Brassed Off Turns 30: Director Never Expected It to Travel Far

Mark Herman thought Brassed Off might find an audience within a 10-mile radius of Barnsley. Thirty years later, the film he wrote has become a favourite of the new Prime Minister and is heading back to the Royal Albert Hall for a live performance.

Released in 1996, the film follows a small-town colliery brass band's journey to the finals of Britain's biggest brass band competition, staged at the Royal Albert Hall itself. Beneath the music, Herman built an unashamedly political story — one that has kept the film in the hearts of the British public for three decades.

What does the director say about its lasting appeal?

Speaking to the Guardian ahead of the Royal Albert Hall event, Herman said he is not surprised the film ranks among the new Prime Minister's favourites. He attributes its endurance to the way it delivered more than audiences bargained for.

"I think the people who went expecting a political film got the bonus of a bit of a comedy," Herman said. "And the people who went expecting comedy got the bonus of the political message. I think anybody who went got a sort of bonus they might not have expected."

That double appeal, he suggests, let the film reach viewers who might otherwise have stayed away from an explicitly political story about a colliery community.

Why wouldn't the film get made today?

Herman is blunt on the current state of the industry: a film like Brassed Off would not get made now. The British cinema landscape that produced mid-budget, regionally rooted dramas in the mid-1990s no longer offers the same openings for stories about working-class communities.

What happens next?

The Royal Albert Hall live performance will bring the film full circle, returning its story to the venue where its fictional band competed on screen. For a film Herman once thought would play to a Barnsley crowd, it is a milestone few could have predicted in 1996.