The extraordinary story of the Windmill Theatre, its owner, Laura Henderson, and her manager, Vivian Van Damm, who together put naked girls onstage in a non-stop revue, making British history and bringing joy to wartime England.

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
Films have been made before about the Windmill Theatre and its manager, Vivian Van Damm; among them is Tonight and Every Night, shot in Hollywood in 1945 and starring Rita Hayworth as a Windmill girl. But none until now have told the story of the real lynchpin behind the theatre, Laura Henderson, the formidable lady who defied London's censorship laws to show nudity on the British stage and create a musical institution.
Mrs. Henderson Presents brings together some of Britain's most remarkable and accomplished talent, including Judi Dench and Bob Hoskins, and two rising stars, the pop singer Will Young and actress Kelly Reilly. It is directed by Stephen Frears, produced by Norma Heyman, executive produced by Bob Hoskins and David Aukin with musical direction by director George Fenton, costumes by Sandy Powell and make-up and hair design by Jenny Shircore. The award winning team further includes director of photography Andrew Dunn BSC and production designer Hugo Luczyc-Wyhowski.

FLAUNTING CONVENTION:  THE HEYMAN-HOSKINS TEAM
"What also so attracted me, apart from this gripping story, was this period of British history: England at war. Also, this story of the Windmill had such an innocence. It represents the end of an era of innocence."  Norma Heyman, Producer
The story behind the making of the film began when Bob Hoskins was approached by the producers David and Kathy Rose with their idea for a project on Laura Henderson. "They had found the story of Mrs Henderson, rediscovered her in a way, and done a lot of ground work. But they'd never managed to get the project off the ground," says Bob, who is executive producer of the film as well as its leading man. "So I took it to Norma (Heyman), and we thought about it and realised what enormous potential it had."
Bob had first worked with Norma Heyman in 1982, when he starred in Norma's first film as a producer The Honorary Consul.  They remained close friends and in 1996 they formed a joint production company, Heyman Hoskins, to make a screen adaptiation of Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent, directed by Christopher Hampton, and which Hoskins starred in.
"Bob brought me the idea of this movie, along with mountains of research his friends the Roses had compiled over 13 years. They'd wanted it to make a TV series out of it but it was turned down by some of the great and the good," says Norma. "But it haunted me, the idea of this elderly lady who seems to flaunt every convention of her time.  British society was I suppose incredibly right wing at that time in the 1930s, and here comes this rich lady from an imperialist society who, on a whim, buys a theatre and does something her class would never think of or condone: she puts nude girls on stage. She even helped start up homes for unmarried mothers!"
So Heyman suggested that she and Hoskins set up the project as a film.  From the start, there was only one actress that Bob and Norma saw in the role of Mrs Henderson: Judi Dench.
"It was what Judi could give us: something magical," said Heyman. "The real Judi behind the part she normally plays -- the mischievous, naughty, very sexy Judi, the practical joker, the charmer."
Says Hoskins: "Mrs Henderson is three things: she's charming, cheeky and an absolute cow. Only Judi could really get away with that."
Heyman saw another quality in Dench's persona that made her so right for the role, and which compliments the character's extraordinary energy: "Judi is able to find that stillness, which is a quality of the great screen artists, such as Garbo.  Her emotions are so close to the surface, you can't take your eyes off her. She's very, very special."
Moving forward, Norma and Bob asked David Aukin, former head of Channel 4 Film on Four and a personal friend of Norma's, to join them as executive producer.
The next stage was to secure Stephen Frears, their first choice for director. Norma and Stephen first worked together on the movie Dangerous Liaisons, released in 1988 and starring Michelle Pfeiffer, Glenn Close, Uma Thurman, Keanu Reeves, and in 1996 collaborated on "Mary Reilly" with Julia Roberts and John Malkovich. 
"There is some theme of class that runs through the films Stephen and I have done together, and Mrs Henderson is no exception," notes Heyman. "She and Van Damm came from completely different worlds. She was definitely of the aristocracy and he wasn't. She was the most terrible snob and typical of that class of the 1930s, when classism was rife.
"The thing we never had, we working class, were the connections and the networking," contiues Heyman. "You pick up the phone and you speak to the Lord Chamberlain, the censor, as Mrs Henderson did and you get your show on. Her networking changed history."
David Aukin, Executive Producer on the film, agrees that the theme of social connections makes "Henderson" a "very, very typical" English tale.  "England hasn't changed, it's all about who you know still. And (the film has) this very embarrassed attitude to sex, which is somehow also quite English."

