FEATURE:
If Your Name’s (Not Yet) on the Guestlist…
IN THIS PHOTO: The EURO-winning Lionesses captain and Arsenal player, Leah Williamson/PHOTO CREDIT: Jack Chipper for Wonderland
The Brilliant The Trouble Club, and Some Wonderful Women I’d Love to See
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THIS is fairly self-indulgent feature…
IN THIS PHOTO: The Trouble Club’s owner and CEO, Ellie Newton
as it is me, as a member of The Trouble Club, dreaming of guests I’d have on my wish-list. I will get to the usual housekeeping before moving on. I know I wrote about The Trouble Club last month. I imagine the next time I will cover them is close to December. Maybe a look back on a brilliant and memorable year. The club, owned by CEO (and queen) Ellie Newton has a growing army of (mainly) women who turn up in force for events. Hosting events at a range of different-sized venues – from the larger Union Chapel to the small and cosy The Hearth -, the range of events and speakers hosted is incredible! From politicians and authors to entertainment figures and musicians, this is a club people need to seek out if they are not a member. Past events of recent weeks includes the brilliant Cally Beaton: Namaste Motherf*ckers, and A History of the World in Six Plagues with Edna Bonhomme. Future speakers include Tulisa Contostavlos, Marina Hyde, and Emily Maitlis. Such a pedigree of wonderful women! You can and should follow The Trouble Club on Twitter and Instagram. I know members are asked, when they join The Trouble Club, who they would like to see speak. I think I chose Margot Robbie. Maybe she is out of the budgetary reach and would need to be hosted at a massive venue given the potential demand! However, one of the ‘dream guests’ I am about to feature connects to Margot Robbie – and she is also a massive name. Even though a lot of Trouble Club members (unfortunately) suggest speakers who are dead – always a drawback! -, mine are very much alive!
I did previously suggest a few names I am not sure about. Gillian Anderson is great, though the recent controversy around the novel, The Salt Path (she starred in the film adaptation), might complicate things. Gisèle Pelicot and Greta Thunberg are women I would love to see speak. Also D.J. and broadcaster Lauren Laverne and actor Florence Pugh. However, I am sure that Ellie Newton and the brilliant people she works with at The Trouble Club – including Zea, Ella and Jen – have guests locked in and there are not many spaces free. This is just me imagining and thinking about who I would love to see – and why that is. The first name came to me made sports headlines over a week ago. She is the captain of the Lionesses’ UEFA Women's EURO-winning team. Actually, they not only retained the honour but are the first England team ever to win a major tournament on foreign soil. Making me wonder why we give so much importance, attention and money to the men’s game when, no offence, they are comparatively underachieving, boring and overhyped! And I think the Lionesses are even finer role models. Leah Williamson would be a hugely popular Trouble guest. Someone inspiring so many girls and young women to get into football, she is an amazing player and advocate of the women’s game. I am going to bring in a recent interview with her. Such a positive role model, she and her teammates made history and stole the nation’s hearts just over a week ago. Wonderland spoke with Leah Williamson back in May. I wanted to source some of that interview, just showing what an amazing and interesting person she is. D.J. and broadcaster Annie Macmanus (who would be another great Trouble Club guest) – also known as Annie Mac - spoke with a “Lifelong Gooner. Author. Activist. Jazz piano enthusiast. Certified girl crush”. The headline of the article continues: “At 28, The Lionesses’ Leah Williamson has captured the nation’s heart both on and off the pitch”:
“At Arsenal, the club she joined at nine through the Centre of Excellence, she’s become the heartbeat of their defence—and, at the time of writing, is preparing to face Barcelona in the Champions League Final. For England, the Lionesses’ Euros 2025 squad hasn’t been announced yet but we unofficially assume she’s not only in it, but will captain the team once again.
Off the pitch, her reach is just as commanding. An OBE for services to football. Five co-written children’s books. The first female England player to speak at the UN, where she addressed the Sustainable Development Goals Summit and called for gender equality in sport. A steady stream of charitable work.Leah Williamson hasn’t just captained the Pride of England—she’s become it. Did we mention she’s 28?And, to add to the list, she single-handedly got DJ, Author, Broadcaster and host of podcasts Changes and BBC podcast Sidetracked, Annie Mac, back into football. Leah’s influence, so far, has defied scientific explanation. But if there’s anyone to try and explain its effect, it’s Annie…
Annie Macmanus: I listened back to our Changes episode from summer 2023 and loved that conversation. You were recovering from your ACL injury and about to head to Australia with your mum and brother to watch the World Cup—your first time watching an international tournament instead of playing in one. You were reflective but also positive and focused on making the most of that time beyond football. Looking back, howwas that period for you?
