Tom Browne’s Radiator is about the difficult relationship between a son and his elderly parents. Daniel’s mother calls him for help as his father, Leonard, refuses to move from the couch for days. Daniel stays with them for a few weeks to help them both and their tense relationship flares up once more. Tom Browne and actors Gemma Jones and Richard Johnson discuss how Radiator came to be, and what it was like filming it.
Radiator is heavily based on Tom Browne’s relationship with his parents. The house the film is shot in is their real house. Tom talked about how unusual it was making this in their home:
“It was very odd in that first sort of ten days… you’re filming someone pretending to be your parents in your parents’ house.”
The house in Radiator is cramped, cluttered, and falling apart. Leonard is too frail to walk and Maria has to spend most of her day looking after him, despite his angry temper and lack of gratitude. This is quite effective because their relationship can seem funny at some points and then completely tragic at other stages. Actors Richard Johnson and Gemma Jones both perform well here. Richard spoke specifically about how great an opportunity this role was for him, describing it as ‘gold dust.’
The film was well received at the Glasgow Film Festival. In the interview session after the screening, Richard spoke highly about the quality of the role and the talent shown in Radiator:
“To actually have this opportunity here on-screen to see into that mind is something which is unique to cinema, we’re there, right there with him. I think this is an outstanding piece of work that Tom has done.”
This is an incredibly personal film to make, especially as Tom’s debut. Set in his parents’ house and heavily based on their relationship, Radiator deals with a lot of painful moments in their lives that a lot of people can relate to. The challenge of portraying a real person is always difficult, but this was even more challenging for the actors because the director was so close to them. Gemma Jones wanted some distance from her real life counterpart:
“I never wanted to see a photograph of Tom’s mum. I didn’t want to get too close to Tom’s mother. Initially I thought it might be a problem because I need to talk to Tom about her but, as I say, it was all in the script. I need not necessarily have known it was Tom’s mother.”
The film does not just focus on the negative aspects of Daniel’s parents; there are a few scenes where he really bonds with them in different ways. One of the best sequences in Radiator is when Daniel and his father are looking at some of the boats he made years ago; they then decide to go onto the lake to float them. Unfortunately, these moments were all fiction and not based on any real experiences. Tom discussed why these moments were added in:
“They were my father’s boats and that was a lake he went onto as a child, and it was something that just sort of had to happen… there was a desire to be more active and helpful to them and to give them some pleasure at the end of their lives which I wasn’t able to do.”
Radiator is a well made, poignant film about relationships in later life. A release date for this film is yet to be announced.
