/Telstar (2008).jpg)
/Telstar.jpg)
Telstar: The Joe Meek Story
- Director: Nick Moran
- Writer: James Hicks
- Producer: Adam Bohling; David Groves
CGiii Comment
Joe Meek - who?
A gay, tone deaf, songwriter-producer behind many hits of the 60s.
A little too hectic and played for laughs - which is a shame because the final part of the film is actually very good indeed.
It is a thoroughly tragic story.
Trailer...
The(ir) Blurb...
In the early 1960s self-taught electronics whizz Joe Meek amazingly produces a string of home made hit singles from his studio in his flat above a leather shop in London. His biggest success is the instrumental 'Telstar' but accusations of plagiarism delay royalties. Joe's mercurial temper causes his artists to forsake him for other labels,in particular his young lover Heinz Burt. Now in debt and after unwisely parting from his chief financier Major Banks,Joe finds himself unable to control his life. Increasingly paranoid,believing he is being bugged by rival record companies and that everybody is out to get him,the last straw comes when landlady Violet tells him she is selling the building in which he lives. Joe had once confiscated a shotgun from Heinz. Now it is dangerously close at hand and about to end the Joe Meek story.
Cast & Characters
Con O'Neill as Joe Meek;
Kevin Spacey as Major Banks;
Pam Ferris as Mrs. Shenton;
JJ Feild as Heinz Burt;
James Corden as Clem Cattini;
Tom Burke as Geoff Goddard;
Ralf Little as Chas Hodges;
Sid Mitchell as Patrick Pink;
Mathew Baynton as Ritchie Blackmore;
Shaun Evans as Billy Kuy;
Callum Dixon as John Leyton;
Tom Harper as Alan Caddy;
Jon Lee as Billy Fury;
Nigel Harman as Jess Conrad;
Carl Barat as Gene Vincent