Leah Williamson: Firstly, it genuinely saved my football career—in terms of reigniting something. When you’re young, you always think the big day will come, because you’ve got time. But the timing of my injury forced me to refocus and be more deliberate about everything, especially football. It put me in a much better place. Off the pitch, though—the things I didand the time I spent with people—I would never have had thatotherwise.
AM: How hard was the physical side of coming back? And afternine months out, is there fear that you won’t have your place on the team?
LW: One hundred percent. It’s not even a question—it’s a fact.Will I be able to play again? Am I still as valuable to the team?All of that. During my ACL injury, I had this phrase in my head:‘Enjoy the moments.’ So when I was close to returning—a sell-out at the Emirates against Man United—I threw myself a party with all my family and friends. I thought, why shouldn’t I celebrate this? It’s a big moment. And then I got injured again and didn’t make my return. Still had the party. It was difficult because everything kept breaking along the way. I tore my hamstring, irritated my other knee, tore a muscle in my hip that’s almost impossible to tear. Little things kept happening. So I’d say it wasn’t until September—and this all started in February—that I finally felt like there was nothing wrong with me anymore.
AM: And what about confidence? Beyond the physical side, how hard was it to regain the belief that you could still do it?
LW: That’s been the main struggle, and it’s still ongoing—there are still firsts to tick off. I love the phrase, ‘Faith and fear both have little evidence.’ It’s your choice which one to follow, but sometimes you lean too far one way. I’m trying to live in the present and trust my ability now, but without anything to go on, it’s hard. My brain works like, ‘Give me the info and I’ll act on it,’ and I had no data, no evidence, no memory—that’s what I struggled with.
AM: I know you said it’s ongoing, but is there a sense that the more you play there’s a sense of your body, your brain coming together and aligning with each other? Is it just practice? Is it just boots on the field?
LW: For a long time, it was that. It was, ‘I feel uncomfortable, but unless I do this next step, I’m not going to know.’ Just chasing that hope that with more game time and more minutes, it’ll figure itself out. But then you hit moments where you expect something of yourself and don’t quite deliver. Or the opposite—you go in thinking, ‘We’ll see what happens,’ and have a great game, and suddenly it’s, ‘I’m back!’ Then you hit a bit of a downer again. I think it is about playing and time, but also, like I said, you have to be more intentful. Instead of thinking, ‘I know what to do,’ you have to actually tell yourself, and then hope you can deliver when the time comes”.
IN THIS PHOTO: Munroe Bergdorf/PHOTO CREDIT: Jordan Rossi for HUNGER
An activist and role model (and fashion model) for the trans community, Munroe Bergdorf is someone who I would love to hear speak for The Trouble Club. The English model and activist has walked several catwalks for brands including Gypsy Sport at both London and NYC Fashion Weeks. Munroe Bergdorf was also the first transgender model in the U.K. for L'Oréal, though was dropped within weeks after a racial row. You can buy her amazing new book, Talk to Me, and also watch the documentary, Love & Rage: Munroe Bergdorf. I am going to drop in a recent interview with. I also suggest people check out her brilliant interview with former Trouble Club guest, Emma-Louise Boynton. Bergdorf recently spoke with Big Issue as to why we need to have the transgender conversation on a human level. She has been the recipient of abuse, violence and hatred for years. The transgender conversation is especially pressing given the heinous ruling by the Supreme Court that a woman is defined by sex and not gender. A ruling that not only thrilled rampant transphobes like JK Rowling, but also will create less access and integration for transgender women. It will also lead to much more abuse, ostracisation and stigmatism:
“I mean, that was just the beginning, really,” she tells Big Issue. “Things have definitely got worse.”
Until 2015, Brussels-based advocacy group ILGA-Europe consistently ranked Britain as the most LGBTQ+ friendly country in Europe. Since then, we’ve plunged to 22nd place, named alongside Hungary and Georgia as countries with the biggest falls in rankings.
Public support is slipping too – only 64% of Britons described themselves as “not prejudiced” against transgender people in 2022, down from 82% just a year earlier.
As one of Britain’s most recognisable trans women, Munroe Bergdorf has had a front seat to this downward spiral.
