Richard Curtis new feelgood movie Yesterday was largely filmed in East Anglia. Arts editor Andrew Clarke takes a look at the trailer and finds out what we know so far
After being buffeted by the storm-tossed seas of damning critical reviews for his 1960s pirate radio movie The Boat That Rocked, Suffolk’s screenwriting legend Richard Curtis looks to be sailing into calmer waters with his latest film Yesterday.
Extensively filmed in Suffolk and Norfolk, with location filming taking place in Southwold, Lowestoft, Great Yarmouth, Halesworth and at the Latitude music festival, Yesterday has a release date of June 28.
The film is being helmed by Slumdog Millionaire and 28 Days Later director Danny Boyle, who is transporting us to a world where The Beatles have never existed.
The trailer for the film has just been released online and offers movie fans their first glimpse at Richard Curtis’ latest feelgood movie. Music has played an important part in Curtis’ previous films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Love Actually and the ill-fated Boat That Rocked and Yesterday is set to take Richard’s love of a catchy, rocking soundtrack just that one step further by tapping into magical mystical world of The Beatles.
The film introduces to Jack Malick, played by EastEnders actor Himesh Patel, and he discovers that he’s the only person in the world who remembers the Beatles. The film co-stars Lily James and American actress Kate McKinnon as well as cameo appearances from Ed Sheeran and James Cordon playing themselves.
Richard Curtis and script editor partner Emma Freud are long-term Suffolk residents, living with their children in Walberswick, near Southwold, and clearly wanted to work close to home, utilizing the beauty of the Suffolk and Norfolk coastline.
Filming commenced in April with scenes filmed all around Suffolk in Halesworth, Dunwich, Shingle Street and some further location work in Clacton-on-Sea. After a call out for extras, some 5,000 people were recruited to appear in scenes shot on Gorleston Beach in Norfolk in June 2018 and later festival footage was also captured at Latitude which is rumoured to feature Idris Elba DJing a set.
Scenes with Ed Sheeran were shot after Sheeran’s four concerts at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales in May 2018. In the film’s trailer he is seen talking to Himesh Patel’s Jack Malick about Malick’s new song which he wants to call Hey Jude but massive star Sheeran advises him that ‘Hey Dude’ sounds better. Who wouldn’t take Ed Sheeran’s advice?
It seems that with nobody remembering the 1960s super-group, Jack decides to pass off those Lennon-McCartney classics as his own work. He believes that as music fans have never heard anything by The Fab Four, he is onto a winner and he will become a rock sensation overnight but, as ever, rock’n’roll success comes at a price and Jack stands to lose the one person who has always believed in him.
Early scenes with Cinderella star Lily James, who is currently appearing in the play All About Eve in the West End, opposite Gillian Anderson, were shot in Halesworth with Danny Boyle filming in the Thoroughfare as people went about their daily shopping trips into town.
One of the locations in Halesworth was The Hideout Cafe which Richard Curtis knows from his own visits in the past.
Owner Emma Saunders said: “They’ve asked staff and local people to be in it, so a few customers will be in the scenes.”
Other locations in the town include the White Hart pub and the Thoroughfare car park before camera crews moved onto other locations including Frinton-on-Sea where they filmed a scene involving a dog walker as well sequences in Acle and Lowestoft.
Yesterday will be in cinemas on June 28.
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