. so I have added them to the shop. It’s amazing what you can find when the pubs are closed. Chin Chin! MC
Tea Room Revisited...
Now that the pesky Covid bastard has got us between the eyes I have no excuses left not to update the ‘Withnail Photos’ blog, I bet you couldn’t wait…It is remarkable looking back on a single black and white contact sheet of 36 exposures to see how a scene was created and even more extraordinary that 2 iconic images came from that one roll of film. Back in the day an average shooting day would be 3 rolls of film, on my current assignments those numbers are blown out of the water with an average of about 1000 images (approx. 28 rolls of film) per day. Maybe it’s the lack of booze on set or the association with ‘digital is free’, which couldn’t be further from the truth.We were only in Stony Stratford for a day’s shooting and covered 2 classic scenes, ‘The Tea Room’ and ‘Booze or Boots?’, starting with the exterior scene with Monty and the Rolls in the drizzling rain and then moving into the Penrith Tea Room.The Tea Room scenes were always going to be shot quickly as we anticipated that the local middle aged extras could well have issues with Withnail’s foul language which is why the coverage is concise, we never even see Mrs Blennerhassit. I think I shot the scene on 50 f1.4 lens on a Nikon FM2 body, wedging myself into a spot between the camera dolly and a boom operator. I’m still amazed by that day.
Q & A with the Photographer Part I
What cameras did you use?
I was using Nikon FM2s with fast F1.4 lenses as a lot of the scenes particularly Monty’s cottage and the Camden Town flat had very low light levels. In the pre-mirrorless camera age I had to use a sound blimp which resembled an oversized lunchbox to muffle the shutter noise during filming. My film choices were limited due to extreme exposures and in the 1980s I had to shoot colour and black & white in order to supply the press with both.
At the time of filming did you have any inkling that it might become the cult classic it is today?
It is almost impossible during production to forecast the success or failure of any film I have worked on and if I could I wouldn’t be hanging around on rainy mountaintops capturing images. However one thing was certain that the script and characters were something I had never encountered before and the tightly knit creative group together with the dedicated cast made me feel like we were making something unique. Whilst this feeling is great for ones creative juices it does not necessarily mean the cinema going public will reach for their wallets.
People have come to associate your photographs so closely with the film that it is easy to mistakenly remember the film in black & white. Is that something you were conscious about at the time?
To this day I think of Withnail as a black and white film and I am always taken aback when I watch it and it turns out to be in muted colour. I shot a lot of black and white photographs on Withnail as I knew the results would be better due to the faster emulsions and the push developing. I shot an equal amount of colour but Kodak Ektachrome in 1980s had a low ISO number and was prone to a contrast build up when push developed. Given my choice I would always choose black and white Withnail versus colour Withnail but then again I would choose black and white over colour any day.
You exhibited your W&I collection at the BFI in 2007. How did this come about, where were the negatives and did you think there would be such interest in your photos when you eventually exhibited them?
Due to the untimely demise of Handmade Films and the regular reselling of their catalogue I became the defacto source for photographic needs in the 1990s when Withnail & I was not available on VHS or DVD and whilst the film remained dear to many of our hearts a new audience was only introduced to it by watching a scratchy VHS cassette tape made in the late 1980s. With the advent of digital photography, photographic labs were closing every week around the world and when the lab I was using in London was closing down, they reminded me that they still held a lot of my original material including the Withnail negatives and asked If I wanted them back. The answer was yes. By 2007 after Criterion Collection had finally released Withnail and I as a DVD attracting brand new audiences I was persuaded that their would be an interest in an exhibition. I was taken aback with the turnout to see the photographs and reunite with Paul, Richard & Bruce.
Welcome...
Welcome to my new ‘Withnail & I’ photography site. Clearly I have set out to showcase my fabulous work of course but also to provide a safe forum where Withnail aficionados can visit to get updates on Withnail related events, catch up with my Withnail blog and even to answer the odd question or two. Let me know what you think in the comments.. Chin! chin! Murray. P.S. For all my other work visit my Website and Instagram. Links below: