Any Human Heart

NBC Universal, Channel 4 and Carnival Films have awarded Helen James Productions the contract to produce special features about the making of Any Human Heart for the eventual DVD release. We are also producing an Electronic Press Kit (EPK) to help publicise this prestigious drama internationally. Some of our special features and interviews with the cast and crew will also appear on the Channel 4 website.

Jim Broadbent, Matthew Macfadyen, Kim Cattrall, Gillian Anderson,Tom Hollander, Hayley Atwell, Natasha Little, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Ed Stoppard and Samuel West are amongst the top names to star in Carnival Films’ much anticipated adaptation of William Boyd’s Any Human Heart for Channel 4.

Jim Broadbent, Matthew Macfadyen and Sam Claflin all take on the role of writer Logan Gonzago Mountstuart portraying different stages of his ordinary and yet extraordinary life, through every decade of the twentieth century. Boyd’s four part adaptation of his best-selling epic novel covers a life lived to the full and a myriad of historical events seen through the eyes of one man. Oscar winner Jim Broadbent (Iris, Longford) heads up the all star cast as the older incarnation of Boyd’s literary everyman, Mountstuart. The much admired actor plays the fictional writer through his final years: London in the ‘70s and ‘80s, the abject shame of poverty, unlikely heroism and his not-so-serene old age in ‘90s rural France.

Matthew Macfadyen (Frost/Nixon, Criminal Justice) takes Logan through middle age from the thrill and heartache of true love and the birth of his first child to scandal in the New York art scene in the ‘50s and ‘60s, via the horrors of war. Newcomer, Sam Claflin (The Pillars of The Earth) embodies the idealism, vitality and naivety of the young Logan, where his lust for life and women truly begins as a student in Oxford and then Paris in the 1920s.

William Boyd says: “I am both thrilled and exhilarated at the prospect of these three sensational actors taking on the role of Logan Mountstuart as we follow him through the 20th Century on the emotional, dramatic and rackety journey that is his long and tumultuous life.”

Throughout his life it is Logan’s personal relationships which define him; through numerous flirtations and affairs to finding true love. Logan also has encounters with the Duke and Duchess of Windsor (Tom Hollander, Gosford Park, In The Loop and Gillian Anderson, The Last King of Scotland, Bleak House). Boyd’s epic tale charts an entire existence and in doing so reveals that all our lives are ultimately random, defined by luck and seemingly inconsequential choices. As Logan himself says; “I am all of these different people. All these different people are me.”

The women in Logan’s life are many and varied; newcomer Emerald Fennell plays the young writer’s wife, Lottie, Hayley Atwell (The Prisoner, The Duchess) plays Freya, Logan’s mistress and the very love of his life, Natasha Little (The Boys Are Back, Mistresses) plays third wife Alannah and Kim Cattrall (Sex and the City, My Boy Jack) takes on the role of older Logan’s glamorous lover Gloria.

Other cast in the ambitious four part serial include: Julian Rhind-Tutt (Green Wing, Stardust) playing revolutionary John Vivian, the older versions of Logan’s two best friends are played by Ed Stoppard (Brideshead Revisited, The Pianist) as Ben and Samuel West (Margaret Thatcher: The Long Walk to Finchley, Cambridge Spies) as Peter. The cast also boasts a number of Britain’s hottest upcoming talent including; Freddie Fox and Charity Wakefield.

Channel 4 Head of Drama, Camilla Campbell says; “Jim, Matthew and Sam lead a phenomenal ensemble cast. Playing Logan in the different stages of our hero’s life, they will brilliantly encapsulate the significant, and the wonderfully insignificant moments that we can all relate to. With such a talented range of British actors on board this is sure to be an unmissable television event and I can’t wait to see this epic tale unfold on Channel 4.”

Sally Woodward Gentle, Creative Director of Carnival Films says; “We are extremely proud of the exceptional line up of acting talent we have secured for Any Human Heart. It is testament to William’s fantastic script and these truly talented actors will bring the wealth of extraordinary characters alive on screen.”

The script has been adapted by William Boyd from his novel, Any Human Heart. Michael Samuels (The Curse of Steptoe, Mrs Mandela) will direct. Lynn Horsford (Boy A, The Mark Of Cain) and Lee Morris (My Zinc Bed, The Damned United) will produce, with Sally Woodward Gentle (Enid, Whitechapel) as executive producer for Carnival Films. Any Human Heart will be broadcast on Channel 4 later this year.