Out of the Margins

As featured in The Sunday Times! This lot has generated some fabulous press interest, since it has been revealed that writer, director, co-founder of Comic Relief and UN Sustainability Development Goals advocate Richard Curtis has been working on a play, never before seen before, which he has donated to this auction - available in this lot with a special edition "shooting draft" script of his much-loved film Love Actually.

Love Actually: the Christmas romantic comedy with an ensemble cast including Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Keira Knightley, Bill Nighy, Martine McClutcheon and many more stars of stage and screen, interweaving ten stories of love that are surprisingly more connected than we originally think. Seems simple? Maybe it wasn't so easy: "...you might notice throughout that lots has been cut + everything re-ordered... when shot and first edited it turned out not to work AT ALL and so we played a game of 3D chess for 6 months to make something new." 

Music is clearly dear to Richard Curtis: find out why he was so grateful for the Beach Boys and what his "Ten Favourite Christmas Songs" are! Also dear to him is, of course, the broadcaster and cultural commentator Emma Freud (Richard's partner), who edited the script: "And that's SO important. Edited by, argued about + added to by someone who totally knows me. I'm very worried by notes from too many outsiders - they kill all your instincts." This really is love, actually. 

There's great humour throughout and it's clear that one of the most successful comedy screenwriters of the day has had fun annotating this. "God only knows if you've enjoyed this roam through an old script," he begins his final annotation. "I hope so. And I hope you have a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS."

About the new play, Mr and Mrs Jones, never before seen, featuring Jack and Mary, Richard said: "It's about two very famous actors dealing with, first, their retirement, and then their comeback. I still think it’s not bad - but my fiancé Emma said “You clearly haven’t been to the theatre since 1972” so I put it in a drawer. It was meant to star a pair like Brian Cox and Judi Dench and has a beginning, middle and end." The lucky winning bidder of this lot gets the unique chance to own an incredible piece of theatre history - and who knows, even future!