A first look photo of the star-studded British film Forward and sideways He was released.
Emmy and Golden Globe Award Winner Laura Linney (Ozark, Love Actually, John Adams) and BAFTA winner Rhys Ifans (Inheritance, Venom: The Last Dance, House of the Dragon) star of the long-running drama, a story about two people who have a lot in common – a great sense of humor, a love of dancing, and Parkinson’s disease.
The film, coming to UK cinemas, BBC One and BBC iPlayer from John Gore Studios and Hilltop Screen, also stars Monica Dolan (Mr. Bates v. Post Office, Sherwood, Black Mirror), Rory Kinnear (The Diplomat, The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power, Dave Bank) and Paul Mayhew Archer, among others.
Written by Mayhew Archer (Dibley MP, Roald Dahl’s Ecio Trott He co-hosts the Parkinson’s Disease podcast Movers and shakers), directed by Oscar nominee John Madden (Shakespeare in Love, Operation Mincemeat, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel). Kaleidscope Film Distribution represents worldwide sales.
Set and filmed in North Norfolk, Evans plays Tony Evans, the deputy headteacher of a local primary school. Leni plays Emma Dritzen, a pianist, composer and single mother of two daughters. “They don’t know each other until a startling encounter changes the course of their lives: on the same morning, they both face a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease,” the synopsis reads.
Forward and sideways Produced by Hilary Bevan Jones and John Gore. Executive producers are Madden, Mayhew Archer, Evans, Hilary Strong, Frances Hopkinson, Eli Wood, Helen Flint and Lucy Richer.
Mayhew Archer previously shared of the personal experience he brought to the film: “In 2011, when I was 58, I was told I had Parkinson’s disease. It’s an incurable disease, and it makes many of the things I do — walk, talk, smile — increasingly difficult. But even though I have reasons to hate Parkinson’s, it’s also given me opportunities I wouldn’t have passed up for the world.”
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