Ethel and Ernest – First Trailer
The first trailer for Ethel and Ernest, the hand drawn, feature length adaptation of the graphic novel by Raymond Briggs (The Snowman, Fungus the Bogeyman) has arrived. The film will be released in cinemas 28th October 2016.
The film has been faithfully adapted by Lupus Films who previously created the sequel to The Snowman, the TVC classic perhaps best associated with Briggs. Directed by Roger Mainwood the film spans the relationship of the titular Ethel and Ernest Briggs, parents of the acclaimed author/illustrator as they live out the 20th century and all of it’s social and political developments. The idea to translate this film was originally the late John Coates who passed the baton to Mainwood and Lupus Films. Mainwood has been documenting the progress of the film on a well maintained blog which charts the progress of the film (which you can see here).
Featuring a stellar cast including Jim Broadbent as Ernest, Brenda Blethyn as Ethel, Luke Treadaway as Raymond with Pam Feris, June Brown, Virginia McKenna, Roger Allam and Peter Wright.
© Ethel & Ernest Productions Ltd 2016
Synopsis:
Forty years, one love, countless cups of tea…
Heart-warming, humorous and bittersweet, the film follows the lives of lady’s maid Ethel and milkman Ernest from their first chance meeting in 1928, through the birth of their son Raymond in 1934, to their deaths, within months of each other, in 1971.
From the socially stratified 1920s to the moon landing of 1969, the film depicts, through Ethel and Ernest’s eyes, the most defining moments of the 20th Century: the darkness of the Great Depression, the build up to World War II, the trials of the war years, the euphoria of VE Day and the emergence of a generation from post war austerity to the cultural enlightenment of the 1960s.
Echoing the lives and concerns of the London working classes through momentous social and political change, Ethel & Ernest is a heartfelt and affectionate tribute to an ordinary couple and an extraordinary generation.