Running on Screen- The A Word and Atypical

The A Word

I mentioned here before that in the BBC's autism-themed drama The A Word, Christopher Eccleston plays  a keen fell runner. In Series Two, first broadcast in November 2017, the producers created a fictional 'High Tarn Fell Race' as the scene for a personal crisis. The 'race' was staged at Thirlmere in the Lake District, and features members of Keswick AC and other local running clubs as extras.


Eccleston enjoys running in the hills in real life and it shows. He has also run marathons - including London Marathon 2012 in 4:17:43 - and the 2005 Great North Run half in a creditable 1:27:19

Previous three photos - The 'High Tarn Fell Race' in the A-Word Series 2, Epsode 4

(including last two location shots from Times and Star)

(you can watch episode on BBC iplayer until 10 pm on 28 December 2017)

Christopher Eccleston in London Marathon
(not sure what year)

Atypical

Coincidentally running is also a significant thread in the equally excellent  2017 Netflix series Atypical, which like the A-word explores the impact of autism on a family, this time in a US setting. Brigette Lundy-Paine plays Casey, a keen track and field competitor, whose brother has autism. She is offered an elite school place after setting a 400m track record, but her relationship with her father and sometime coach is put under strain when he misses her performance while distracted by her brother.

Previously in the Running on Screen series:

Running to David Bowie - Frances Ha/Mauvais Sang

Undercover, the A Word (Series 1) & How to Stay Young
Jodie Whittaker from London Marathon to Dr Who (& Broadchurch)

Stick Man's Christmas Running Adventure

Run Lola Run and running Berlin

Walford Half Marathon (Eastenders)

A Running Row in Eastenders

Grey's Anatomy Coaching Advice

T2 Trainspotting
God Help the Girl

Race Strategy in The (US) Office

Top of the Lake (also featuring Elisabeth Moss running) and The Fall
China Crisis - Wishful Thinking
The Running Man (1987)
Muybridge's Runner, 1887

The Casual Vacancy

From Darkness

London Spy

New Blood

Fleabag

Running on Screen (9): London Spy

As noted here before, BBC thrillers now invariably feature a running sub plot, most recently Ann Marie-Duff as the triathlete ex-cop in From Darkness. Latest is London Spy which started this week. Danny Holt (played by Ben Whishaw) is the worse for wear after a night out clubbing in Vauxhall when he encounters Alex (Edward Holcroft) who is out for an early morning run over Lambeth Bridge. Danny is so taken by him that he even tries running himself in a bit to engineer a further meeting. Eventually they get together, love blossoms, but Alex's secret life as an MI6 spy gets him into trouble... OK spoiler alert, but if you haven't guessed from the start that he's going to be dead by the end of Episode One you haven't been paying attention. Great cast also includes Jim Broadbent and Charlotte Rampling, looking forward to more. But I'm not sure there will be much more jogging on the South Bank.

South bank of the River Thames heading west towards Lambeth Bridge

Alex crosses Lambeth Bridge

Danny (Ben Whishaw) runs in search of love.... careful what you wish for

Previously in this series:

Run Lola Run and running Berlin

Walford Half Marathon (Eastenders)

Race Strategy in The (US) Office
Top of the Lake and The Fall
The Running Man (1987)
Muybridge's Runner, 1887

The Casual Vacancy

From Darkness

Running on Screen (6): The Casual Vacancy

The three episodes of BBC's recent adaption of J.K. Rowling's The Casual Vacancy all started with a lone runner making his way round the fictional village of Pagford (actually filmed in various Gloucestershire locations).

I guess for film and TV directors tracking the runner provides a convenient way of setting the scene, providing a moving human on which to hang a visual tour of locations.

Later in the series we find out the identity of the runner (played by Star Wars actor Silas Carson) and he does play a significant role in the final episode when he finds someone when he is running - I can't say more without posting a spoiler alert.

