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On our way to Burton, we pass a brick bus stop on the edge of town: a low, unremarkable building that becomes the starting point for one of Considine’s darker stories. Considine was about 10 years old and had gone into town with his friend Dewey, who was “a bit of a thief”. Dewey pulled a postcard from a gift shop and Considine was berating him when they were visited by an undercover officer. “He had a bit of wheezing, a bald head, a typical 1970s type,” says Considine.
The detective threatened to call the police and their parents, prompting Dewey to break down in tears. Both he and Considine, sons of “foot” fathers, feared arrest themselves. So when the officer suggested an alternative — a quick jab with a house slipper — they agreed.
It wasn’t until they walked around town with the man, who told them to call him “uncle” if they saw anyone they knew, that it dawned on Considine that the boys might be headed for a trap. They walked and walked until they reached the outskirts of the city. He points to the nondescript brick building that stands on the corner of an empty parking lot.
The stranger told Considine to check for people nearby. When he asks why, “He says, ‘Because I don’t want anyone to hear you scream.’ I said, ‘I’m not going to scream,’ and he said…” Considine pauses for effect — “You’ll do as I do.”
Then something woke up in 10-year-old Considine, something he describes as “a snap or a switch. It’s something I’ve had since I was a kid.” He looked at the traffic flowing on the other side of the bus stop. “I immediately thought: I’m pushing this pussy into traffic.” Instead, he turned to the man and peppered him with questions: if he was a policeman where was his ID? What was his name? Why wasn’t he in uniform? He insisted the “policeman” take them to the police station and the man, startled, let the boys go. He and Dewey ran away.
“I’ve had that a few times in my life where injustice happens and I don’t like it and I grow.”
Considine used his Burton upbringing to provide the texture and terrain for Tyrannosaurus. The film, starring Peter Mullan, Olivia Colman and Eddie Marsan, focuses on men who are trapped in drinking, violence and anger, and while it’s not autobiographical, the locations are practically lifted straight from Burton (the situation takes place in an undisclosed own northerner and was filmed in Leeds and Wakefield). “This world is very much the world I grew up in,” he says.
Critics could not believe that Considine had grown up in a place like this. “Some dude on Radio 4 was banging on about it,” he recalls, “you know, like I’m some kind of tourist. Sometimes you want to kick people in the teeth. Someone was talking about poverty porn, basically. Listen, my friend. I was from there. Don’t make the mistake of looking at something and thinking that because you can’t relate to something, it doesn’t exist. I didn’t look The city of God and think to yourself “Oh damn that didn’t happen”.
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