Introducing Gwen via video out-takes
A letter-of-recommendation from Dame Julie Walters for Gwen’s original screenplay
Farming family feud
Salty, gritty, earthy – not to be read with Sunday eyes, adapted: novel to screenplay
Uncompounded by rules –
I was in my element, for 6 months, adapting my novel into a TV screenplay – 4 episodes
Shamelessly –
It seemed like second nature giving the novel another life and another audience, while staying true to the fictional story; rather liken to, two cart-horses harnessed together between two shafts of a field implement
What’s the story –
Bereavement turns to revenge when a widow, her land-girl daughters and their farm-man, discover an illegitimate son has inherited half-share of landowner’s wealth. Wealth they have helped him accumulate over many, manual years. They contrive – “how best to kill him?”
To shed some light – who’s who – the main characters:
SAM ASQUITH – (72) landowner. A man cast in a mould of iron. Caught in snow blizzard on moorland. Found dead
STELLA ASQUITH – (46) widow. Full of metal, yet eccentric. Her family and status are paramount to her well-being – with vengeance, come what may – she aims to keep it that way
GRACE ASQUITH – (26) land-girl daughter. Strong willed. Speaks her own mind. She was evacuated from the home farm, due to bringing disgrace to old moneyed farming family – via becoming pregnant by a German Prisoner Of War. She returns home. Bitter, her soul raw
SOPHIE ASQUITH – (22) land-girl daughter. Wholesome. Splendidly indiscreet yet winsome. She lives and loves by the light of nature
JAKE SWALES – (65) farm-man. Stoic. Vigorous with psycho-leanings. Worked and lived at Stockdale Farms for 50 years. He was a “workhouse” inmate – sees himself – now, being ousted out of his home – the adjoining farmhouse
Bitter in enmity, the Asquith women and Jake become enmeshed in a ruthless alliance of “how best to kill” the son of Sam
HARRY BLETCHFORD – (25) Sophie’s latest love. A city guy with hidden grit. From being the outsider, he becomes a deadly insider
BLANCHE – (74) Stella’s mother. As promiscuous as a snowdrop. Family adviser – one-sided peacemaker
ABE ASQUITH – (64) Sam’s cousin. A stout man with dead-pan expression. His nature brusque, to the point of being brutal. He’s less fortunate – begrudging – as he’s not mentioned in Sam’s will
WINNY ASQUITH – (50s) Abe’s wife. A large woman with a calm frame of mind, to be almost chilling. Deeply resentful
FRANCIS SPENCER-ASQUITH – (42) son of Sam. A tall attractive, eloquent man, yet quietly ruthless. He has the combat skills of a survivor
STELLA, GRACE, SOPHIE, JAKE, ABE and WINNY – between them all – they cause much tidal waves of contrition and forgiveness – sudden reversals and recriminations. Somehow – their instigated farming accidents have the unnerving knack of back-firing on themselves with precursory risks and results – killing Sam’s son proves to be a deadly game of roulette
The adaption – seeing countrylife lived in its raw skin – title: Safe In Killer Hands – Money, Madness, Murder, setting The Dales within 4 seasons – 1947 – now transformed to screenplay – 4 episodes (each 90 minutes)
ツ PREVIEW opening scenes; Take A Look INSIDE the script now ⤵️
Gwen’s farming background in Yorkshire Dales
Flooding solution: do as Romans did
Uncomfortable television viewing, the deluge sweeping through our towns, villages and neighbouring people’s houses and businesses while washing away roads and bridges within the north of England (November 2019)
There is a solution, a workable solution to this devastating disturbance of nature as history shows – “ Do as the Romans did !! ” – Ancient proof still exists to this day through local knowledge passed on through generations of families
#CombatFloods
The Roman solution to prevent floods of destruction was to “fork” a natural stream or river by manually directing one of the two divides to flow away from communities, proprietors of properties and agricultural land
Furthermore, after each deluge, each waterway was cleared of the build-up of slurry and debris. A safeguard against “flash flood” disasters
My grandfather and father, John and Thomas (Tommy) Hullah, farmed, Hole Bottom Farms, Dacre Banks, near Harrogate, North Yorkshire, for many years; where two streams – one either side of the adjoining farms – flowed peacefully on meeting, but during continuous rainfall, clashed – bursting their banks before roaring away beneath the (listed) superior constructed three arched Roman bridge built beneath the cart-road, (a hidden gem) to join the original stream which eventually flowed into the River Nidd
👉 The above text written by Gwen Hullah was printed in The Yorkshire Post newspaper – letters to the Editor – on Friday August 16 2019, regarding the then floods of Reeth, Grinton and Flemington
Tales of the Unsuspected
A collection of compendious stories and monologues of shameless women of a certain age who, with the singleness of attention, crave some oopsy-la-la passion and adventure before it’s too late, in the most unsuspected ways
ツ READ first pages from Tales for free ⤵️
Picturebook: The Bear Who Used Up All His Growls, illustrations by Gwen
For a piece of splendid indiscretion, Zizzi’s picture book aims to make you exclaim #HearHeard!
THE BEAR WHO USED UP ALL HIS GROWLS: When the letter O drops clean out of Bear’s growl, Bear falls topsy-turvy into the County of Vowels, where he meets Purdy the cat and learns some tidy manners – but will Justice Nincompoop grant Bear a new licence of O’s to reinstate his fearless growl? (ILLUSTRATIONS by Gwen Hullah)
ツ SAMPLE picturebook’s OPENING pages ⤵️
Gwen’s painting proposal to Daily Mirror
This watercolour painting by Gwen Barker (nee Hullah), titled, The Chavie, was forwarded to Piers Morgan, then the Editor of the Daily Mirror newspaper, with a proposal to use this image as part of their charity event …
Gwen’s recollections as instigator of RADIO WITHAM and station manager
Special feature within, She And The Cat’s Mother MONTHLY Recollections eMagazine: January 2022 (003 issue): CELEBRATING 45 YEARS since the launch of Radio Witham; Grantham Hospital Radio Service / Founder: Gwen Barker (nee Hullah)
EXTRAS (from this special feature) published within, She And The Cat’s Mother MONTHLY Recollections eMagazine; January 2022 (issue 003) include:
- Gwen’s 4 paged document, title: FRAME-WORK OF HOSPITAL INTERNAL RADIO SYSTEM outlined in 1981
- Radio Witham programme leaflet from 1977 introducing hospital patients to the broadcasting team
- a “Request Form” kindly printed for free by the Grantham Journal for Radio Witham listeners
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