It’s lockdown day…I’ve stopped counting, and I’m feeling a little lost because I’ve come to the end of my three-day binge of the BBC adaption of Sally Rooney’s bestselling Normal People. The snowflakes, as some people fondly refer to us as, are on Twitter and Instagram proclaiming their adoration for and identification with the show that has been termed the ‘first great millennial love story’.

Immersing ourselves in literature, film and TV has become a popular pastime of lockdown, and I hope this enjoyment of the arts is something that lasts beyond the end, whatever and whenever the end is. Revisiting favourite novels and virtually taking part in book swaps are not strenuous activities, yet they can be enriching and rewarding. Whilst I am trying to get my hands on Sally Rooney’s other acclaimed novel Conversations with Friends, which like Normal People, has been swept off the shelves, I thought I would get in touch with the Loughborough University community to gather some film and literary intel. I asked an array of university staff members, to see what was influencing them at my age. 20’s the magic number!

Starting perhaps most appropriately with University librarian Matt Cunningham:

‘I guess my favourite film was Star Wars- I’m a child of that generation (born in 73) so seeing that for the first time as a child was the most fantastic thing I’ve ever seen- I still go to the midnight showings of the new ones- perk of being a kid in a grown-up body!‘

As for books, Matt is a big fantasy fan and recalls C.S. Lewis classic The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe leaving a lasting impression. He also discusses the strong impact of David Gemmell’s Druss the Legend:

‘There’s a quote “Never violate a woman, nor harm a child. Do not lie, cheat or steal. These things are for lesser men. Protect the weak against the evil strong. And never allow thoughts of gain to lead you into the pursuit of evil.” It’s not quite on the 10 Commandments scale and obviously is based in a fantasy world but I guess I’m saying I try and be good and don’t judge or hold grudges to others. I hope anyone who knows me would recognise those qualities.’

Next up, it’s Director of LU Arts, Nick Slater, who’s favourite film at 20 was Blue Velvet, which he says still remains one of his all-time favourites. Directed by David Lynch, IMDb summarises the plot as: ‘The discovery of a severed human ear found in a field, leads a young man on an investigation related to a beautiful, mysterious nightclub singer and a group of psychopathic criminals who have kidnapped her child.’ Released in 1986, the film delves under the surface of a small American town; a troubling and turbulent narrative characterised by stylised dark visuals. From the cinematography to the soundtrack, this dark daydream-like film might be one to watch on a rainy lockdown afternoon.

Nick’s favourite book at 20 was Martin Amis’s Money, which was included in the 2005 Times Magazine ‘100 best English-language novels from 1923-present’. Money was also adapted for TV by the BBC in 2010. It is based on Amis’s experience as a scriptwriter.   

We also have the Vice-Chancellor himself, who, influenced by the location of his PhD field sites down in Dorchester, decided to read The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy. The novel fictionalises Dorchester, where the author grew up, as Casterbridge. Bob was then drawn into Hardy’s world and decided to read more of his works. Professor Nick Clifford, former Dean of the School of Social Sciences and Humanities, also clearly recalls entering into the world of Thomas Hardy. Nick recollects a boxed set of his novels including The Woodlanders, The Trumpet Major, Jude the Obscure, and The Mayor of Casterbridge, which like Bob, he revisited the most.  

The VC’s favourite film was Gandhi, an iconic early-80s film:

‘What I remember particularly was how it captured India as a country through the focus on someone who became known throughout the world.’     

As for his favourite TV drama, Bob thinks back to Alan Bleasdale’s gritty 1982 series, Boys from the Blackstuff. A revolutionary drama that truly resonated with the desperate unemployment rates characterising the Thatcher era. The iconic early ’80s commentary, VC Bob says:

‘was both symbolic of the time, full of messages about social/class division’ finished with elements of relatable humour; ‘There was something about it ‘being of the time’ in the late Thatcher era.’

The BAFTA-winning series coined the term ‘Gissa job’ as it observed the narrative journeys of five unemployed tarmac gang workers struggling to find a job against their harsh societal backdrop.

Now, we go to Dr Anne-Marie Beller, senior lecturer in Victorian Literature and Culture and my personal tutor! It was all things film for her at 20. She recalls a rare trip to the cinema that year to see Thelma and Louise; with two women in starring roles, it’s the epitome of #GirlPower and ‘the iconic ending is still familiar as a cultural reference, even to people who haven’t seen the film.’

Another 1991 first-release film that Dr Anne-Marie saw, was Silence of the Lambs, starring Anthony Hopkins ‘as the mesmerising Hannibal Lector.’

‘Psychopaths have clearly always held an interest for me, as one of my current favourite TV shows is Killing Eve, and I’ve actually just finished an article on representations of the female psychopath in literary and visual culture.’

The film that gave her the most joy in 1991 however, was The Commitments:

‘a realist and extremely funny film about a group of working-class kids in Dublin who try to form a band. Adapted from Roddy Doyle’s novel, it’s full of integrity, humour, and has an absolutely banging soundtrack!’  

