Q. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the recipient of this year’s fellowship award: Sir Alan Parker.
A. This bit’s harder.
Q. Congrats.
A. Thanks, can I put that down?
Q. Yeah, absolutely, give it to me. My God, that thing’s heavy. I’ll sit it down there. Don’t forget it, by the way, when you leave. It it’s right there, I’ll give it to you. Congratulations.
A. Thank you.
Q. This is something that’s been announced for a couple of months so you’ve had a chance to work on your speech and get any nerves out, but on the night itself when your name was called up and Kevin was giving you that great speech did nerves kick in?
A. Actually, yeah. Because you know that you’re going to have to go up there it’s actually worse in a funny kind of way because you always think that if you are up for a proper award it’s one in five your chance of getting it but actually, you know, you probably aren’t. It’s what you do get, yeah —
Q. So when that great montage of your films was playing in the room, what was going through your head?
A. They cut it, I had nothing to do with it.
Q. Did a favourite film flash by?
A. I just find it strange, you know, for someone whose films have so much music in them why they use somebody else’s music. It’s a bit weird.
Q. Absolutely. Any questions for Sir Alan? Yes, please, Joe. Thank you.
PRESS: Sir Alan, congratulations.
A. Thank you. You look very smart, by the way.
PRESS: Thank you very much, I do my best. It’s obviously been a while since we’ve seen an Alan Parker film in cinemas, can we hope there are more to come?
A. I hope so. The dreadful thing about getting a fellowship is you think, you know, what’s up next: is it the memorial service? You hope it’s not going to be. Yeah I don’t — I mean, I’ve never really stopped making movies it’s just that the — at least four or five things that I have worked on, screenplays that I’ve done, we haven’t got made. It’s as simple as that really, in the last few years. As you all know, you can put as much effort into the films that you don’t do as you do in the ones that you do do. I’ve always said — because I write I get, sort of, satisfaction out of doing that. I miss the camaraderie of the film set, but if you’re — if you’ve written something I always say it’s a bit like making the film, you know, without the camera and so although I haven’t made those films in a funny kind of way I have in my head, you know. Someone said it is like I could have a whole film festival in my head there’s so many of them now.
Q. I am afraid that is short and sweet because you have to have your picture taken. Congratulations once again. Thank you very much, Sir Alan Parker. Thank you.
Watch Sir Alan Parker’s acceptance speech and backstage interview >