Telstar: The Joe Meek Story (2008) User Reviews

Fame, fortune and it all goes horribly wrong

[marcelproust · 7/10 · 29 October 2008]

Saw this last night at the LFF, and while it does betray its stagey origins from time to time, there is much to enjoy in this biopic of Joe Meek, legendary music producer and nutcase. The film doesn't shy away from the murkier aspects of this mercurial character's life - the drugs, the rent boys, the cottaging, the verbal and physical abuse meted out to all and sundry - but Meek does emerge as something of a sympathetic character. I guess that's why so many people put up with him - there must have been something charming about him.

Good performances - including a pointless cameo from Kevin Spacey as Meek's financial backer, the appropriately named Major Banks. Standouts include the young actors playing Heinz and Patrick, the latter being a general factotum-cum-boyfriend who is one of the few people loyal to the last.

Nick Moran should be commended for bringing this quirky, sometime shocking story to the screen - whether it will find an audience beyond 60s music fans or those with a morbid curiosity for stories of pop scandals will remain to be seen.

Incidentally, I live in Islington and walked home past 304 Holloway Road, where almost the whole film takes place. It did send shivers down my spine.

Good if flawed slice of early 60s Britpop

[cbak2005 · 7/10 · 23 June 2009]

I had been waiting for this film for over a year, as I have long been fascinated by Joe Meek, and largely I wasn't disappointed. This certainly showed how Meek made life hell for those around him, especially the hapless and loyal Geoff Goddard.

The standout performances were by James Corden as Clem Cattini and Ralf Little as Chas Hodges. Tom Burke shows a painfully shy Geoff Goddard suppressing unrequited love for Meek, who was more infatuated with Heinz.

There are some laugh out loud moments and in jokes. When Meek is told of a telephone call from Brian Epstein about the Beatles he responds "Yeah Yeah Yeah". Chas Hodges himself has a cameo as a neighbour complaining about the noise, and Jess Conrad joins Hodges as being in the film (as Larry Parnes) and portrayed (be ex-EastEnders actor Nigel Harman). A further subtle moment refer to a boy called Tom who had come all the way from Wales. Did everyone realise that this was Tom Jones? Justin Hawkins also has an amusing time as Screaming Lord Sutch, although it's just as well he isn't given much to say.

The film also scores well at the end in showing photos of the real people alongside their film portrayals.

Heinz Burt's family are upset over what the Press in Southampton are calling a "gay slur". This is sad. If his relationship with Meek is inaccurately portrayed it is hardly derogatory. The family should be more distressed that Heinz is portrayed as a buffoon by JJ Feild.

The film has a few failings. It hints at Meek's earlier life, but starts with Goddard's arrival in Holloway Road. I wanted to know how Meek came to that place, his RAF background, and more about how he created that amazing sound (there have been rumours that the ending of Telstar was the sound of a toilet being flushed, played backwards). Con O'Neil's performance as Meek varies from riveting to at times quite hammy, as in his mostly oily treatment of Mrs Shenton (Pam Ferris). Kevin Spacey's casting as a pompous army officer type business partner was unnecessary, but aimed at the US market (I don't think the US will be interested at all). The film also plays fast and loose with the ending. Patrick Pink has said that he was downstairs during the fateful moments on 3 February.

*******SPOILER*******

The film is kind to Meek in showing him accidentally shooting Mrs Shenton (unlikely given Patrick's account), but has Patrick Pink witnessing Meek's suicide, which is not consistent with his own account.

Worthwhile, though, as a snapshot of the pre-Beatles pop scene.

A hidden biopic gem

[adamscastlevania2 · 7/10 · 21 February 2015]

(65%) At fifteen or so minutes in this pushed very few buttons for me, and as I had no idea who Joe Meek actually was, the temptation to give the remaining three quarters a skip and move on passed my mind, but I'm glad that I didn't because this heats up very nicely. Con O'Neill is sublime in the lead role as the hugely hyped-up, at times very angry, yet unquestionably passionate hit music creator during the swinging days of London in the 60's. The backing cast is made up of a host of UK talent, with Kevin Spacey adding even more quality to the production. This may be a bit to clumsily written at times with a script that feels a bit too much like a stageplay rather than a screenplay, but this is still an important piece of well told pop music history.