Previously in this series:

Walford Half Marathon (Eastenders)

Race Strategy in The (US) Office
Top of the Lake and The Fall
The Running Man (1987)
Muybridge's Runner, 1887

Running on Screen (5): Walford Half Marathon

London's biggest race of the year so far - albeit fictional - was today's Walford Half Marathon on Eastenders (BBC TV).

After weeks of flirty training storylines, the 13.1 mile race started and finished in the soap's Albert Square.

Peter and Kush stop for a chat a the water station and wonder why they got overtaken
(training tip - practice drinking and running at the same time)

Shabnam Masood holds her lead in the market finishing funnel...

...before toasting victory over Kush with a well-deserved bottle of water

Kush does the decent thing and gives (prospective father in law?) Masood some help to the finish line

Later Lauren proposed marriage to Peter - but will the post-run euphoria last much longer?
Or will the killer of Lucy Beale (Peter's sister) soon be revealed?
Boom - Boom -
Boom- Boom - Boom - Boom - Boom - Boom

Still no sign of the result at power of 10 - come on British Athletics!

Watch the episode here until end of February 2015

Running on Screen (4): Race strategy from The Office - run fast at the start, middle and end

Finally got round to watching the last episode of The (American) Office. I loved this programme in both its UK and US versions, and the latter also included one of the funniest treatments of running on TV. In 'Fun Run' (Series 4, Episode 1, 2007), hapless boss Michael Scott organises a charity 5k: 'Michael Scott's Dunder Mifflin Scranton Meredith Palmer Memorial Celebrity Rabies Awareness Pro-Am Fun Run Race for the Cure'. All the staff at the paper firm are instructed to take part and kitted out in specially printed T-shirts.

Michael ends up in hospital with dehydration after carbo-loading on fettuccine just before running and declining water. He comments 'and while I eventualy puked my guts out, I never puked my heart out. And I'm very, very proud of that'

In this episode too, the will they/won't they romance of Jim and Pam (pictured below) is finally confirmed, and the two discuss race tactics:

Jim: 'So what's your strategy for this race?'

Pam: 'Well I'm gonna start fast, then I'm going to run fast in the middle, then I'm gonna end fast'

Jim: 'Why won't more people do that?'

Pam 'Because they're stupid'.

(although the series is set in Scranton, PA, the race was filmed in the streets of Los Angeles - Chandler Boulevard near Tujunga, north of Magnolia Blvd, to be precise)

Other posts in the 'Running on Screen' series:

Top of the Lake and The Fall
The Running Man (1987)
Muybridge's Runner, 1887

Running on Screen (3): Top of the Lake and The Fall

It seems like the process for commissioning top notch BBC drama series goes something like this:

'We're going to need an American actress to play a kick-ass detective'
'No problem we've got Gillian Anderson lined up for The Fall and Elizabeth Moss (you know from Mad Men) for Top of the Lake'.
'Nice one, how about some creepy murderous blokes abusing women?'
'Standard'.
'How about the running scenes?'
'Running?'
'Yeah, you've got to have running, runners are a key demographic'.

Well maybe not, but the biggest two BBC dramas this year do in fact both feature running. The Fall, broadcast in June 2013, is the tale of a psycho killer bereavement counsellor who stalks the streets of Belfast killing women. How does he get away with spending so much time away from his rather credulous family? He just pops out for a run of course!

Jamie Dornan check his watch while running in the middle of the road  in Belfast city centre -
'must be time for another rather exploitative rape porn scene'

Then there's Top of the Lake.. This time the runner is on the side of Good rather than Evil. Premise is similar, specialist woman detective in town, shaking up the local corrupt and clueless cops. And she loves a run, which comes in handy for running round the lake and finding a body washed up on the shore. Or even some trail running through the woods to visit the house of a heavily armed suspect. On her own. At night. As you do.

Robin Griffin (played by Elisabeth Moss) leaves her once and future boyfriend behind
after uttering the immortal chat up line 'you run?'.