'Ragged' tells the story of Ricky Tomlinson's 2 year internment and subsequent hunger strike as a result of the 1972 national workers strike.
Written by Andrew Lynch and directed by Johhny Vegas, this powerful drama was originally aired in June 2013 as part of the highly acclaimed 'Playhouse Presents...' series on Sky.


I photographed the read through in Liverpool and a subsequent filming day at the Pie Factory in Salford where Ricky's prison cell from the 1970's had been recreated down to the most minute detail.
The scenes where the older Ricky (played by himself) spoke to his younger incarnation (Stephen Walters) were stunning. I spoke to the guard (Christopher Fulford) about his character in the film 'Millions' which is a huge favourite of our family and explained that he had given my daughter nightmares as a child... How had he made the burglar so believable and got such realistic responses from the young actors in the film? "It was tricky.. One day I would be really friendly with them, chat and joke, and the next I would ignore them or appear to be grumpy and on edge, the result being they didn't know how to take me and were a little scared of me." A fascinating insight into the acting process for me as a fan.


My favourite image from both sessions was a double portrait of Ricky and Stephen standing in the same position. Filming was running a little over time and I only had a couple of minutes to produce something memorable so just used the available light and a little on the spot direction, think I just about got away with it! 


Johnny had approached Billy Bragg to provide the music for this drama and he was so impressed with both the direction and drama of the show that he was commissioned to shoot the bard of Barking's next video. 


I loved being part of this team and was incredibly proud of the finished result.

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