A similar film perhaps being Golden Globe-nominated Sing Street (2016), which follows the story of schoolboy Conor, who sets out to form an A-ha inspired rock band to impress a girl amidst the hard-hitting recession of 1980s Dublin. Sing Street also impresses with a banging soundtrack.

Anne-Marie also managed to dig up a disposable of her at 20…I don’t know about you but I still prefer a disposable camera over a phone; a fun surprise at the end and far less dangerous on a night out.  

Next up, we have Dr Barbara Cooke who has taught me several times over three years…from when I was a clueless first-year unable to reference an academic essay, to a slightly less clueless finalist on the third-year creative writing module.

She says that Brokeback Mountain springs to mind when she reflects on the film of her early 20s. Ang Lee’s Academy Award-winning film is set in 1960s mid-Western America.

‘It’s a love story between two cowboys who are far, far away from being able to own their sexuality: Jack, the more openly queer partner, is murdered as a result of it. It’s made all the more poignant now because it stars Heath Ledger, who gives an amazing performance as Jack’s love Ennis and who died very young…The film destroyed me in the cinema…It’s not that queerness was taboo in 2005, but the usual gay or queer man you saw in films was effeminate, catty, and the subject of comedy rather than tragedy. When I was in school, Section 28 was still in force, so it was a different world. This film opened a lot of eyes.’ 

Section 28, introduced by Thatcher’s government in 1988, prohibited the ‘promotion’ of homosexuality by local authorities and in the schools of Britain. I find it extraordinary that this was still in action during my lifetime, only having been revoked in 2003.

Professor Cees de Bont, our Dean of the School of Design and Creative Arts, shares a memorable theatre experience. In the year 1984, Cees attended The Caucasian Chalk Circle, a play by Bertolt Brecht, a German modernist playwright.

‘I had the unforgettable pleasure of attending The Caucasian Chalk Circle in the Bertolt Brecht theatre. I went through Checkpoint Charlie with my friend and spent 24 hours in East-Berlin. It was amazing. Fortunately, my command of the German language was good enough to fully enjoy the play.’

Berlin is somewhere I’ve always wanted to visit, especially after enjoying the immense buzz of a trip to Rome last summer, exploring a city rich in history. Berlin, known as ‘the city of ideology’, has cropped up multiple times in my studies and it’s definitely a top destination for my post-pandemic travels. For now, travel seems a while off, but that doesn’t mean we can’t explore works of film, theatre, and literature from our favourite places or those we’ve always wanted to visit.

And last but certainly not least, Alan Bairner, Professor of Sport and Social Theory at Loughborough University, shares a book and a film that he recalls as significantly influential and culturally revering during his time at university. Alan has taught me on some of my favourite modules throughout my time at university, so I was keen to see what he was reading at my age:

‘Now that I have entered my seventieth year, I find it hard to remember with any degree of certainty what novels I read and what films I watched during my time as an undergraduate at the University of Edinburgh.’

Alan ended up choosing Lewis Grassic Gibson’s (pseudonym for James Leslie Mitchell)  Sunset Song, the first of the author’s Scots Quair trilogy, ‘which introduces us to Chris Guthrie, a young woman suffering the material and cultural deprivations of life in rural Scotland in the years before the First World War but sustained by dreams of books and learning.’ Central themes of ‘politics, sex, the impact of modernisation, and the coming of the war’ characterise the novel, and the authenticity of Chris’s voice caused many readers to think the novel was written by a woman.

‘It was a period in my life when I first began to reflect on my political and cultural identity. Chris Guthrie is just one woman but, in her, Grassic Gibson had succeeded in embodying my nation, my class and my opposition to social injustice.’

Alan’s chosen film is Easyrider, starring Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper and Jack Nicholson, directed by Hopper. His roommate, an American exchange theology student called Seth Eisenberg, insisted they go to the Cameo cinema in Edinburgh’s Tollcross area to go and watch the film. Their first-year landlady assumed that Seth was ‘training to be a minister’, but Alan suggests that ‘his appetite for cannabis would’ve almost certainly precluded him from being welcomed into a Church of Scotland parish.’

‘Easyrider is essentially a road film with a cataclysmic ending. Wyatt (Fonda) and Billy (Hopper) set off on motorcycles in search of America and utopia. On the way, they befriend a civil liberties lawyer, George Hanson, played by Nicholson… Watching the film with Seth, who had taken part the previous year in the anti-Vietnam War protests outside the Democratic Party Convention in his native Chicago, made me realise that I had also been exposed to another set of influences so distinct from the Scotland that Grassic Gibbon had represented but one which also signalled opposition to discrimination, prejudice and injustice. In the autumn of 1969, two cultures had become aligned.’

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By Hannah Bradfield

My name is Hannah and I am currently in my final year at Loughborough, studying English and Sport Science; so basically, studying Shakespeare or screenwriting one moment, and sport psychology the next. I am hoping to stay on at Loughborough next year to undertake the MA programme Media and Cultural Analysis. You will usually find me picking apart the latest BBC drama, obsessing over new shoes that I don’t need, or making a coffee. Most likely, all of the above.