“If you look back at when we were gaining visibility in 2015, public approval was good,” she reflects.
“People didn’t feel threatened by trans people, and they genuinely felt that trans people deserved equality and respect, and self-ID wasn’t a contentious issue because there was no reason for it to be.”
What changed? Bergdorf pauses.
“I think that homophobia never really went away,” she says. “The will to demonise queerness never really went away, and suddenly we have a very visible community that is visible enough to exploit, but small enough to not have to pander to for votes. I think all that hatred really got directed towards us at a time of convenience.”
At the same time, “anti-woke” has hardened into ideology. The political Overton window has shifted right.
“We do not believe in DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] and that madness in any way at all,” Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said last month. His party leads Labour in an increasing number of voting intention polls.
Section 28 all over again
But the past was no utopia either. When Bergdorf was growing up in 1990s Essex, she was “consistently bullied” for her effeminate mannerisms and mixed-race heritage.
“I was raised during Section 28 so I legally couldn’t talk to my teachers about my sexuality,” she recalls. “I felt embarrassed that I was being bullied, I hadn’t come out yet as queer. I had no one to talk to.”
Introduced by Margaret Thatcher’s government in 1988, Section 28 barred schools and local authorities from “promoting homosexuality”, effectively cutting off support for queer youth. The law wasn’t repealed in England and Wales until 2003.
It’s so recent, I say. Surely, we should celebrate that progress?
“Well, I don’t know,” Bergdorf replies, “because Keir Starmer introducing the inability to speak about gender identity in schools is basically Section 28 all over again. So we definitely haven’t come that far.”
She’s referring to a 2024 Conservative proposal to ban educators from teaching the “contested view that gender identity is a spectrum”. Then-opposition leader Keir Starmer agreed he was “not in favour of ideology being taught in schools on gender”.
Legal protections are shifting too. In April, the UK’s Supreme Court ruled that the legal definition of “woman” is based on biological sex, allowing authorities to exclude trans people from single-sex spaces – even those with a legal gender recognition certificate. Gender-critical campaigners called it a “win for common sense”. Trans activists condemned it.
“The judgment does not remove the legal protections trans people currently enjoy under the Equality Act,” a panel of United Nations experts said. “But it may be used to justify exclusionary policies that further stigmatise and marginalise an already vulnerable population.”
The guidance is a devastating blow for trans rights, Bergdorf says. “The EHRC guidance [the Equality and Human Rights Commission interpretation of the Supreme Court ruling] could function as segregation.
“Trans rights are very much a litmus test in what we will accept. And if we accept the segregation of trans people, we accept that they can be harassed, demonised and dehumanised, then we really condemn ourselves to that narrative.”
In this view, trans rights are a bellwether for other civil liberties. If discrimination against this tiny community is allowed to continue, Bergdorf argues, other rights, “say, gay marriage, or the right to not be discriminated against if you have an abortion, or the freedom of religious expression” could be next.
It’s a bleak picture; a parochial society governed by fear and hostility. We’re already seeing such a society take shape across the Atlantic. Despite everything, Munroe Bergdorf refuses to give up hope.
“A large swathe of the population can be forgiven,” she says: they are “misguided, not malicious”.
IN THIS PHOTO: Claudia Winkleman/PHOTO CREDIT: Channel 4/Nic Serpell-Rand
Three more guests that I would love to see at The Trouble Club some time down the line. If you have read down this far – and apologies to Ellie Newton if she is contacted by any of these people asking to be a guest (I am not sure if that would seem like pressuring her!) -, then I hope that you check out these amazing women. One reason I love The Trouble Club is that I get to hear stories and experiences from these varied, multitalented and engrossing women I would not normally have direct access to. If they are promoting a book or discussing their career, you go away emotional, affected, laughing or inspired – or sometimes all four! We have seen figures from T.V. and radio speak before. One that would be terrific is Claudia Winkleman. Host of The Traitors, co-host of Strictly Come Dancing (with Tess Daly), and this amazing broadcaster and intoxicating human being (and author of 2020’s Quite), this would be a popular and well-attended event. This interview from GRAZIA from the start of the year shows Winkleman in modest mood. Claiming that she is merely a “tiny orange woman” – she is, in fact, a national treasure! -, she is self-deprecating, funny and always compelling to listen to! She recently stood in for Graham Norton on his chat show for an episode, and I feel she is a natural talk show host. Someone who I could (and would love to see) see acting in a show or film:
“She’s bowled over by The Traitors’ success. ‘We didn’t foresee this. We went to Scotland with the amazing people who make it and a pair of red fingerless gloves and gave it our best shot. I think people like it because the psychology is extraordinary – just watching people work out whether they’re being lied to. The dynamics feel addictive. I’m completely obsessed.’
