Senior Partner Clive Coleman shortlisted for best screenplay award

Maltin PR Senior Partner Clive Coleman has been shortlisted for the 2023 Writers’ Guild of Great Britain Award for Best First Screenplay for ‘The Duke’ starring Oscar winners Dame Helen Mirren and Jim Broadbent.

The film tells the true and truly amazing story of the theft of Francisco Goya’s famous portrait of the Duke of Wellington from the National Gallery in 1961, and the subsequent Old Bailey trial of Kempton Bunton, an out of work cab driver from Denton Burn in Newcastle for the theft. The trial was so extraordinary it forced the government of the day to change the law of theft. Clive wrote the screenplay with his writing partner Richard Bean (‘One Man Two Guvnors’) and the film was directed by the late Roger Michell (‘Notting Hill’, ‘Changing Lanes’). It also starred Fionn Whitehead, Matthew Goode, and Anna Maxwell-Martin. Clive and Richard have previously collaborated on the plays ‘Great Britain’ at the National Theatre and ‘Young Marx’ at the Bridge theatre, both directed by Sir Nicholas Hytner.

‘The Duke’ was released in February 2022. It received a raft of five star reviews including the Daily Mail, The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph.

“Oscars surely beckon…Bunton’s absurd-but-true quest has the unmistakable zing of a classic Ealing caper – and it has now been wonderfully adapted by director Roger Michell and screenwriters Richard Bean and Clive Coleman into a film that could stand alongside the very best of them. The Duke is that rarest of things: a comedy that knows a twinkle in the eye and a fire in the belly needn’t be mutually exclusive… It speaks mindfully and movingly to our own divided times – asking how institutions should best serve the public that funds them, and speaking up for those who find themselves excluded by class, geography or birth. Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren…give two of the finest performances of their careers.” The Daily Telegraph

The Daily Mail wrote: “Helen Mirren, Jim Broadbent and an art heist yarn that will steal your heart…It’s a quirky but stirring tale, beautifully scripted by Richard Bean and Clive Coleman, while director Roger Michell brings the same sureness of comedic touch he applied to the likes of Notting Hill and Venus… [Anna Maxwell Martin is as ] terrific as ever…Matthew Goode adds further class as the urbane defence barrister Jeremy Hutchinson… But it’s Broadbent and Mirren who are the beating heart of this delightful film.”

The other nominees for Best First Screenplay are Reggie Yates for ‘Pirates’ and Rebecca Hall for ‘Passing’. The winner will be announced at a ceremony to be held at the Royal College of Physicians on 16th January 2023.

The trailer for The Duke can be found here.

For the full list of nominees across all categories, please click here.