Story set in the rural Wales of 1969

Steve Coogan is making a film about a Welsh hippy commune in 1969.

The project is believed to be an adaption of the 2015 memoirs Hippy Dinners: A Memoir of a Rural Childhood by Abbie Ross, recalling her parents moving from a North London townhouse to a farm next to the commune.

‘It starts in 1969 and is set against the investiture of Prince Charles in Carnarvon Castle – obviously a very important moment in the nation’s history,’ Coogan told the Edinburgh TV festival.

‘It has 15, 20 characters of different sizes, various storylines that intersect. It’s something I am passionate about and know will make people laugh and move them. It’s about class, it’s about politics and, more importantly than any of that, it’s about people, characters, stories –  and humanity.’

In conversation with the BBC’s comedy head Shane Allen, Coogan said he was keen to look at the counterculture and added that, as with his 2013 film Philomena he would use comedy to ‘sugar the pill’ of more series issues.

‘I like people to finish watching something and not realise they were made to contemplate big questions so after they’ve watched it they go, "Oh, that was about something". It’s like at school when you get the really cool teacher who made learning fun.’

His co-writer is writer Jess Williams, whose credits include Grantchester and Inspector George Gently.

Christine Langan, who runs the production company Baby Cow with Coogan added: ‘It’s very much about now even though it’s set in the 1960s and the beginning of 1970s because it’s about how ideological can you live. A lot of the guys who were in the commute who originally inspired Steve went on to  became very successful businessmen.’

Published: 24 Aug 2018