Co-writers Meg Washington and her director husband, Nick Waterman, knew the stakes were high: “We treated the song like it was Shakespeare.”
Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time.“Hello Dan, it’s Joe here, I hope you’re keeping well, it’s the 21st of December and now they’re ringing the last bells …”has been embraced as an Australian Christmas classic. It is not a jolly festive hit. Instead it’s a tale of regret and loneliness, as prison inmate Joe writes to his brother Dan. There’s love, too, and longing and, yes, it includesgravy recipe .
The film is steeped in the Kellyverse: the prison guards are named after the ingredients in the gravy, Joe wears a Paul Kelly T-shirt and the bus number 428 is the length of the song itself. Even the colour of the prison tracksuits – a terracotta instead of the standard green – was chosen to match the colour of gravy.The seed had been planted by a friend, who suggested they turn it into a film. They called Kelly’s manager and, yes, the rights were available.
The couple worked with a psychologist for six months to break down the song, its subtext, symbols and emotions and then tackled it line by line – Joe, Dan, Rita, the kids Angus, Frank and Dolly, sister Stella coming in from the coast, and her annoying husband Roger.Joe is played by Daniel Henshall, who is as gentle offscreen as he is a tight ball of anger onscreen.“He’s not in a great place,” says Henshall of Joe.
“It resonates with most of our experiences of what a Christmas may have been like for us in our childhood,” says Henshall. “You’re taken back to the timelessness of it, and you’re not really sure what era the film is set.“It speaks to the last 40 years of what it may have been like for you to have a Christmas with your family. It’s hot, you don’t like some of the people that have come to Christmas, but your house is the designated house that everybody comes to.
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