Emmerdale actress produces and stars in new movie about Hampstead Heath dog walkers
Georgia Slowe with her dog Sadie on Hampstead Heath. Picture: Polly Hancock - Credit: Archant
A former soap star is hoping to kick-start her film-making career by taking the world of Hampstead Heath’s dog walkers to the big screen.
Ex-Emmerdale actress Georgia Slowe has swapped the rural Yorkshire Dales setting of the ITV soap, from 2006 to 2008, for north London’s closest equivalent, with her pet project Four Tails.
The 20-minute short film is the 47-year-old’s first foray into writing and producing after the launch of her own production company Slowe Motion Films.
It focuses on the lives of four fictional dog walkers – and most of the action was shot on location on Hampstead Heath during last summer’s heatwave.
The actress, who has lived in Hampstead for most of her life, said the setting and subject matter were natural choices when she started work on the script.
“I am from Hampstead, born and bred and love the area, so it seemed fitting that I should set my first film here,” she said.
“But it was a very ambitious project to do as my first. You’re dealing with weather, with terrain and with dogs, all of which are unpredictable.”
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The short is described as a “whimsical English comedy” and focuses on the trials and tribulations of four friends who walk their dogs on the Heath every day – just as Ms Slowe does.
“People you walk with on the Heath are not necessarily people you socialise with in real life,” she said.
The actress, a former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company whose ex-husband Ray Kelvin founded the fashion brand Ted Baker, said she called in favours to assemble an experienced cast and crew. The film’s director is Christopher Villiers, who played her on-screen husband in Emmerdale.
Ms Slowe, who played lady of the manor Perdita Hyde-Sinclair in the ITV show, is now putting together the final cut and hopes to launch the film with a screening in the spring at Hampstead’s iconic Everyman cinema in Holly Bush Vale.
She added: “It’s the first proper project I’ve done myself.
“I’ve written, produced and acted in it and I’ve still got most of my hair left, though I think its rather greyer now.
“Under the banner of Slowe Motion Film I intend to make many more. It has been an amazing experience and I’ve loved almost every second.”
