QUADROPHENIA 40
IN a houndstooth dress Leslie Ash looks a world away from the teenager who rocked a leather coat as Steph in Quadrophenia 40 years ago.
But she is back in a follow-up, on set with Toyah Willcox and Mark Wingett, who also both starred in the 1979 hit film.
To Be Someone is a belated extension to the story of Quadrophenia, The Who’s double album love letter to the Mod fans who worshipped the band in the 60s.
In the original, set in1964, Steph hooks up with Mod Jimmy, played by Phil Daniels, in a famous alleyway sex scene.
Leslie reveals she was just 17 at the time and “a bit of an airhead”. “I didn’t know much about Mods or their music,” she says. “But we were all given a copy of The Who’s album, which I really loved.”
The movie follows mailroom boy Jimmy’s life after work as he parties, takes amphetamines, rides his scooter and brawls with motorbike gang Rockers.
He is the exactly the kind of fan drawn to the defiant songs of The Who, including My Generation and Won’t Get Fooled Again. But he is arrested after friends, including best mate Dave, played by Wingett, 58, get involved in a huge fight in Brighton, based on a real- life riot that shocked Britain.
Men Behaving Badly star Leslie, 59, says:
“Filming the riots was really scary. It was chaos, with police and members of the public involved. It was like a real riot – health and safety didn’t come into it. I got knocked over.”
Toyah, 61, reprises her role as Monkey in the film, being shot in screenwriter Peter
Meadows’ home town of Stevenage, Herts.
Peter describes the new movie as “Lock
Stock and Two
Smoking Barrels meets
Snatch – set in 2019”.
In Quadrophenia
Jimmy at first idolises
Mod leader Ace Face, played by Sting. But the film ends with him stealing Ace’s scooter and pushing it off a cliff after they fall out.
To Be Someone explores what happens to Jimmy next, and The Who songwriter Pete Townshend has given permission for the story to be based on his character.
Producer and director Ray Burdis is helping to adapt the story for the screen.
Also on set were reality stars Dr Alex George, of Love Island, and his girlfriend Amelia Bath from Ibiza Weekender.
There was no sign of Sting or Phil Daniels. But Leslie, leaning on a cane she uses after hospital treatment for an accident 20 years ago, will never forget her original appearance with Phil.
The alley love scene was so realistic that many fans are convinced it was “the real thing”.
But it had already been rewritten because Leslie refused to go nude as the first script draft dictated.
She says: “Nothing happened – it was all acting. It’s just a bit embarrassing to watch. It’s the only sex scene I’ve seen where both actors are fully clothed.”