‘One hell of a story’
The world watched when the SAS stormed the Iranian Embassy in 1980. The British TV reporter who covered the siege says it’s ‘‘surreal’’ to see herself in the new Kiwi-made movie of the siege. meets Kate Adie.
KDarren Bevan
ate Adie has seen it all, from the 1994 genocide in Rwanda to the war in Sierra Leone in 2000, in a 27-year career on the frontlines as the BBC’s chief news correspondent.
But there’s one thing the veteran correspondent has never seen – someone playing her in a movie on the big screen.
That’s about to change, with the release of New Zealand director Toa Fraser’s 6 Days, which heads out nationwide from September 7 after getting its premiere during the local legs of the New Zealand International Film Festival.
The film heads back to May 1980, when six armed men stormed the Iranian embassy in the leafy suburbs of South London.
Barricading themselves inside with 26 people held hostage, they made demands including the release of Arab prisoners and safe passage out of the United Kingdom.
In a first for the broadcaster, the BBC interrupted coverage of a major snooker final to broadcast live footage of the SAS storming the building, with Adie reporting from the scene.
Adie is played in the movie by Australian actress Abbie Cornish, and even though she has sat through the film a couple of times already, she still finds the concept of seeing herself portrayed on screen a surreal one.
Huddled in a corner of Auckland’s majestic Civic Theatre during a whirlwind publicity tour, she laughs as she reflects on her cinematic debut.
‘‘I have to say it’s an out-of-body experience! And I was so, sort of, overcome by this rather bizarre position that I had difficulty afterwards when people said, ‘What’s the film like?’
‘‘I had to have a real re-think and say ‘Actually, it gets what it was like, it gets the spirit of the time’. Boy, it is the 1980s, and it is one hell of a story.’’
Dead Lands director Fraser approaches the story from various directions, giving the film a feel of a documentary, with the tense edge of a thriller. Writer Glenn Standring, Fraser’s partner on Dead Lands, pieced together the script after poring over hundreds of documents about the event, as well as talking to key players from the siege, including Adie herself.
Yet, the devil’s in the detail that’s showcased on the big screen, with much of 6 Days‘ period accoutrements responsible for the film’s 80s feel.
For Adie, capturing a sense of the time was paramount to ensuring the film was a success in her eyes – even if work commitments meant she couldn’t physically have been on set in New Zealand for the filming.
‘‘We had a lot of discussion with people and wardrobe about how we looked, how we behaved, what we did – that sort of thing.’’
Laughing, she adds that one key detail was crucial to her portrayal: ‘‘The most important thing was to point out that no lady reporters wore trousers! I used to cover riots in skirts and high heels in those days.’’
However, all joking aside, while Adie’s career has been illustrious to say the least, she’s still extremely passionate about journalism and what it means in this modern world, especially given the threats it faces in the age of Trump.
‘‘Democracy is under severe stress. And if you consider that a free press is one of the pillars of a democratic state, then I think we have a lot to do and a lot to defend at the moment. I think that democracy is being probed and questioned in a way that it hasn’t for a long time. And I don’t think people do enough to defend it.’’
Fired up and in full flow, Adie doesn’t hold back. ‘‘Secondly, that means that the press and the general public should be active about having a free press, as well as having an active, responsible, determined and candid bunch of journalists reporting honestly. It is terrifying that the head of a large democratic state has actually called the media the enemy of the people. We need to keep the standards up, but we also need to understand how important it is for democracy.’’
Adie knows what she’s talking about, having witnessed first hand the terrifying consequences of those wishing to suppress free speech and the journalist’s basic right to document what is going on.
In 1989, Adie and a BBC camera crew found themselves on the scene as the Chinese government attempted to crush student-led demonstrations in Tiananmen Square. Thirty years later, it still haunts her – its the only time in our conversation that she slows down. ‘‘The thing I remember most was the massacre by the Chinese army of its own citizens in Beijing in 1989. We were the only crew out in the square – and... ,’’ she says, pausing heavily, ‘‘... it still makes me pause and draw breath.
‘‘And it’s still a live issue, I was refused entry, a visa by the Chinese Embassy, last year because they, still, in their regime, will not acknowledge what they did and will not allow their public to know about it. I, as a journalist, feel at least we were there and we have the evidence of what they did. They would love to erase it from history.’’
opens nationwide on September 7.
6 Days