Filming Tube Tales - Part 2

"......In an anonymous room round the corner from the tube station, producer Richard Jobson is sitting in a swivel chair so shabby that its weeping insides have to be held in by gaffer tape. Above his head, a sign on the wall reads 'Keep room tidy! Cleaner won't clean!' Jobson takes a sip from a polystyrene cup of tea and studies his fingernails. 'Can't get the dirt out of my system,' he says finally. 'I'm tired. I need a break.'

"Shooting 10 films on the Underground was never going to be easy, but Jobson only has himself to blame. Some months ago, he successfully pitched Tube Tales to Sky Pictures. The idea came from a competition run through the London weekly listings magazine Time Out, asking readers to send in experiences, fantasies or insights inspired by Tube travel. The response was the literary equivalent of trying to enter Oxford Circus Tube station at 5.30pm. 'Some were by fledgling screenwriters, which were complete rubbish,' says Jobson. 'We wanted anecdotes based on something real.'......

"Being epileptic, Jobson doesn't drive so he is a battle-hardened Tube user. 'The most interesting part is going from Oxford Circus to King' s Cross every day. You're always in a state of alert, more receptive to things going wrong. Plus, I'm mildly claustrophobic, so when it stops in the tunnel and you can't breathe... it's very weird.'

"The psychological effects of listening to Jobson are pretty intense too, something like a clattering train that nearly leaves the rail several times a second. Hearing him marvel at how his project got from planning to shooting within six months while colleagues' film plans are still stuck in the tunnel after six years, you wonder how much it's down to his gift of the gab.......

"Had Jobson assembled a name cast of actors, and put them all together in one film, it could have ended up as one of those mega-star mulches that characterise British film at its worst, a sort of Yellowbeard meets Monte Carlo or Bust. Set them behind the camera, though, and it could be very different. At least, that's what Sky and Jobson are hoping.

"As we talk, the Tannoy crackles and a very un-Rada voice comes on: 'Owing to an unattended package at Chancery Lane, Central Line services are suspended between Marble Arch and Liverpool Street,' it says. Up and down the line, thousands will be 'experiencing delays' or 'seeking alternative routes' - all the usual euphemisms of life on the Underground. Here, there are enough packages lying around to close the Central line for a week, but no one takes any notice: there's no time for fire drills when you've only got £2m to pass around."

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