Last Orders
(2001)

Ray and elder daughter Lois from Last Orders

From a Rochester local paper, November 2000:

A hoodlum and three tramps? Well, actually it's four of the nation's leading actors on location for a major movie. The famous foursome are pictured in Rochester High Street yesterday (Monday) during filming for the dramatization of the Booker prizewinning novel Last Orders. Ray Winstone, famous for his gangster type roles leads the bunch. And a closer look show the others are Tom Courtney, Bob Hoskins and David Hemmings. The film which also stars newly knighted Sir Michael Caine and Prime Suspect detective Helen Mirren tells the story of four friends who set out from Bermondsey. They have promised to carry out the last request of a dead pal, played in flashbacks by Michael Caine, to scatter his ashes in Margate. As they travel, their own interlinked life stories emerge. The film crew were in Rochester to recreate sequences from the award winning book by Graham Swift. The heroes are seen stopping off for a drink in a High Street pub and visiting the Castle Food & Wine shop. As one of them is an ex-sailor they also make a detour to the Naval War memorial on the Great Lines.

It is also expected that filming will take place in Margate and Chatham.

Thanks to Jo Seaward for this information.

Last Orders receives its World Premiere Gala Screening at the 26th Toronto International Film Festival 6-15 September 2001.

UK release date 11 January 2002. Check here to find a cinema near you that is showing it.

The film opened in the UK to reasonable reviews, on the whole:

The Times review here
The Telegraph review here
The Guardian review here
The Observer review here
The Evening Standard review here
The Independent review here

It opened in Canada in March 2002. Canadian reviews:

Eye.net here
Toronto Star here
Globe and Mail here
NowToronto.com here

Internet Movie Database page on this film here.

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