SPECIAL THANKS TO...
SUE LAWLEY
HOW THE LEGENDARY NEWSREADER TURNS UP IN JULIA JACKMAN’S BONUS TRACK
JULIA JACKMAN’S CHARMING coming-of-age tale Bonus Track is about the budding romance between shy schoolboy George (Joe Anders) and his charismatic, cool new classmate Max (Samuel Small). Yet the first voice we hear in the film doesn’t belong to either of them. Instead, it belongs to the former newsreader Sue Lawley, in her guise as presenter of the legendary BBC radio show Desert Island Discs. You see, in Bonus Track George is such a fan that he has recorded multiple episodes, erasing that week’s celebrity castaway and replacing them with himself. It’s an idea that sprang from Bonus Track’s co-creator Josh O’Connor (yes, that one) and his friend Mike Gilbert, who wrote the screenplay. “That was something they used to do,” laughs Jackman. “They used to record interviews, pretend they were on Desert Island Discs. So the fact that we were able to get Sue, her actual voice, and do that nod to the show felt really special.”