Hampstead director's film explores the Quintessentially British

Hampstead producer/director Frank Mannion also interviewed House of Commons speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle and Royal shoemakers John Lobb for the documentary, which has a charity premiere at Fellowship House, Hampstead Garden Suburb on December 8.

Guests will be served the Queen's favourite drink; Dubonnet and gin before watching the feature which he describes as "a love letter to everything great and British, with a twist in the tale."

While the Irish film-maker "wasn't hoping to explode myths", many of the things associated with Britishness turn out to be anything but. Not only is gin a Dutch invention, but the iconic St George's flag waved at football matches has its origins in Italy.Sir Ian McKellen appears in Quintessentially British (Image: Courtesy of Swipe Films)

As Mayor Marco Bucci explains, it was the symbol of the powerful naval Republic of Genoa during the Crusades, which the English fleet took up in the 13th Century to deter pirates from attacking.

But they stopped paying the agreed fee when the Republic collapsed, and the Genoese mayor wrote to the late Queen asking for "247-years of arrears outstanding".Mayor of Genoa Marco Bucci in Quintessentially British (Image: Courtesy of Swipe Films)

"It's a timely story as England are in the World cup," says Mannion. "Things that we think are British have their origins elsewhere - but that's inevitable from a land of immigrants.

"The idea was to examine Britishness in the year of the Queen's Jubilee, but no-one wants a straightforward love letter to anything, it has to be questioned and interrogated. We have found interesting characters and quirky stories from a different angle."

When global film and TV production shut down during the pandemic, it meant Mannion and his Hampstead-based editor could still film around London.Director Frank Mannion in the library at The Athenaeum Club (Image: Courtesy of Swipe Films)

 Dame Judi was interviewed about that quintessentially British figure, William Shakespeare, Sir Lindsay was filmed in the Speakers House in the Palace of Westminster, and Lady Carnarvon at Highclere Castle - aka Downton Abbey.

"The Speaker is the oldest parliamentary role in the world and Lindsay Hoyle is the embodiment of that institution, we asked all our contributors if they consider themselves quintessentially British and he said he was quintessentially Lancastrian."

Mannion also filmed musicians Braimah and Konya Kanneh-Mason performing at the Proms at St Jude's; Hampstead Garden Suburb's volunteer-run community arts festival.

"The idea of proms was 18th century aristocrats wandering around parkland listening to music. While the Royal Albert Hall's are the most famous, there's nothing more English than the Kanneh-Masons playing a piece by Elgar - who lived in Hampstead - in Lutyens' beautifully designed church, and the modesty of organisers like Susie Gregson. It's just a lovely music festival."

Some of the film was "a voyage of discovery" for Mannion. Launer handbags were favoured by both The Queen and Margaret Thatcher, whose dressing down of ministerial colleagues became known as a 'handbagging.'

"What I didn't know is that the Queen used it as a secret signal to courtiers. If she wanted to be relieved she moved it from the left to right arm, if she put it on the table it was a five minute warning to leave."

While the film was finished before the Queen's death, he feels "Royal pomp and pageantry" will always have global recognition. 

"They're a crucial part of Britain's tourism and economy, while her death was a sad time for the nation, the transition strengthened the brand and reinvented it."

The Cambridge graduate learned entertainment law before starting his own  company Swipe Films. His first movie job involved arranging the contracts for Tom Cruise film Interview with a Vampire, and he's gone on to produce films such as Grand Theft Parsons, Osama and These Foolish Things.

Asked if there's an ulterior motive in pulling back the curtain to reveal just how many great British symbols are foreign, he admits:

"There's an origins element about foreign things becoming the fabric of British lives. Everything has been said already about Brexit, but Brexit is the subtext of all the conversations about Britishness, without us being explicit about it in the film."

Quintessentially British is released in selected UK Cinemas and on streaming services December 9. http://www.swipefilms.com/