FILM
AND THEN COME THE NIGHTJARS
DIRECTOR: PAUL ROBINSON
RELEASED NATIONWIDE SEPTEMBER
Penned by West Country playwright Bea Roberts, the two-hander And Then Come the Nightjars transfers from stage to screen, along with its lead actors, David Fielder and Nigel Hastings, who brilliantly reprise their roles as farmer Michael and veterinarian Jeffrey.
Set in South Devon against the backdrop of the foot-and-mouth epidemic, the action starts in 2001, when the disease first makes headlines, and we see Michael diligently disinfecting his farm gates to protect his beloved dairy herd. Vet Jeffrey assures him that he has nothing to fear, and their affectionately scoffng relationship is established.
Homespun and sweary Michael is recently widowed and estranged from his son; he is attachedcannot identify a quail. Against beautiful shots of the Devon countryside, and over a period of many years, their unlikely friendship plays out, though it is violently tested when Michael’s herd must be sacrificed to the gods of foot-and-mouth.