MR. FREARS PRESENTS
"Mrs Henderson is the most appalling right-wing woman, an absolute shocker.  But I respect defending the indefensible." Stephen Frears
Stephen Frears was the right man for the job for many reasons, says Heyman.  "We chose Stephen because of how he works with the material. He never likes to appear to be in control but he's always in control. And he likes actors; he grew up with them. He has great compassion and the ability to make everyone feel comfortable, and do what he wants them to. Judi rowed up and down the river 30 times on our first day shooting in England and didn't complain once, and she told me she'd do it again. He is just an extraordinary director."
Frears came to Mrs. Henderson Presents after directing the internationally acclaimed 2003 film Dirty Pretty Things and winning a BAFTA award for his TV drama The Deal. At first, he was mystified by the story. "Bob and Norma kept talking about this woman, Mrs Henderson; I didn't have a clue what they were on about. I could see that the idea of making a film about the Windmill and about the naked girls would be very funny, but all I kept saying to people was, is  there a story? And then I was so amazed by the script. Films are so difficult to make. But when somebody gives you something as good as this - you feel trapped. You simply have to make it."
Frears was thrilled to be working with Dench again, having directed her in two television dramas in the 1980s, "Going Gently" and "Saigon Year of the Cat."  "Judi was so right because she's wonderful being mischievous," he says.  "She is herself the most mischievous woman in the world. That head-girl stuff is nonsense. Judi was made for the role. She's incredibly well equipped."
For Judi Dench, the admiration was mutual: "The clincher for me (in taking the role) was Stephen," she says. "I love working with him; he never gives up until he's satisfied. He nags you, in a nice way, and he pretends he doesn't but he does all the time. He also pretends he doesn't know quite what's happening  or what he's doing, but he's not mystified at all. He's got a beguiling way of working. I just trust him."

JUDI DENCH AS MRS. HENDERSON
"She was always interested in the young men. No wonder she was banned from the theatre!"
Judi Dench
Judi Dench had never heard of Laura Henderson, which only added to her interest. "I discovered this woman who was fierce, impossible, she had a wonderful love of life," she says. "She could have sat back after her husband died but she bought a theatre, something she knew nothing about. She and Van Damm irritate the hell out of each other. She must have been impossible - and nobody except Van Damm could have put up with her."
Dench was also intrigued by Laura Henderson's peculiar behavior. "She was very stubborn, and got in the way a lot. She got dressed up as a man once and got in just to make sure everybody was being treated properly - not just the girls but the audience too. That was fantastic. So I love all that. She needs to be around today."
In small ways, she identified with Mrs Henderson. "I know I'm absent-minded and sometimes quite eccentric now, I think, so I suppose I share a bit of that kind of eccentricity with her."
On the did-they-didn't they question of the real relationship between Van Damm and Mrs Henderson, Judi will only say: "I think Laura was in love with him, but I'm not sure. That's for someone else to figure out."

BOB HOSKINS AS VAN DAMM
"Very often Stephen would tell me, 'No, no, no! You're playing him far too nice! I've never been as nice as that!'"   Bob Hoskins
At first, Bob Hoskins didn't at first even consider himself for the role of Van Damm. "I was busy being a producer. I suppose I just wanted to get this fantastic story made. But Norma kept saying things like, 'You've got to have a very, very good wig,' and it seemed to have been decided. But as soon as Judi was on board, that was it. I was sold."
Until filming began, Hoskins says he kept an open mind on how to play Van Damm.  "When I got on the set I thought, I haven't the faintest idea what to do with this part or who to be. And then Stephen said, 'You've got no problems; all you've got to do is play me'.  So I played this grumpy old sod who was a pain in the bum. It was the best script note I ever had."
Locking in Van Damm's way of talking was a challenge, too. "Van Damm's not cockney, he's a bit of a phoney," says Hoskins. "Back then, intelligence was judged by accent. I'd never heard him speak, but apparently I've done the business. That was down to Stephen and Penny Dyer the voice coach."
Indeed, when Van Damm's granddaughters, Susan Angel and Jane Kerner, saw Hoskins on set, they noted he looked and spoke just like their granddad. 
Hoskins looked upon Van Damm as "an absolute gent" - though with a likely fondness for a few of the young Windmill ladies.  "If you talk to the original Windmill girls, they all loved Van Damm," says Hoskins. "He was an absolute gent. I'll bet he slept with a few of them, but he did look after them. He was a bit of a rogue but innocent as well. And he was very naïve. Anybody else wouldn't have been able to put up with Laura Henderson."
On the set, the chemistry between Hoskins and his co-star was almost immediate. Says Dench:  "I'd  never worked with Bob before, but within a day of working together - a day! -- we had a shorthand between us.  You don't have that with everyone.  He's so easy to work with.  And it's very nice to have someone I literally don't have to look up to!"
Hoskins certainly looked up to Dench, in a different way. ""What's great with Judi is she's so fearless, she's terrifying," he says.  "If you just throw her a little curve ball like - 'oh I'll just see what she does with this!' - she just wraps you up in pure velvet and throws it back to you again. And then you sort of take it to the edge, and she will take it a little bit further.  She's joy.  Acting with Judi is something I should have done at the beginning of my career."

