Shane Meadows – Film Director
“I was born in Uttoxeter in the West Midlands. It was a home birth on a Boxing Day. It must have been a difficult birth, as my mum broke two of the legs of the bed she was on, so my dad had to go and find a couple of house bricks to prop the bed up.”
“I wasn’t that good at school. I wanted to study photography at college, but didn’t have any qualifications, So I got into Intermedia in Nottingham, where I studied film making. I travelled there from my home in Burton on Trent. That was in 1992. One of the best pieces of advice I got was to make a short film every month. Could be about anything. It was an exercise about how to make a film. Then I had to choose the best of the twelve to show people. It’s how I started in the business.”
“I moved to Beeston in 2007. My wife Jo is from the area. I met her in 1996, when I was living in Staffordshire. We’ve been together now for 15 years.”
“Beeston has a nice sense of community. It reminds me of my hometown, but still has its own identity. It’s definitely a place that’s on the up. There’s a good mix of people.
I enjoy running and biking, around the streets or at Attenborough Nature Reserve. I like going to the Hop Pole. It’s a proper pub and Karen is a great landlady. I also like going to Totally Tapped. Not forgetting some of Beeston’s great cafes, like Greenhood and Cartwheel. During the pandemic, I felt relieved that I could go to Beeston’s library, to do some writing, rather being at home.”
“I’ve tried to move the sound mixing of my films from London. So now I can take the tram into the city centre, instead of a train to London. It was a privilege to open the Arc Cinema. It’s a real asset for Beeston. I would have loved to have worked with Richard Beckinsale. He was an honest and open actor.”
Shane at the official opening of The Plane Tree in Beeston