As Brassed Off marks its 30th anniversary, star Tara Fitzgerald has recalled how she drove her neighbours mad practising the flugelhorn for her role in the beloved film. The 1996 movie, set around a fictional Yorkshire colliery brass band fighting to keep its music and community alive amid pit closures, remains a favourite for audiences worldwide.
A determined preparation for the part
Fitzgerald, who played Gloria, a spirited young Yorkshire woman who joins the all-male colliery band, was determined to look convincing on screen. “When I got the part, the first thing I did was hire a flugelhorn. I was the only female performer in the band and practised endlessly in the two months before shooting. It drove my neighbours mad,” she said at a reception following a 30th anniversary screening.
She added: “I really bonded with my instrument, though, and it’s still so lovely to be associated with it. I worked very hard on getting the fingering right and was very fastidious about it even though I couldn’t produce a note – or rather I could but they weren’t nice ones. I made some truly horrible sounds. It was very difficult to play.”
The world-famous Grimethorpe Colliery Band provided the actual brass performances for the soundtrack, but Fitzgerald credited a real-life flugelhorn player named Paul for helping her look the part. “He was so kind and patient, and made sure that I looked as if I knew what I was doing on screen,” she said.
Memories from rehearsals and filming
Fitzgerald’s preparation paid off in Gloria’s memorable solo, a brass-band arrangement of Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez, affectionately dubbed the “Orange Juice” concerto in the film. She recalled the first rehearsal with the Grimethorpe band at Abbey Road studios in London, where the soundtrack was recorded: “When they started to play, I got goosebumps sitting among all that power. There’s such a yearning, pining quality to brass band music.”
The film’s story leads the band to a competition final at the Royal Albert Hall. Fitzgerald, accustomed to London life, found playing a Yorkshire woman making that journey a curious reversal. “After being away from London for weeks, it was funny coming back to shoot the Albert Hall scenes – me being a southerner yet playing someone from Yorkshire who’s behaving as if coming down to London was a rare thing,” she explained. “The final scene, on an open-top bus, was filmed at three in the morning. We drove around and around Parliament Square trying to get the shots – challenging when there were quite a few technical hiccups.”
Fitzgerald praised the atmosphere on set, noting that she became close friends with co-star Ewan McGregor and found working with the late Pete Postlethwaite effortless. “When someone’s that good at their job, you don’t even have to think about it. You just react to what they’re giving you and stop feeling self-conscious,” she said.
A lasting legacy and new projects
Despite the film’s enduring popularity, Fitzgerald admitted she never expected it to have such a lasting impact. “It’s a beautifully crafted story with a genuine message but I never expected people to still be stopping me today, telling me it’s their favourite film. It is a gem, though, and it follows me everywhere,” she said. “I think the reason it was so successful is because it had enormous integrity. People can tell the difference between something written from the heart and something written to make money. And of course there was the music. Oh, that music. It was all something very special.”
Fitzgerald’s career spans stage and screen, from early roles in Hear My Song and Sirens to television work in Waking the Dead and Game of Thrones. These days, she stars in Acorn TV’s cosy crime drama Signora Volpe, now in its third series, filmed in Italy’s Umbria and Lazio regions. She plays Isabel Vitale, sister to Emilia Fox’s former British spy Sylvia Volpe, with their complicated relationship at the heart of the stories. “Their relationship is complicated but they do love each other. That for me is what the stories are all about – love,” Fitzgerald said.
Filming in Italy has its own appeal. “Who wouldn’t want to be in Italy if they had the choice?” she enthused. “On my day off, I would wander the streets and turn a corner and find something jaw-dropping or fascinating.” She also enjoys the local culture, including riding on the back of a Vespa and savouring her favourite meal, Carbonara, and a non-alcoholic Italian aperitif called Crodino. Brassed Off is released on Blu-ray by the BFI, priced £16.99.
