Another Brick In The Wall – the movie

Published on November 30, 2010 by The Editor · No Comments

Fraser McPherson on a movie putting another brick in the wall about a remarkable teacher

The latest slightly odd piece of news causing talk in the British movie scene is that producer Andy Harries (The Damned United, The Queen) is currently working on a project about the life of Alan Renshaw.

You know? Alan Renshaw.

What do you mean you’ve got no clue who that is?

Alan Renshaw was (of course) the school music teacher whose class sang on Pink Floyd’s 1979 hit Another Brick In The Wall. The choir of children giving the anti-establishment themes of the song a sort of sneering ‘punk in shorts and scraped knees’ feeling.

Though still in the very early development stages the film has been described as being a cross between Dead Poets Society and School of Rock.

Harries is still trying to get in touch with the reputedly difficult Roger Waters to acquire the rights to actually use the song in the film.

You’d have to hope he gets permission since the kids singing a pastiche version or close approximation would fall flat. “We don’t require books and numbers, we’ll all end up on the dole” doesn’t quite have the same anthemic quality as the original Another Brick in the Wall.

Maybe it’ll all work out for the best and Harries will start a trend for these types of films.

I for one would be interested to see where the kids from St Winifred’s School Choir ended up after Grandma We Love You. The dizzying highs of international stardom before the crushing lows of heroin binges, groupies, prostitutes, the multiple marriages and divorces, rehab, ill advised plastic surgeries and court cases.

And then high school.

Did you have a teacher as cool as Alan Renshaw? Comments welcome

Fraser McPherson is a wowdewow editor. And he don’t need no education