Well, the story of how Dennis O’Brien and George Harrison clubbed together to help out Terry Jones in the Tunisian desert is well-worn, but more momentous for us was their bankrolling of John Mackenzie and Peter MacDougall’s no-holds barred version of Jimmy Boyle’s underworld autobiography A Sense of Freedom for STV at about the same time. Three tiers of product for this one – great stuff (Brian, Bandits, The Missionary, Long Good Friday, A Private Function), “interesting” stuff (Mona Lisa, Track 29, Scrubbers, Bullshot) and downright cobblers (Water, Shanghai Surprise, Nuns on the Run, anything with Richard E Grant in). Rather too much of the latter ensured the sinking ship had to be bailed out by Paragon in ’94.
