RAG TALE

Year: 2005
UK: Metrodome Distribution
Cast: Rupert Graves, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Lucy Davis, John Sessions, Bill Paterson, Sara Stockbridge, Cal Macaninch, David Hayman, Simon Callow, Malcolm McDowell, Kerry Fox, Ian Hart, Julian Nest, Thomas Sanne
Director: Mary McGuckian
UK: 122 mins
UK Certificate: 15 contains strong language and hard drug use
UK Release Date: 7 October 2005 (Limited Release)

Synopsis

Five weeks of principal photography commenced 16 November 2004 in Luxembourg and London on writer/director Mary McGuckian's (THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY, BEST, THIS IS THE SEA, WORDS UPON THE WINDOW PANE) contemporary urban satire RAG TALE. Set in the ruthless world of British tabloid newspapers, McGuckian produces and directs from her own original story.

RAG TALE chronicles a week in the life of a tabloid newspaper in contemporary London. Its tyrannical chairman (Malcolm McDowell) and obsequious editor (Rupert Graves) (who is also sleeping with the chairman's wife played by Jennifer Jason Leigh) battle for political supremacy, using staff journalists as pawns in the power games they play out in the pages of the press.

At the official weekly editorial meeting for The Rag, always the same repost: 'Who are we going to get this week?' And always the same jokes in response to the predictable roll call of proposals in the worst possible taste ...

At the unofficial weekly editorial meeting, (a much sweatier affair in the relaxation room), the discussion is a good deal more heated. It's more than the Editor's job is worth to continue the affair with his deputy, given she's also the Chairman's wife. The story could break. A scoop and a coup...

But normally she does the jilting. And she will, while hosting a dinner for the great and good of the court of St James. When her husband promises that his paper is to 'put a moratorium on monarchy bashing', she puts in for promotion. Time to sack the editor, (he's resisting an 'about turn' on policy as well as her), and trust her to run the family rag. The Chairman's knighthood is at stake, for Christ sakes.

The Editor, meanwhile, embarks on a confidential campaign to save his job.