Reg is an acclaimed new film co-written by Jimmy McGovern. It tells the real-life story of a father, Reg Keys, taking on the British Prime Minister over the UK’s participation in the Iraq war. But it’s much more than that. It’s the story of a mum and dad trying to do what’s right by their son. A son brutally killed just weeks before his 21st birthday. It’s a true tale of heroism, guts and determination. A modern day David vs Goliath with an ending that will put a lump in the throat of even the most jaded viewer.
Reg is available to watch on BBC iPlayer now.
When asked what Jimmy McGovern brought to the project, the real Reg Keys was unequivocal: ‘Jimmy’s strengths lie in championing the working class man, especially somebody who has a story to be told when he feels he’s been a victim of the establishment… There’s no finer writer than Jimmy to do this. I’m quite struck by his humility and I found him a remarkable chap to work with.’
Reg also threw light on the process of how McGovern writes, recalling: ‘When he was asking me what I was doing on the day Tom was killed, I said I was at a garden centre shopping. Jimmy asked, what did you have to eat? What did you buy? How much did you pay for it? I’m thinking, is any of this relevant?! But it is in Jimmy’s mind. He’s thinking about his scenes and his camera shots. He’s picking all these little seeds to plant in the viewer’s mind and I suppose that’s where his professionalism comes into play.’
The finished film generated outstanding reviews. In The Times, Gabriel Tate called Reg, ‘…a magnificent tribute to the courage of grieving families and a worthy epitaph for the deceased.’ Writing in The Telegraph, Jasper Rees noted, ‘McGovern knows where to find the drama in stories of private grief battling institutional indifference’ and in the Guardian, Lucy Mangan declared, ‘There wasn’t a weak moment in the film,’ and added, ‘I don’t know where Jimmy McGovern gets the emotional energy or resilience from, I really don’t.’
Well, not sure we can help with that one, but we did catch up with Jimmy McGovern and chatted about his latest work for the BBC…
Question: When did you first become aware of Reg’s story?
Jimmy McGovern: I came across it in the newspapers and the media at the time. It must have been about ten years ago that I first approached Reg and interviewed him at length. Other things got in the way but it was always at the back of my mind that I must tell Reg Keys' story.
Q: What was it about Reg’s story that made you want to turn it into a film?
JM: It’s the strength and the weakness of the story that’s the same thing. The strength is a wonderful story about a man who takes on the British Prime Minister. The weakness is, when David takes on Goliath, you want David to win but David in this case loses. However, in the film, he wins because he gets the one thing he’s always wanted, which is to say his piece to Blair. And he says it in the most public way possible, at the height of the election campaign at the count itself.
Q: How involved was Reg throughout the production process? How did you strike the balance with telling the truth of his story but ensuring Reg was happy?
JM: Of paramount importance is the truthfulness of the story and I think if it came to a clash between the truth and what Reg wanted then we would have had to walk away from it but that never did arrive. As you can imagine, the bitterness of some of those campaigning scenes we portray were very painful for Reg. People accusing his campaign of being just a cry of pain, telling him he was an idiot for allowing his son to join the army. They are very representative of what took place on the doorstep so they are in there but that stuff is not easy for Reg at all.
Q: How important was it to you to meet the other families of the ‘Six’, who lost loved ones in the same incident?
JM: Very, very important. Their main concern was if we were going to portray the deaths of their loved ones but we have never, ever done that. The only person whose death we thought we had a right to show was the death of Keys, nobody else.
Reg is an acclaimed new film co-written by Jimmy McGovern. It tells the real-life story of a father, Reg Keys, taking on the British Prime Minister over the UK’s participation in the Iraq war. But it’s much more than that. It’s the story of a mum and dad trying to do what’s right by their son. A son brutally killed just weeks before his 21st birthday. It’s a true tale of heroism, guts and determination. A modern day David vs Goliath with an ending that will put a lump in the throat of even the most jaded viewer.
Reg is available to watch on BBC iPlayer now.
When asked what Jimmy McGovern brought to the project, the real Reg Keys was unequivocal: ‘Jimmy’s strengths lie in championing the working class man, especially somebody who has a story to be told when he feels he’s been a victim of the establishment… There’s no finer writer than Jimmy to do this. I’m quite struck by his humility and I found him a remarkable chap to work with.’