Which doesn’t mean she’s figured out how to win, despite her privileged view. ‘I don’t think there’s a formula. I wish there were. Although, actually, I’m really pleased there isn’t, because then people would know how to win. I do think the power of persuasion is everything. I also think you have to have a lot of empathy.’
So you don’t have to be a bit of a sociopath? ‘I don’t like the narrative that Faithfuls are good and Traitors are bad,’ she insists. ‘I wouldn’t make anyone a Traitor who didn’t ask to be one. That would be unfair. The Traitors are just as lovely, and that’s what for me makes it so compelling. I really want the Faithfuls to find one, and I also really want the Traitors to get away with it.’ Is she still in touch with any of the former contestants? ‘All of them. Aubrey sent me a video only today of some windows that he helped dress. I can’t let them go. I feel very protective over them.’
She’s tight lipped about the celebrity version of The Traitors, slated to start filming this summer. ‘I feel so bad because we’ve bonded over the Hula Hoop,’ she wails. ‘I would really like to tell you everything, but I really mustn’t.’
People like The Traitors because the psychology is extraordinary. The dynamics are addictive.
Of all the things that might have come to pass from The Traitors, becoming a fashion influencer wasn’t on her bingo card. ‘I don’t understand what happened. I’m a 52-year-old woman who happens to like a fingerless glove. I’m a tiny orange lady, and my fringe is too long.’ If self-deprecation suits her, so too does her Traitors wardrobe, a chic melange of cosy coats and knits offset with tartan. ‘I’ve always loved big sweaters and winter clothes. I’m allergic to summer clothes. I never want to see a shoestring-strap top or an open-toe sandal. I don’t do barbecues. I never leave the house between April and September. Give me big tights, a heavy sweater and a Wellington.’
It sounds as though she and her stylist, Sinead McKeefry, have fun constructing her on-screen persona. ‘For Strictly, one year I was Anita Dobson. This year I was Demis Roussos, which is why I wore a lot of kaftans. For the first [series of ] Traitors, it was Princess Anne meets Ronnie Corbett meets someone who is going to a golf sale. For series two, we went a bit Sarah Brightman. It was a large mood board.’
Off-camera, she has a uniform. ‘I wear the same black Topshop jeans – they’re falling apart, but I refuse to give them up – with sweaters that I’ve had for 30 years, DMs and either an ancient long black coat or one of my son’s puffers.’ But not a lace-up DM. ‘No – a bulky Chelsea boot. Who’s got time for laces?’
Not Winkleman, who last year stepped back from her Radio 2 show to spend more time with her children – Jake, 21, Matilda, 18, and 13-year-old Arthur – whom she shares with her husband of 24 years, producer Kris Thykier. The hardest part of being a parent? ‘Them leaving,’ she says. Her eldest two are at university. ‘It’s horrendous. I don’t understand why they don’t have that in the baby books, along with all the advice about breastfeeding and how to steam a butternut squash. Why can’t there be a chapter saying, “You’re going to have these little puffins that you’ll love more than life – and then one day, they’re off.”’
Strictly recently celebrated its 20th anniversary, a fact she still finds hard to fathom. ‘I started presenting It Takes Two when my [eldest] son was one. I can’t believe I’ve been part of this amazing show for almost his entire life. How lucky am I to do Strictly, Traitors and The Piano?’ Suggest it’s talent as much as luck and she quickly refutes it. ‘That’s not faux self-deprecation. It’s the truth. I cannot believe how lucky I am and when it ends – and it’s got to be around the corner – I know that I’ve already had too long a run, so I’ll say, “Thank you so much and bye-bye.”’
Both she and her Strictly co-host Tess Daly are in their fifties, a fact that not so long ago would have precluded them from anchoring a primetime TV show. ‘I think it’s much better,’ she says of older women’s visibility on screen. ‘My bosses are all women, number one. And number two, I feel like there’s a home on telly for people who are older. But I would love to hear from people who disagree with me, because we need to hear those voices as well’”.
