New film on Barry-born journalist who opposed fake news
ACTING star James Norton has said it is “unnerving” and “disconcerting” how history is repeating itself as he arrived at the premiere of his latest film about an early crusader against fake news.
The Happy Valley actor plays Barryborn journalist Gareth Jones in Mr Jones, about Stalin’s genocidal famine in eastern Ukraine and the man who first brought it to the world’s attention in the 1930s.
Norton added it is a “crime” that Jones, who was working for our sister paper the Western Mail at the time, is not taught about in schools and he hopes the film brings him to wider public attention.
Arriving at the movie’s premiere at the BFI London Film Festival, he said: “It is disconcerting that history seems to be repeating itself over and over again.
“It feels like we’ve come a long way and in many ways we have and we have made immense progress but then suddenly whilst we were on set and were going and having drinks in the evenings after shooting, we would be witnessing the beginnings of a slide the wrong way towards the types of governments we are experiencing today and it was unnerving how similar the two were, the story we were portraying and the current situation.”
He added: “It’s embarrassing how little I knew about the subject matter and also Gareth’s story itself, the fact that this man isn’t known in all schools and universities is a crime so hopefully we can tell his story, celebrate the man, but also shed light on the Holodomor itself and bring some much needed attention to it.”
Norton, who is from London, also embraced the challenge of playing a Russian-speaking Welshman, saying: “When someone pitched the role to me as a Welshman who speaks fluent Russian, and I would probably have to speak quite a lot of Russian in a Welsh accent, that was a niche role but one I was obviously excited to embrace.
“It was a privilege to be accepted as an honorary Welshman for those few weeks and we had some wonderful Welsh actors who were very helpful with the accent, but also very welcoming and inclusive.”
Born in Barry in 1905, Gareth Jones graduated from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, in 1926 with a first class degree in French, and from Trinity College, Cambridge in 1929 with a first class honours degree in French, German, and Russian.
In January 1930 he began work as foreign affairs adviser to former British Prime Minister David Lloyd George.
In the summer of 1931 he toured the Soviet Union with HJ Heinz II of the food company dynasty, producing a diary which probably contains the first usage of the word “starve” in relation to the collectivisation of Soviet agriculture.
Mr Jones will be released in UK cinemas in February 2020.