Getting Carter

[Bojan Scores]

‘Getting Carter’ is Nick Triplow’s biography of ‘Get Carter’ author Ted Lewis. I managed to get it off Amazon for £7 (hardback) and it was an entertaining and enjoyable read. It tracks his years as a sickly child, his grammar school days in Lincolnshire through to his student days and subsequent calling as an author. I find biographies from the baby boom era fascinating as you can really detect a mind set change from their parents generation, this is no different. We’re all aware of ‘Jacks return home’ but the book shines a light on the fact he was an accomplished jazz musician, talented artist,an animator (Yellow Submarine is on his CV), and importantly shows that some of his other novels are also great works in the Brit noir genre (which he is largely credited as creating). There’s a few ‘Get Carter’ stories I’ve not seen before from people such as Mike Hodges, Alun Armstrong and Geraldine Moffat. There’s a sense that Lewis didn’t get the credit he deserved for the script, as some of the dialogue is lifted straight from the book. Ted went on to write scripts for Z Cars later in the seventies, but by this stage his personal life and health were unraveling due to his alcoholism. Sadly Ted died in early 1982, aged 42.

[Arthur Pringle]

I finally got round to reading 'Jack's Return Home' recently so I reserved this from the library & finished reading it today, a well researched & written account of Ted Lewis's life. Whilst he only wrote a handful of novels & a few episodes of the 70's version of 'Z Cars', he is regarded by many to be one of the greatest British writers of crime fiction. 

Jack's Return Home was his second novel, set in Sc***horpe it differs considerably from Get Carter. The photo of Lewis on set of the film with a typewriter on his knee is misleading, Mike Hodges wrote the screenplay & Lewis, according to 'Getting Carter' rarely, if ever, used a typewriter to write. The novel is probably as hard hitting as they came in 1970 with liberal use of f & c words. In the novel, the film's most famous line is 'Cliff, you're a big bloke- you're in good shape. But I know more than you do'. 

After reading Jack's Return Home I was eager to read other Lewis novels, few of them are in print so you have to search ebay for them. I recently got hold of 'Billy Rags' from 1975, not read it yet but I was interested to read the background to it in Getting Carter. John McVicar had written a manuscript in prison, later to be published as 'McVicar By Himself' & to serve as the inspiration for the film 'McVicar', the manuscript was smuggled out of prison & did the rounds of various publishers. Ted Lewis somehow got hold of it & copied much of McVicar's story for 'Billy Rags'. John McVicar claims that Lewis basically nicked it, but according to Lewis's widow McVicar was actually given a payment in return for Lewis using his manuscript. Whatever the truth it's an interesting story. 

Apparently Lewis used to watch The Sweeney & complain that 'they've stolen all my f*****g ideas!' He died only 42 due to a combination of health problems brought about by a lifetime of heavy drinking. 

[Arthur Pringle]

I finished reading 'Billy Rags' a while ago, I've not read John McVicar's book but Billy Rags, though written before the film 'McVicar', is virtually the same. I find it hard to believe that John McVicar hadn't come to an arrangement with Ted Lewis as surely he would've sued him for copying his manuscript. It's a good novel of prison life & escape back to a life of crime, I haven't counted the number of times the c word is used but it may be a record for a novel. 

Also just finished reading Lewis's final novel 'GBH', it's about a pornographer & the criminal circles he mixes in & it's about the grimmest novel I've read. If you remember the disturbing scene where Carter watches the film featuring his brother's daughter, then add snuff films into the mix, it's nasty stuff. At the time he wrote GBH Lewis was living with his mother after his marriage had failed, he was an alcoholic & not in good health, sad to think of him writing this in such circumstances. Some consider GBH Lewis's best novel.