IN THIS PHOTO: Greta Gerwig/PHOTO CREDIT: Zoey Grossman for TIME
Two more guests I have on my dream Trouble Club guestlist, this name is perhaps ambitious. The one I said connected with Margot Robbie. A record-setting director and someone who has been Oscar-nominated as a director – never having won that honour, it is a ceremony that struggles in its sexism towards female directors -, Greta Gerwig would be one of the most popular speakers. She lives in New York but, even if she came to the U.K., could she be lured? I do think she could speak at a venue like the Barbican Centre or Southbank Centre. I want to go back to an interview with Gerwig from last year. Barbie was released in 2023 and made over a billion dollars at the box office. Gerwig became the first female director to achieve that feat. A lot of eyes were on what she would do next. I believe she is directing a new Narnia film, so a continuation of big budget films rather than a return to the more independent-spirited films before (I mean, Little Women, Ladybird and Frances Ha (my favourite film ever) had smaller budgets and cannot be considered big studio films or mainstream hits). One of TIME’s Women of the Year 2024, they spoke with her last February about the success of Barbie and what her next big swing will be:
“The success of Barbie means that Gerwig, 40, now has the rare latitude to write her own ticket in an increasingly risk-averse industry—a freedom that could have been immobilizing. But Narnia, Gerwig says, had been gestating for a long time; she’d written a draft before ever setting foot on the set of Barbie. “Knowing that I’d laid the groundwork for Narnia and wanted to return to it—that’s probably something I set up for myself psychologically,” she says. “Because I know the right thing, for me anyway, is to keep making movies. Whatever happens, good or bad, you’ve got to keep going.” Hollywood is still reeling from pandemic shutdowns, strikes, and layoffs, facing omnipresent pressure from Wall Street to turn ever higher profits; in a moment like this one, she feels fortunate to get to do what she loves. “It’s never not astonishing to me that somebody gives you money to make a movie,” she says.
Gerwig’s story is as much about commerce as it is about art: her films are humane, emotional, and playful; she is the only director in history to have their first three solo feature films nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. Yet her movies also clean up at the box office: her semi-autobiographical solo directorial debut, Lady Bird, grossed $79 million against a $10 million budget; her next, an adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s beloved Little Women, was budgeted at $40 million and took in $231 million—both extraordinary returns on investment.
These commercial triumphs reflect how her work resonates in the culture, particularly among women and girls, whose emotional lives and ambitions Gerwig explores in her films. But to make her success about gender would be to diminish how her work also transcends its boundaries. “I always think about the intuitive way you love a song or a movie,” she says. “You love something, and you just love it. You don’t think to yourself, ‘I have to love this because it’s by a woman, for a woman.’ That’s part of it. But it’s not why you love it.” She pauses. “You love it because it’s great.”
I ask her whether the need to prove her command over this space is something women feel more deeply, for the exact reasons articulated in Ferrera’s now famous monologue: there’s an uneasy relationship between women and their ambition in a patriarchal society. “I don’t know if it’s gendered,” she says. “But I know I want to be able to make a body of work that feels like it’s undeniable in terms of the work itself. I don’t want there to be an asterisk next to my name. Do I have more of that than male filmmakers? I don’t know! I know plenty of deeply insecure male filmmakers who are plagued in their own ways.” (I resist the impulse to ask for their names.)
The question of sexism also haunted this year’s Oscar race. While Gerwig was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay, she was shut out of the Best Director category, while Barbie’s lead and producer, Margot Robbie, was also excluded from Best Actress, despite being acclaimed for her nuanced, layered performance. Fans wondered: Might the movie, or its star, not look like the Academy’s picture of serious filmmaking?
“Of course I wanted it for Margot,” Gerwig says. “But I’m just happy we all get to be there together.” There’s also, she points out, ample accolades for the film at the Oscars. “A friend’s mom said to me, ‘I can’t believe you didn’t get nominated,’” she says, laughing. “I said, ‘But I did. I got an Oscar nomination.’ She was like, ‘Oh, that’s wonderful for you!’ I was like, ‘I know!’”.
