It was already an ‘over the moon’ moment that city filmmaker Lauren Hatchard knew she would never forget – having her photograph taken with Peaky Blinders’ star Cillian Murphy’s arm around her shoulder in the upstairs bar at the giant 12-screen Cineworld multiplex on Broad Street.
Back then, on 21 September 2014, the publicity-shy Irish actor was back in Westside for the second series’ premiere of Peaky Blinders, the drama he helped creator Steven Knight to originally launch at the same cinema a year earlier.
The first series alone had already turned the 28 Days Later film star into an international TV favourite for his portrayal of city gangster Tommy Shelby.
Now it seems that all of Cillian’s red carpet Peaky Blinders’ practice in Birmingham was clearly good training for becoming a Best Actor Oscar winner at the 96th Academy Awards – coincidentally exactly 20 years after Steven Knight was himself Oscar-nominated in the best original screenplay category for the organ transplant drama Dirty Pretty Things.
Today, ten years after her chance meeting with Cillian, the moment feels even more special for Lauren – because the star generously encouraged the then 25-year-old to follow her dream with the words ‘We need more women cinematographers in the industry’.
When she was invited to the premiere, Lauren – born in Moseley on the night of a lunar eclipse – was working as a focus puller on a film being made on Broad Street.
Monochrome was being directed inside the disused former Municipal Bank by the then Electric Cinema owner Tom Lawes. Closed for two decades, it reopened in September 2021 as The Exchange – a ‘front door’ for the University of Birmingham.
Lauren recalls: “Tom very kindly offered me a ticket to the Peaky Blinders premiere at Cineworld on Broad Street.
“I have always been a fan of Cillian Murphy, going back to his early films like Disco Pigs and 28 Days Later. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to meet him. I was giddy with excitement and Cillian was very calm and unassuming.”
She added: “Cillian had commented that we needed more women in the camera department and I really appreciated this acknowledgment. Ten years later I am still working behind the camera within the film, TV and video world.
“He is totally deserving of every success, congratulations to Cillian and Ireland for this big win!”
Meanwhile, Steven Knight is pressing ahead with plans to turn Fazeley Street’s Digbeth Loc from a former warehouse into a major film studio in the city.
The hope for Peaky Blinders fans is that Cillian will not only shoot a film version there but also be part of yet another glitzy Westside premiere at Cineworld.
Cillian walked the red carpet at Cineworld in 2013, 2014 and 2017, but was unable to attend the final series premiere in February 2022.
On that date, Cillian was away earning his future Oscar on set in the US playing the father of the atomic bomb in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer.
Perhaps Cillian will one day have his own Walk of Stars Award on Broad Street… next to one for Lauren!
CAPTIONS – all pictures by Graham Young
1. Cillian Murphy with city filmmaker Lauren Hatchard at Cineworld during the series two premiere of Peaky Blinders on 21 September 2014
2. Lauren Hatchard on a film set inside the future Pryzm nightclub less than two years before meeting Cillian Murphy in the Cineworld bar
3. The cast arrive on stage at Cineworld for the premiere of the sixth and final series of Peaky Blinders in 2022.
4. Cineworld prepares for its final Peaky Blinders’ premiere
