Simon’s Movies

Simon has written, directed and produced three feature-length documentaries for the cinema.

SAUCY! – SECRETS OF THE BRITISH SEX COMEDY

Saucy! Secrets of the British Sex Comedy - documentary by Simon Sheridan

During the late-1960s and early-1970s British moviegoers were turning their backs on cinemas in their droves. Television had become the dominant medium for entertainment and, in the space of just over a decade, 40% of all British cinemas had shut down.

In order to survive, filmmakers had to offer the British punter something they couldn’t readily see on TV. They bravely fought back with the only weapon at their disposal – sex! By the middle of the 1970s, cheaply-made exploitation movies were responsible for keeping the British cinema industry afloat.

These light-hearted, cinematic escapades smashed UK box office records and played to packed houses up and down the country. Cheeky Confessions of a Window Cleaner was the most successful British film of 1974, and the naughty Adventures of a Taxi Driver took more money at the box office than Martin Scorsese’s own Taxi Driver. Unbelievably, 1977’s low-budget health farm romp Come Play with Me became the longest-running movie in British film history.

Simon Sheridan’s colourful new documentary, charts the story from 1968 – with the birth of the first sex comedy, School for Sex – through its boom years in the mid-1970s, when the sex dominated cinemas, right through to the movies’ demise in 1981, when video killed the industry. Now, for the very first time, the fascinating true story behind this forgotten era of home-grown moviemaking is revealed in all its eye-watering glory, featuring exclusive interviews with the genre’s pioneering performers and directors (like Robin Askwith, Linda Hayden, Michael Armstrong and Pete Walker), who recount tales of both incredible joy and tragedy.

EVERYTHING – THE REAL THING STORY (2019)

Everything - The Real Thing Story by Simon Sheridan poster

The national press dubbed them ‘The Black Beatles’, four working class boys from one of Liverpool’s toughest neighbourhoods, who became Britain’s most enduring black soul and funk act ever. With a string of hits, they dominated the international charts throughout the 1970s with iconic songs like ‘You to Me Are Everything’, ‘Can’t Get By Without You’ and ‘Can You Feel the Force’. But the group’s meteoric success was also tempered with personal tragedy, drug addiction and racial prejudice. They were – and still are – The Real Thing, and this is the incredible true story of Britain’s first black music revolution.

For the very first time Simon Sheridan’s fascinating new documentary Everything – The Real Thing Story charts the rise of Liverpool’s black music pioneers, who fought hardship and discrimination to become the biggest-selling black group in British pop history. Actor Jacob Anderson (Game of Thrones) narrates a tale of lost innocence, fame, fortune and tragedy.

This is the untold true story of 1970s’ pop, painted against a backdrop of disco, politics and race, where four proud black boys took on the world, and changed British music forever.

The Real Thing

Reviews:

“Director Simon Sheridan celebrates Liverpool’s oft-neglected The Real Thing in a rich, enveloping docu-study with a keen socio-historical eye. Both a ‘story of the song’ and much more, Everything digs deep. Made with passion and insight.” (4 stars out of 5) TOTAL FILM

“The story of the chart-topping 70s’ Merseyside band delivers a charmingly recounted piece of pop history. Simon Sheridan’s solid, efficient documentary pays tribute to the Liverpudlian pop-soul beat combo the Real Thing. As a package, it cross-references social history with musicology, making a tidy and touching tribute. An absorbing, considered feature-length documentary.” THE GUARDIAN

“Simon Sheridan’s film is an invaluable document of a different era of racial intolerance. A moving and necessary documentary.” (4 stars out of 5) THE TIMES

“An enlightening film portrait of a pioneering British soul band. Simon Sheridan’s pitch-perfect documentary reveals a lot of blood, sweat and tears.” (4 stars out of 4) MOJO

“A vivacious new feature documentary” BBC CULTURE

“A soulful documentary about Britain, race, long hot summers and the power of great music.” (Jason Solomons) BBC RADIO LONDON

“A powerful new documentary.” NORTHERN ECHO

“Simon Sheridan does a diligent job of surveying of surveying what’s under the surface, and gives the problems of race and integration their due.” SIGHT & SOUND

“Everything – The Real Thing Story is a creative artist’s visual fantasy.” THE UPCOMING

RESPECTABLE – THE MARY MILLINGTON STORY (2016)

Respectable - The Mary Millington Story by Simon Sheridan poster

In the 1970s there was a pretty English girl-next-door who truly personified the word ‘glamour’. Her rise to the top was meteoric, controversial and scandalous. She became the most famous pin-up of the decade, and her racy reputation could shift a million newspapers and sell the longest-running British movie of all-time.

Her name was Mary Millington – Britain’s only genuine sex superstar.

Mary’s incredible fame brought her a lavish lifestyle and an affair with a serving Prime Minister. Her sexuality was accessible, and her personality addictive. But Mary’s sexual bravado hid a darker side. Persecuted by the authorities and threatened with prison, Mary was tortured by self-doubt and she died at the height of her fame in August 1979. She was just 33.

Mary’s unique life unfolds as a capricious tale of Seventies’ Britain – documenting a young woman’s bravery and determination to be a trail-blazing sexual liberator, but thwarted by a wider society still not mature enough to accept her.

Sheridan’s enthralling documentary Respectable – The Mary Millington Story reveals the truth behind a British icon and speaks to those who knew her best. Actor Dexter Fletcher narrates a story stranger than any fiction – of sex, fame, fortune and tragedy. This is the shocking true story of 1970s’ rebellion, painted against a backdrop of disco, politics and porn, where a beautiful woman was sacrificed for her beliefs.

Mary Millington