Kevin Francis

Forename/s: 
Kevin
Family name: 
Francis
Work area/craft/role: 
Industry: 
Interview Number: 
302
Interview Date(s): 
6 Oct 1993
Interviewer/s: 
Production Media: 
Duration (mins): 
75

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Interview notes

behp-0302-kevin-francis-summary

[nb There are some faults on the interviewer track, caused by a faulty microphone lead]

SIDE ONE

Born 1949 in King’s Cross, London. Comprehensive school, left at 17 to train as a butcher. Met Leon Clore in 1966/67 and gave up butchering to work with Film Contracts, doing odd jobs. Joined ACTT with some difficulty then freelanced as a Second Assistant Director; worked at Bray Studios, worked at ITC as a Production Manager; tells an amusing story about an incident when filming Man in a Suitcase. Back to Hammer, then he became Production Supervisor for ITC’s [sic, but this was a BBC production. DS] Monty Python show made at Pinewood. Together with a colleague he started Tyburn Films, after small films he went to Hollywood and stayed for 18 months. Whilst there he decided that the only future was to make TV films. He then goes on to talk about his union activities, which started with USDAW when he was a butcher, and how he transferred to ACTT.

SIDE TWO

He continues to talk about union matters and then goes on to reflect on his present position, and past.

[END]

Transcript
Biographical

Kevin Francis a British film and television producer.Prior to working in film production, Francis had apprenticed in livestock working his way up to a slaughterman before becoming a livestock buyer.[3] Francis' time working as a buyer gave him additional training in accounting and finance and when approached by someone who worked for a smaller film producer this lead to Francis gaining experience as a producer including on a few films by Hammer Film Productions.[3]He has worked in the cinema as a production manager and producer and in television as a producer and executive producer. He founded the production company Tyburn Film Productions Limited, which Francis, as a horror fan, sought to make Tyburn a successor to Hammer Film Productions and Amicus Productions.[3] . His father was cinematographer and film director Freddie Francis.

additional Filmography:And Now for Something Completely Different (1971) (production manager),Persecution (1974) (producer) ... a.k.a. ShebaThe GraveyardThe Terror of Sheba,The Ghoul (1975) (producer) ... a.k.a. The Thing in the Attic,Legend of the Werewolf (1975) (producer),The Masks of Death (1984) (executive producer),Murder Elite (1985) (executive producer).Peter Cushing: A One-Way Ticket to Hollywood (1989) (executive producer)

Son of Freddie Francis (cinematographer)