SCREENWRITER MARTIN SHERMAN
"I thought of Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn - between a strong woman and a strong man."
Martin Sherman, Screenwriter.
The writer Martin Sherman had first worked with Norma Heyman in 1992 on the BAFTA-nominated TV film Clothes in the Wardrobe (released theatrically in the US by Goldwyn as The Summer House), which she produced and he adapted from an Alice Thomas Ellis novel. Sherman enjoyed wide acclaim for his stage play Bent, which was made into a film in 1997 starring Clive Owen, and last year his book for the hit Broadway musical The Boy from Oz was nominated for a Tony award.
When approached to write Mrs. Henderson, Sherman had only one response: "Yes, yes, of course yes!" Along with working with Frears, Sherman was attracted to the project for another reason. "I knew from the beginning I was writing this for Judi. I had seen her on stage so many times. It's the first time I've ever written anything directly for somebody."
Once he committed, though, Sherman, like Frears, worried about finding the core story for the film. But from the start, two things hooked him: Mrs Henderson's behaviour, and a secret Van Damm never openly revealed.
"He wrote his entire autobiography and never, ever mentioned that he was Jewish, though I thought he must be," says Sherman. "I think that's because he had this great need for himself and his enterprise to be considered proper and middle class, which has something to do with the way British society sees Jewishness. But the fact he didn't admit to it gave me a great clue, a great way into his character and a way into the story."
Indeed, notes Hoskins, "There were a lot of Jewish management in the theatre then - Lou Grade and others. They all went to the same synagogue. A lot of Jews changed their names to European ones - Van Damm must have thought his wasn't quite proper and middle class enough."
Once he had found his keys to the story, Sherman soon realised it was the kind of tale he had always wanted to tell. "It was my version of a Hollywood screwball comedy of the 1930s and 40s, with Hepburn or Carole Lombard playing characters who were very rich or wanted to be - the kind of characters I
dearly love.  Laura Henderson was a major eccentric, and the upper classes of that day tolerated, even encouraged eccentrics.  Think of Evelyn Waugh and Nancy Mitford."
In retelling the story, Sherman blended fiction with fact. "The idea of Mrs Henderson falling for Van Damm and that gentle pursuit, we can't be sure about. But from what I read, Laura did have a son who died. A bomb did fall on the café across from the Windmill, and one of the girls was injured, not killed. As for the idea of naked showgirls, that came from the Moulin Rouge in Paris and she and Van Damm picked up on it."
Sherman produced a first draft in just eight months. "It was a wonderful script, from the first draft," says Bob. "I thought this project would take years to get off the ground, but it was bang, bang, bang and we're on set, and we're fine."

A MUSICAL MOVIE
"It's not Singin' in the Rain." Stephen Frears
As film genres go, Mrs Henderson Presents is written not as a traditional musical, but a dramatic comedy with music. "This is a musical and it isn't at the same time," says Stephen. "I mean, it's not Singin' in the Rain where the characters sing to each other. It's a film and a musical."
"There's no attempt to be like Chicago here," says Heyman. "Martin trawled the archives at the Musical Museum in Hammersmith and read every script the Windmill did."
Many of the Windmill's song lyrics from the 1930s perfectly captured the tenor of the times. One was a song called Babies of the Blitz. "As a lyric it's so revealing of people's attitudes then, of their humour, defiance, spunkiness and again, a kind of innocence," remarks Sherman. "It's as revealing as anything I've read about the Blitz."
Another song that Martin would seize on was Goody Goody by Benny Goodman, from 1936, which he used to cut across various scenes in the film to show events happening and time passing at the Windmill.
Sherman worked about 14 numbers into the final script, all linked directly to the action. For Frears, the film's musical content presented one of the greatest challenges for him, as he had never worked with so much music.
"Songs and music are tyrannical: once you start a phrase of music you have to complete it. So I found all that very, very tricky," he says. "But by a sort of miracle I had lunch with the director Alan Parker, who said, 'you can wing a film but you can't wing a musical.' So I read a book about Arthur Freed, who was at MGM and made musicals such as The Wizard of Oz and Singing in the Rain. It told me how he got all these people into the same room together at the same moment and make them cohere. And you have to start doing this early on."
Frears also credits much of his ability to pull off his first musical to George Fenton, the accomplished composer and musical director. Now with 100 productions under his belt, from which he has earned BAFTA, Ivor Novello and Emmy Awards as well as five Academy Award®  nominations, Fenton first worked with Frears in 1979 on the TV drama Bloody Kids. He has since written music for a diverse range of films such as Gandhi, Frears' Dangerous Liaisons, Groundhog Day, Fight Club and the recent BBC TV series The Blue Planet (for which he won a BAFTA award). Working closely with Sherman, Fenton composed and scored all of the original Windmill songs to accompany the lyrics that Sherman had discovered.
"Most of the musical numbers are quintessentially English and of the period," says Heyman. "Martin comes from America and his background is musical theatre. It's his passion, and so this was a great adventure for him. He found these enchanting little numbers that he thought came from an alien world."

NUDITY
THE AUDITIONS
THE WAR
SOHO IN THE 30s
THE HISTORY OF THE WINDMILL THEATRE
THE ORIGINAL WINDMILL GIRLS
THE PRODUCTION DESIGN
COSTUME DESIGN
HAIR AND MAKE-UP DESIGN
GETTING INTO CHARACTER: The Supporting Cast
ABOUT THE FILM-MAKERS: Stephen Frears Director/  Martin Sherman Writer
MEMORIES OF THE WINDMILL: THE ORIGINAL WINDMILL GIRLS