The Telstar falls down...

[Lejink · 6/10 · 23 October 2009]

I'm a little too young to appreciate Joe Meek's music and it seems to my ears that his music does seem nowadays as if it's from a museum, it sounds so fossilised....and yet, there's no denying the popularity of his rinky-dink pop music from the pre-Beatles era, even achieving the almost unique feat for a British "artist" (he'd have loved that soubriquet, no doubt) of having a number one in America with the irritatingly catchy "Telstar". I some time ago watched the BBC-TV "Arena" documentary on his life and times and my interest was piqued then at this most unusual man.

Even if you didn't know Meek's life story, we pretty much get to know from the outset that Joe's final breakdown is going to end in tragedy, with the narrative frequently inserting scenes from his last day leading up to the tragic shooting of firstly his landlady (pretty much an accident, as it appears here), this giving him the final spur to almost immediately afterwards take his own life in equally violent fashion.

The film unfolds from this downbeat start into a most entertaining first half as the story charts his rise to mini-Spector status, producing memorable number one hits for John Leyton, The Tornadoes and The Honeycombs. Into Joe's (no pun intended) orbit drift a motley selection of eccentric beat group personnel, with much bawdy humour to the fore. I especially enjoyed Kevin Spacey's spot-on upper-class English accent as Joe's eccentric business manager, military "crusty" Major Banks and there's also a fine turn by Tom Burke as Meek's nervous, sensitive indeed spiritualist in-house songwriter Geoff Goddard. I wasn't quite convinced that Con O'Neill really gave us Meek as he was, although there's no denying his conviction playing.

As for the narrative structure, I felt that the the film failed to truly give Meek his due when he finally reached the top and believe his achievements deserved a bit more highlighting, before the round-the-corner Beatles-era of grittier bands with in-built songwriting teams with the flair and talent to display their own writing ingenuity and studio inventiveness, effectively consigned Meek to, quoting Chris Andrews' 1965 hit, a "yesterday man".

The second half of the film I think, follows a little too much the fortunes of Meek's fellow-travellers, particularly the ridiculously one-dimensional "little-voice" that was Heinz Burt. Indeed Meek's character disappears from the screen it seems for some time before we're jolted back to the closing scenes and his final demise. His story is undoubtedly a tragic one (suppressed homosexual, thwarted talent, moody artist) but I didn't think the film quite got behind his character enough and thus failed to catch the full parabola of his eventful life.

The recreation of the period is great though - from the swinging, jigsaw-style opening credits to the chaotic scenes in Meek's makeshift studio above his landlady's leather goods shop and good acting by almost all on board (helped by the main characters' physical similarity to their real life counterparts) and of course the reproduction of that so distinctive "Joe Meek sound" replete with plinky-plonk organ jungle-drums and loads of re-verb, often married to "death-disc" lyrics.

An entertaining step-back-in-time then, if ultimately falling short in its attempt to do justice to the memory of a haunted but very talented and singularly individual pop maverick. To paraphrase Brian Wilson from a little later in the decade, I guess Joe just wasn't made for those times.

Holloway Road

[jotix100 · 6/10 · 14 July 2011]

Joe Meek, a figure of the the English pop scene in the early 1960s is the subject of this biopic which we caught recently on a cable channel. It is based on a play by James Hicks and adapted for the screen by the playwright and director Nick Moran. The film tries to make sense on the life of a man that was an enigma, even to his own contemporaries.

The portrait of this troubled man who tried to give his country and the rest of the music world the sounds he had in his mind, does not completely clarify for someone not acquainted with that era of what Joe Meek was able to accomplish. His life went from highs to periods where he could not even pay the rent of the space he used atop a leather goods store on Holloway Road.

