It was a delight and a privilege to welcome Jill Balcon to the city last October 2008 for the INTO THE LIGHT event. The sad news of her recent death on Saturday 18 July came as I had begun to plan for her second visit to the city, which I hoped would take place later this year - again in October.
She was in some pain and discomfort last year on her visit, but agreed to make the trip up from her Hampshire home, and entranced all those who met her at the Odeon Cinema on New Street.
I had sent a series 5 Mercedes to collect the 84 year old Jill Balcon from her home, thinking it would give her the roomy comfort she needed due to her ill health and lack of mobility. She was tickled to find out that the last occupant in the car had been the Tory leader, David Cameron MP, en route back and forth from the Conservative Party Conference held that year in Birmingham. Sharing David Cameron's car certainly got her political hackles up.
Jill Balcon was a guest of the city that evening at the first INTO THE LIGHT event – the Closing Night of the HELLO DIGITAL Festival - which celebrated the life and career of her father, the Birmingham born and bred film producer, Sir Michael Balcon – Birmingham’s Film Knight.
She gave a barnstorming speech about her film producer father and her actor son, the twice Oscar winner Daniel Day Lewis, conjuring up for the audience, packed into the Odeon cinema that October night, an insight into a genuine cinema dynasty.
Jill Balcon was keen to watch the film chosen to celebrate her father’s career - the Ealing classic, KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS - although she did comment to me that “too often my father's career is exemplified by Ealing Studios, when in fact the war time films such as WENT THE DAY WELL, DEAD OF NIGHT, THE FOREMAN WENT TO FRANCE, and SAN DEMETRIO LONDON also deserve as much attention. “ We agreed that a future INTO THE LIGHT event would include a screening of one of these classic war time movies, which she offered to introduce.
As the credits for KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS, sourced from the British Film Institute’s Archive, rolled down the Odeon screen, Jill Balcon touched my arm and said sadly – “All gone, save for Douglas Slocombe, the cinematographer. I knew them all at Ealing, and now they're all gone. “ A generation of UK creative endeavour and talent had just scrolled past her eyes.
Jill Balcon was born in 1925 and was married to the Poet Laureate Cecil Day Lewis. She carved out for herself an impressive acting career on the stage and on screen, taking in a number of Ealing movies in the 1940's - NICHOLAS NICKLEBY, GOOD TIME GIRL - and in more recent years in two films directed by Derek Jarman, EDWARD 11 and WITTGENSTEIN.
Her children are the film actor, Daniel Day Lewis, and Tamasin Day Lewis, the television chef and cookery writer. Daniel Day Lewis is widely considered to be the consummate professional of his generation, collecting two Oscars, three BAFTA's and one Golden Globe in a film career of glittering distinction that took off after his performance in the movie MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE. Yet, as Jill Balcon explained on that October evening – “The only award he keeps at his home in Ireland is ‘Most Promising Newcomer, Co Wicklow Running Club’ “
The first time I contacted Jill Balcon about her father, her response was very welcoming, though tinged with some regret. She explained that her father held great fondness for his home city, however she had always wondered why the city and its public realm had found it difficult to acknowledge her father's enormous contribution to the world of cinema.
In a small and modest way, INTO THE LIGHT has helped to achieve this recognition.
She was in her element when chatting to the George Dixon School students who filmed and interviewed her that evening. Helpful, patient and putting them at ease, she answered all their questions, offering nuggets of family information and advice about the world of film and acting, even though all the while her back was jabbing her painfully. The students from the George Dixon International School are making a documentary on the life and career of school alumnus, Sir Michael Balcon. Jill told the students how proud she was of her son, Daniel Day Lewis. “He lost a toenail making LAST OF THE MOHICANS, carried on working with pneumonia while making GANGS OF NEW YORK, and he hurt his ribs shooting the fall scene in THERE WILL BE BLOOD.”
There are very close associations between the Balcon family and the George Dixon School. Most notably, the fact that the Birmingham school boy Michael Balcon had attended the school in the early part of the 20th century, and later on in the 1940's the adult Michael Balcon would visit the school with his new production (eg, WHISKY GALORE) under his arm, and show it to the school boys as a premiere in a make shift cinema, even before the film was on general release.
Sir Michael Balcon also immortalised the school in the guise of Sergeant George Dixon, the 'good copper', in the Ealing movie, THE BLUE LAMP. George Dixon was later to re appear this time on the small screen in the long running BBC series, DIXON OF DOCK GREEN (recently revived on BBC radio). So, it is entirely appropriate that the George Dixon School should continue the associations between the school and the Balcons by turning its own cameras onto Jill and her film making family. The school also has a small Balcon archive which has begun to attract the attention of the UK Film Council and the British Film Institute.
The INTO THE LIGHT event in the Autumn will now also be a tribute to Jill Balcon and will include a screening of the George Dixon school students documentary, including the interview with Jill Balcon, a showing of one of Sir Michael Balcon’s war time movies from the BFI Archive – as recommended by Jill Balcon herself - and an opportunity to see Jill Balcon , the actress, in one of her finest screen performances.
Producer and Professor, Roger Shannon
Liverpool’s Edge Hill University