Foxtrot Films

creative original storytelling
films by Margy Kinmonth

Margy Kinmonth on the remarkable life and legacy of Grinling Gibbons

Limewood cherubs surmounting the reredos by Grinling Gibbons at Trinity College Chapel, Oxford © Bob Easton

I’ve just been to see the show of Grinling Gibbons exhibition at Compton Verney. The State Hermitage Museum St Petersburg had agreed to lend their important portrait of the celebrated Grinling Gibbons by Godfrey Kneller, but it couldn’t be sent due to Covid and the current Brexit import difficulties. Escalating transport costs and problems with freight are now making these international art loans, which we had enjoyed in the past, extremely difficult today. Some carvings of Grinling Gibbons appear in “Hermitage Revealed” my feature documentary which encapsulates the story of Russian history within the State Hermitage Museum.

My film tells how Catherine the Great purchased the Walpole collection from Houghton Hall in 1779, for her own picture collection, which is why so many of the works are now in Russia. Luckily for Compton Verney, the National Portrait Gallery have stepped in by loaning a substitution of their own Gibbons portrait for the big anniversary exhibition.

Read full article by Margy Kinmonth: GRINLING GIBBONS IS ALIVE AND WELL AND STILL IN ST PETERSBURG published in Russian Art + Culture on 27 September 2021.

Secret Policeman out of Lockdown

Rowan Atkinson – Photos by Johnnie Haddock

Remember the Secret Policeman’s Ball directed by Margy Kinmonth and produced by Roger Graef, a BBC Arena Special, Films of Record Production in association with Amnesty International, is showing on BBC4 on Tuesday 21st September 2021 at 22.30.

Watch a clip below:

Secret Policeman’s Treasure Trove

Margy filming with comediennes Jennifer Saunders and Ruby Wax OBE for
Amnesty’s feature doc “Remember the Secret Policeman’s Ball”.
Photos by Johnny Haddock.

An exciting find of newly rediscovered production stills of the making of Remember the Secret Policeman’s Ball has unearthed the fun and laughter of making the film. The film is about freedom of speech, still a prescient human rights issue for Amnesty International, and the amazing talent in the film speaks on behalf of those who cannot. Have a look here!

Watch it here:

Remember the Secret Policeman’s  Ball directed by Margy Kinmonth and produced by Roger Graef, is showing on BBC4 on Tuesday 23rd February 2021 at 22.00.