Shooting Seaford

As William Nicholson’s breakthrough play is revived in Chichester, he explains how his former hometown influenced his new film

- Duncan Hall

“Hope Gap is very pretty and rich in an interesting way. You have to walk across the Downs and down some very steep concrete steps to get there, and leave before the tide comes in as it fills the whole place.” This remembered childhood haunt gives the title to William Nicholson’s cinematic reworking of his award-winning play The Retreat From Moscow. Hope Gap stars Bill Nighy, Annette Bening and Josh O’Connor of The Durrells fame. The original play was a three-hander, focusing on the disintegration of a long marriage played out when the couple’s grown-up son comes home to visit. Those three parts are still at the heart of the film, but William, who was born in Seaford but now lives in Lewes, has expanded the cast of characters and taken it out of the couple’s kitchen – incorporating not only Hope Gap but also the town of Seaford itself. “In a way I felt I had unfinished business with the play,” he says of The Retreat From Moscow, which was nominated for three Tony Awards in 2004, five years on from its premiere at Chichester’s Minerva Theatre. “I thought I could do it better. Whoever I sent the script to said yes, so I knew I had something very strong. It’s a film for adults, it’s not going to be a blockbuster but a niche film. It’s exciting seeing what really good actors can do. Annette really took it over. And Bill is remarkable – you can watch him thinking, which in film is really important.