IN THIS PHOTO: Michaela Coel/PHOTO CREDIT: Spencer Hewitt
To be fair, there are myriad other women I would also love to be a Trouble Club guest. Kate Nash, Samira Ahmed, CMAT, Naomi Campbell, Jenny Saville, Gloria Steinem (a previous Trouble guest) and so many more accomplished and phenomenal queens. However, the final of my five ‘dream guest’ inclusions is Michaela Coel. A hugely important actor writer and television director, 2020’s I May Destroy You is one of the most important, affecting and brilliant pieces of television that has been produced in the past couple of decades. Before getting to a 2023 interview with Coel, earlier this year, Interview Magazine paired Michaela Coel with Little Simz. Coel asking Simz about her new album, Lotus:
“COEL: We’ve got the same PR, but they didn’t know that we knew each other. [Laughs]
SIMZ: Really?
COEL: They said, “Would you like to interview Little Simz about her album? I think you met her at the GQ Awards last year in New York.” I said, “Excuse me madam, I’ve known this bitch 10 years. Yes, I’ll do it.” You seem stronger and more resolved, and firmly standing in who you are.
SIMZ: I’m really grateful to hear you say that, because when you’re in it sometimes, you don’t know. I feel it as well. Even though you’re always growing and whatnot, I just feel way more comfortable in my skin, you know?
COEL: Yeah. How does what you learned, and the unfortunate experiences that you’ve had regarding abuse within this industry—financial, emotional—how does it shape how you choose your collaborators going forward?
SIMZ: Damn, big question. I think if anything, it’s made me more open to working with different types of people. When you close yourself off and you’re in a cocoon, that’s when the fucked shit happens. It made me more excited to be able to share my gift. There’s so many talented people on the earth.
COEL: Yeah.
SIMZ: Not that I forgot that, but I maybe didn’t want to see it. If anything, it’s given me a newfound excitement, because what I found is by trying new things, it unlocked something in me that I didn’t know existed. It’s given me a newfound freedom to be a bit more experimental in my work. I felt like a child again. Again, going into situations, not one man up”.
IN THIS PHOTO: Little Simz/PHOTO CREDIT: Jackson Bowley
Soon to star in a BBC drama, First Day on Earth, I think we are going to see a lot more from Michaela Coel. Someone who would be an epic and hugely powerful Trouble Club guest. However, this again is just me promoting the club and its work rather than trying to manifest anything! I will end with a 2023 interview with Michaela Coel from Harper’s Bazaar. As we see written near the top of the interview, Michaela Coel’s “openness, authenticity and a spirit of experimentation have been key to unlocking her creativity”:
“Visibility, therefore, is important to her. Coel is a pioneer in many ways, having worked up to a position where she can be seen and heard; she was the first Black person for five years to attend the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, and the first Black woman – and only the fourth woman in its 42-year history – to give the Mac-Taggart lecture (previous speakers include Rupert Murdoch and Jeremy Paxman).
"It’s 'seeing to believe'," she says firmly. "When I was growing up, I never saw a picture of a Black woman sitting in a director’s chair. I didn’t know that was something that we could do, so it almost wasn’t something that I wished for. I just kind of stumbled here."
PHOTO CREDIT: Josh Sinner
Coel’s creative journey has been defined by a strong sense of self rather than premeditation. Given her stratospheric success, it’s reassuring to hear that at each moment in her career, she never imagined an audience bigger than the one that was before her. "I’ve been writing for 16 years," she explains. "At no point did I ever think ahead, when I was writing poetry in my car or turning up at theatres doing open-mic nights for 50 quid – and that was only if you won. The most important thing is your relationship with your creativity. That can be difficult to nurture in a world that is very into things like social comparison, but I see it as crucial to encourage people to focus on what’s in front of them."
This spring, Coel is helping to launch the BMW Filmmaking Challenge in partnership with the British Film Institute. She will mentor five shortlisted filmmakers, who will each receive a £10,000 production budget and access to cutting-edge technology to make their project. The winner will have a red-carpet premiere at the London Film Festival in October, and the shortlisted entries will be screened.
Coel sees this an opportunity to reach as many communities as possible, and to give writers creative space to take risks. "I want to impart that it’s OK to get it wrong, it’s OK to mess it up," she says. "And we should be allowed that space”.
I know that Trouble Club members all have their ideas of who they would love to see speak. However, the guests that are confirmed and have passed are all simply incredible. It is credit to Ellie Newton and her passion for The Trouble Club that means it continues to grow and recruit members. Always a pleasure and experience being in the room with so many brilliant women (and the occasional man). I will revisit The Trouble Club for the final time this year in a few months but, for now, I am thinking and looking ahead to who might appear for The Trouble Club as we head…
TOWARDS 2026.