In 1981, writer Frank Clarke began typing the script for what would become the 1985 film Letter to Brezhnev on a typewriter in his scruffy flat in Toxteth, Liverpool. Four years later, the film had its British premiere. Clarke envisioned a working-class romance between two girls from his native Kirkby and two Russian sailors on leave around the port of Liverpool, with a subtle political message at a time when the Thatcher premiership and the Cold War were at their heights.
From Script to Screen
Clarke sent his script to every TV company in the land. They all said they loved it, but wouldn't do it. 'I suppose that's how censorship works,' he says. 'They don't reject you outright, just say there's no money.' But Clarke was part of the gay scene and often had people dossing on his couch. One night, an heiress, Fiona Castleton, slept over after missing the ferry back to the Isle of Man. She left him a note saying, 'If you're ever in the area, come and say hello.' Clarke took the next ferry over, script in hand. Her brother Charles loved the story, and his money enabled the production to go ahead.
The film's central romance is between Elaine (Alexandra Pigg) and Russian sailor Peter (Peter Firth), but Clarke says the relationship between Elaine and her friend Teresa, played by his sister Margi Clarke, is the biggest journey for him. 'Elaine has the courage to follow her dream and go to Russia to find Peter, whereas Teresa – who had paired up with Sergei (Alfred Molina) – stays put, working in the Kirkby chicken factory.'
Clarke grew up with seven sisters, giving him a front-row seat to their fights and capacity for forgiveness. 'They were quick-witted, especially if someone needed a tongue-lashing,' he says. 'So all that tight dialogue in the film, the looks and laughs, flowed through my pen, but it was my sisters that had provided the insight.'
Clarke has since readapted the script for the theatre. 'It's been like going round to your old mate's house, finding all the characters you used to hang with are still there, and saying: “Shall we give it another whirl round the dancefloor?”'
Actress Margi Clarke Reflects
Margi Clarke, who played Teresa, still finds it amazing that Letter to Brezhnev was the first thing Frank had ever written, and that he was able to get Peter Firth and Alfred Molina to appear in it. 'I think they thought we'd be like a lot of students, running round with a Super 8 camera, but we weren't exactly ingenues,' she says. Margi had been in Brookside as Fran the CND woman and had stage experience via her punk band Margox and as a TV presenter. Alexandra Pigg had also been in Brookside and several other productions.
The film was the first directed by Chris Bernard, but his stage background meant he was great with actors, helping them find the important point of a scene and steadying their nerves. 'When they call “action!” on set, an actor's heart rate is the same as in a car crash,' Margi notes. Her first scene was nerve-racking: Teresa, just off her shift in the chicken factory, is still in her stained white uniform when she goes into the pub to meet her friends. Chris wanted her to do it without makeup, which she hated. 'I sneaked over to an extra and dabbed on some of her lipstick, but Chris saw me and made me scrape it off.'
Thankfully, Margi also had a transformation scene set in the famous old Liverpool dancehall The State. 'I suddenly emerge from the ladies as a stunning peroxide blonde in a red dress. All of us were steeped in old Hollywood movies, and that scene drew on Now Voyager, where Bette Davis goes on a ship looking like a fuddy duddy and undergoes a glamorous makeover.'
Margi is proud of how Letter humanised the Russians at a time when Rambo was killing them. 'I love the scene where Sergei throws me over his shoulder,' she says. The film was also a thank you to Kirkby and its people. When the premiere was scheduled for London, Frank insisted it be held in Kirkby. 'The entire population – many of them had been extras – turned out. More than 500 crammed into my mum's council house for a party, overflowing into the garden. It's still talked about. In fact, years later, a bar opened in the area called The Premiere.'
Letter to Brezhnev is at Liverpool's Royal Court theatre from 11 September.