Adding complexity to the story is Meek's own homosexuality and his infatuation with Heinz Burt, a blond aspiring singer who showed no talent. The groups he sponsored ended up breaking away from him and the royalties of his one smash hit ended in a battle with his own backer, Major Wilfred Banks. The irony being that Joe Meek did not live long to enjoy some of the money the French court awarded him.

The film is worth a look because of Con O'Neill's performance as Joe Meek. Having only seen him on stage during his "Blood Brothers" success, we were curious to see him on the screen. He does not disappoint. Kevin Spacey appears as Major Banks. The excellent Pam Ferris is Violet, the landlady of the property where Joe Meek set up as his primitive studio. J. J. Feild is Heinz, Joe's first protégé.

The film has been given that faded look to take the viewers back to the early 60s and the rock scene in Britain with the good camera work by Peter Wignall. The audience will probably have trouble recognizing some of he hits from those years that pop on in the movie.

Two Thumbs Up....

[mefleischer · 6 November 2011]

I agree with arisdisc review. I'm an avid music lover but never knew some of the breakdown of how things unfolded in those earlier years. Stories like this hold so much meaning to what we actually listen to today. It's a remarkable insight that will touch most viewers and relate to what you listen to today. As I'm in my mid 40's I can see (or I should say hear) how this legend in the music industry influenced many of the bands I grew up with. As I'm an American living in Australia the casting to me was spot on. Digging deeper into the internet of the real people being portrayed here I can understand why they chose these particular actors. It's a shame this movie hasn't received it's proper nod of acceptance. Two thumbs up from me and well worth the time, money and effort to watch on your big screen TV.

Interesting, but inaccurate

[rog-778-676401 · 7/10 · 11 May 2022]

1966 was an interesting year for me. I worked for Joe Meek at the studio in Holloway Road - and ONLY worked (despite his attempts at seduction!). Another figure in the story was Pip Sharpe, Joe's secretary. Neither of us get a mention in the film. The scriptwriter missed quite a bit of the story!

Very decent

[UrsusProblemus · 7/10 · 8 April 2022]

The movie seems a bit disjointed at the beginning, but the more it progresses, the more its focus becomes clear - and this is when it develops its impact. "Telstar" is definitely above average and even though it's not one I would call tremendously exciting, it never becomes dull, either.

Stellar Performance from Con O'Neil

[technojazzbrother · 8/10 · 1 December 2009]

British films made by people like Richard Curtis (The Boat that Rocked et al) tend to look at the swinging 60's of London with heavily rose tinted spectacles. All pimms, waistcoats, flower power and crazy shenanigans. All very well but not much to do with reality - I thought Austin Powers would have killed that off in the 90's....which is why Nick Moran's directorial debut is such a breath of fresh air.

For those that don't know the Joe Meek at the centre of this film - control freak, gay in the wrong decade, tone deaf drug addicted musical pioneer - get ready for a roller-coaster of a ride. Without wishing to spoil the arc of the story, this is a classic tale of a man with a vision breaking new ground...with disastrous consequences.

Con O'Neil dominates this film with a superb manic performance which captures the claustrophobic and chaotic feel of the centre of Joe's universe, his recording studio above a handbag shop in central London in the early 60's. Ably supported by a host of good actors - in particular Kevin Spacey, Pam Ferris, and (even) James Cordon are all spot on. What looks like a cod-60's Curtis-esquire disaster for the first 20 minutes heads somewhere altogether darker once the action cranks up as Joe starts to get some no.1 hits in the charts.

A must watch cautionary tale about fame, love, jealously, paranoia and music, this is a fine carachter piece with some excellent nuanced comedy amidst the darker elements, it's a really well executed debut from Mr Moran...enjoy.

