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New culture centre on Southend Pier set to make waves for arts

10:00am Thursday 26th July 2012

IT’S been a long time in the planning, building – and even embarking on its own maritime voyage – but the final work is taking place on Southend’s newest cultural venue.

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Directing Harry Potter was magic

6:00am Thursday 26th July 2012

HE’S one of the biggest film directors in the world and David Yates says his time as Essex University was a key influence on his career. David, who directed the final four Harry Potter films has now come back to his old university to pick up an honorary degree. Rather than do film, he studied politics at the Wivenhoe Park campus in the late Eighties, but while there he began planting the seeds for a film career which would see him direct one of the biggest film franchise in history. “It was only by a complete stroke of luck that I got here,” he says modestly. “I used to skive off college all the time so never expected to go to university at all. “When my A-Level results came in, my teacher was as bemused as I was. He said ‘I don’t know how you did that, but you better think about going to university’. “I remember looking around to see what was available and saw Essex. “I had a real aptitude for politics and this place was exceptional at the time,” he smiles. But while he flexed his political theories in the lecture theatres, outside he was making films. Born in Lancashire, David’s interest in film started from a very early age when his mother gave him a Super 8mm camera. At Essex he continued his passion making documentaries on a number of different subjects. While at Essex he launched the university’s Film and Video Production Society, expecting to be inundated with hundreds of like-minded film-makers. “There were five of us in the end,” he laughs. After graduating, David got a job in Tie Rack as “the worst salesman in the world”, but a year later began working on his first serious short film, When I Was a Girl. It picked up a number of awards on the film festival circuit and got him a place at the prestigious National film and Television School. “If I was to look back at what my big break was, that film was it,” Daivd admits. “We were coming into a recession then and jobs were very tricky to come by, but that film opened a lot of doors for me.” Starting off directing episodes of the Bill, he soon built up a reputation as one of the most exciting new directors in British television. He explains: “Because I was doing good work, the great scripts just kept on coming.” Those included Bafta award-winning The Way We Live Now with David Suchet; State of Play with John Simm and James McAvoy and Channel 4’s Sex/Traffic which picked up eight Baftas. So when Warner Bros were looking for a new director to take over the Harry Potter series of films, they picked Yates. “I had a great time doing it,” David says. “Everyone was brilliant, right from the start. I was pretty lucky to have a great cast already in place and an excellent support crew.” After completing the back to back filming of the last two Deathly Hallows films, David took a well-earned rest. Now he’s back and as busy as ever, with a number of projects on the go, the most exciting of which is a feature film version of Doctor Who. “I’m so excited about it,” he grins. David is also working on a trilogy about Al Capone and a possible adaptation of the JP Donleavy novel, The Fairy Tale of New York. His next movie will be a re-make of Jason and the Argonauts. “I’m making Jason cool,” he beams. “This is the young Jason long before he gets his hands on the Golden Fleece. “It’s about how a young man becomes a leader. Jason has to prove he’s a leader of men while the Argonauts are these bunch of villains.”

Cheers! IT expert opens art gallery

6:00pm Thursday 12th July 2012

IT’S a full circle turnaround for an IT consultant who officially opened the doors to his new art gallery last weekend.

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My shop local taste test

6:00pm Wednesday 20th June 2012

IT’S a truth almost universally acknowledged. That meat of any sort – white, pink, cured, sliced, cooked or smoked – tastes best when it has been prepared by someone with a white hat, a small shop and years of experience.

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Enjoy our fashion show fundraiser

8:40am Wednesday 20th June 2012

SOUTHEND designers will take centre stage at a fashion show this week raising money for Cancer Research UK.

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Pakoras are such a treat on a rainy day

5:00am Wednesday 20th June 2012

Food blogger and cook Padmaja Kochera taught herself to cook using her family’s cookbooks when she moved to the UK in 2005.

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Alan’s pinhole camera gives world a new take

5:00am Saturday 16th June 2012

TAKE one baked bean can, some foil tape, a scrap of photographic paper and a pin – and you’ve got almost everything you need to make a camera. Yes, really.

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Our company car's an Aston Martin, say Billericay businessmen

6:00pm Friday 15th June 2012

IT has to be the best job in the world, at least for any red-blooded male with a need for speed.

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