TALE OF THE UNEXPECTED
TO OLIVIA I Director John Hay brings us the darker side of Roald Dahl…
First things first. To Olivia might feature author Roald Dahl, but this is not a biopic, says director John Hay (Lost Christmas). “I didn’t want to do a bouncy Roald Dahl story about the writing of Charlie And The Chocolate Factory. I very much wanted to do a story that was about a couple going through grief. It could have been anyone… we’ve all suffered grief.”
The film is set in the early 1960s, with Dahl (Hugh Bonneville) not yet a famous author. Rather, To Olivia focuses on his marriage to Hollywood actress Patricia Neal (Keeley Hawes) and the horrors they go through when one of their three children at the time, seven-year-old Olivia, dies from measles encephalitis.
With Dahl drowning his sorrows,
To Olivia treads a darker path than you might expect. “All the studios wanted it and many rejected it, because it didn’t have sufficient Easter Eggs,” says Hay. “It wasn’t really the Roald Dahl story.”
As it’s adapted from Stephen Michael Shearer’s Neal biography An Unquiet Life, that’s maybe no surprise, and her time starring with Paul Newman in Hud features prominently in Hay’s film.
To Olivia arrives at a time when Dahl is in the news again, with his family recently apologising for his anti-Semitic comments. “I personally welcome the apology. I really do,” says Hay. Nevertheless, he hopes it won’t overshadow Neal’s story. “It’d be [a] real shame if Pat was once again subsumed into the Roald Dahl bandwagon.”
There is added poignancy, too, with the appearance of actor Geoffrey Palmer – who died last November – in his final role. “He’ll be very, very, very, very sadly missed by me personally,” says Hay. “Hugh gave me, as my wrap present, a picture of [Geoffrey] with his arm around me. It sits right above my desk and will remain there to the end of my days.”
ETA | 19 FEBRUARY / TO OLIVIA OPENS IN CINEMAS AND ON SKY CINEMA NEXT MONTH.