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Film brings back actor's memories of Somers past
Louise Jury, Chief Arts Correspondent19.08.08
The new film from award-winning director Shane Meadows sees a return to home turf for London actor Perry Benson.
Meadows normally works in his native Midlands and Somers Town is his first drama set in London.
For Benson, 47, it meant he could draw on memories of childhood to develop the character of Graham, a ducking, diving trader who befriends a teenage tearaway, Tomo, played by Thomas Turgoose.
Turgoose, 16 - known as Tomo in real life - appeared with Benson in Meadows's last hit, This Is England.
Benson spent much of his childhood in Somers Town, between King's Cross St Pancras and Euston stations, which was home to his great-grandmother and her family - including his cousin, the party organiser Fran Cutler, a friend of Meg Mathews.
"Graham looks like he could be some kind of sexual predator but he's just a normal guy trying to scrape a living together," he said.
In the improvisations that were the basis of the script, Benson said: "I just drew upon my family experiences and based it not on real people but on bits and pieces of people from Somers Town.
"It's still quite a strong sense of community around there. I used to regularly go to family gettogethers and weddings and my grandfather, who was a black cab driver, would play the piano."
