Don’t tell Sid, but Pistol pal’s run off with his girlfriend
First glimpse of TV punk drama
THEY set out to offend the world – but clearly didn’t mind upsetting each other.
Shooting for a drama series about the Sex Pistols includes this scene where guitarist Steve Jones sneaks off with Nancy Spungen, bandmate Sid Vicious’s girlfriend.
Jones has admitted he slept with the peroxide blonde American, saying: ‘I don’t think he [Vicious] ever found out, and I don’t think he’d be too bothered if he did.’
First pictures from the filming for Pistol, Danny Boyle’s series about the band, show Toby Wallace as Jones with his arms around Miss Spungen, played by Emma Appleton, as they get into a green mini in Peckham, south east London. The six-parter is based on Lonely Boy: Tales From A Sex Pistol, a 2018 memoir by Jones of how he achieved notoriety alongside his bandmates.
Jones detailed his prolific sex life, which included seducing his bandmates’ girlfriends, and revealed how he ‘took one for the team’ by hooking up with Miss Spungen. ‘She was so whiny, I was bewildered by what he [Sid] could’ve found attractive about her – she just seemed to have so little to recommend her as a person,’ he wrote.
Vicious, who is played by Louis Partridge, was born Simon John Richie. He died of a drug overdose in 1979, aged 21, while awaiting trial for the murder of 20-year-old Miss Spungen.
Boyle was seen – in a face covering – directing a night shoot this week with Anson Boon as singer Johnny Rotten and Jacob Slater as drummer Paul Cook.
Sydney Chandler, who plays Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders and who will star with Harry Styles in Don’t Worry Darling, was with the group as they huddled next to a red phone box.
Partridge and Boon shared behind-the scenes selfies of them practising their punk snarls in rehearsals. Boyle’s series will follow the band’s rise and their relationship with manager Malcolm McLaren and his then girlfriend Vivienne Westwood, played by Thomas Brodie-Sangster and Tallulah Riley.
Iris Law, the daughter of actors Jude Law and Sadie Frost, will make her screen debut as Soo Catwoman while Christian Lees is original bassist Glen Matlock, who was replaced by Vicious in 1977. Dylan Llewellyn appears as Wally Nightingale, who formed a band with schoolmates Cook and Jones in 1972 but was replaced by Rotten when they transformed into the Sex Pistols. He died in 1996 aged 40.
Pistol is due to screen on US channel FX in 2022. Its previous shows have aired on the BBC.
‘I don’t think he ever found out’