Dark and powerful drama, not without humour

[Prichards12345 · 7/10 · 7 December 2016]

Con O'Neill is absolutely superb as Joe Meek, genius-but-disturbed record maestro. His slow descent into darkness is brilliantly captured in this movie, as is his gradual loss of all his friends and associates. Kevin Spacey is also a standout as his financial backer.

At one point we see an advertisement phrase "Go to Work On An Egg" - which was also a t.v. advert that legendary comedian Tony Hancock fronted. There are some pretty close parallels between Hancock and Meek - a clever touch.

The centre of the movie is really about his relationship with Heinz (J.J. Feild who is also excellent) and his attempts to propel him to pop super-stardom. It's worth pointing out that Heinz's family were deeply unhappy with his portrayal in this movie, stating none of it was true.

At times the movie is very funny. Heinz's punch-up with Jess Conrad is hilarious. But overall this is a dark drama that packs a real punch. Even if the movie is fictional it largely sticks to the facts as I understand them. It also uncovers the sleaziness behind the early 60s pop world fantastically well. It's probably isn't a movie for someone just looking for a pleasant two hours of movie-watching, though.

Hellstar

[Ali_John_Catterall · 1/10 · 14 May 2009]

Telstar takes its name from the galaxy-conquering instrumental composed by maverick pop producer Joe Meek and performed by his in-house band The Tornadoes - the first British group to have a US Number 1. One listen to 'Telstar' should confirm the obvious. It is the product of a sick mind. It sounds like a sharpened Stylophone being dragged across the teeth. A death trap of a fairground ride, whirling murderously out of control. A rictus-grinning glassy-eyed zombie of a hit, which absolutely will not stop, ever. It's Margaret Thatcher's favourite tune.

Appropriately, 'Telstar's' tone-deaf creator made Phil Spector or Factory's Martin Hannett look the very zenith of psychological fitness. This former RAF radar operator and electronics genius's revolutionary approach to studio engineering saw him transform his flat above a leather goods shop in North London's Holloway Road into an unlikely hit factory. A spaghetti junction of wiring and knobs and mysterious electronic devices, giving rise to striking sounding records, drenched with echo, reverb, 'compression' and God knows what else; a very English, kitchen sink approach to hit making.

But Meek's tale is tragic. The hits dried up; the biggie, 'Telstar', Joe's tribute to the first communication satellite, had its royalties frozen in a drawn-out plagiarism case; he was arrested for cottaging, then implicated in the murder of a rent boy found dismembered in a suitcase. Already nuttier than a crate of cashews, he sunk further into speed-freaked, pill popping paranoia and alleged Satanism, before shooting his landlady, then himself, with a shotgun on February 3 1967, the eighth anniversary of his hero Buddy Holly's death.

With raw ingredients like that, you'd have to try quite hard to serve up a dull Joe Meek biopic. Or be an actor-turned-director with a self-penned script and a cast that resembles what might tumble out if you shook an issue of 'Heat' magazine upside down.

"It's not supposed to be like this!" protests the doomed Meek (Con O'Neill) as the gears of his life grind to a halt, and you can't help but agree. There's really no polite way of putting this: Telstar is an embarrassing farrago, an amateurish, incoherent pantomime of a piece, stuffed with interchangeable characters, a sketchy, largely unsympathetic leading role, and - betraying its stage play origins - unspeakably stilted dialogue. Pity the lucked-out actor forced to spout utter toss like: "With his gadgets and witchcraft he's a proper facking Nostradamus!" Well, cor blimey Guvnah, 'ee's in a right two and eight and no mistake!

James Corden (playing Tornadoes drummer Clem Cattini) is rapidly becoming the one-stop shop for charmless farts who swear a lot and are fat. While Ralf Little (playing a young Chas Hodges, of Chas & Dave fame) should have a bit of a think about getting a new agent round about yesterday. Tom Burke as Meek's weird songwriter-cum-spiritualist Geoff Goddard is probably the best thing here, save for Kevin Spacey as Meeks' financial backer, the fittingly-named Major Banks who shames the lot of them every time he appears in his ginger walnut whip of a hairpiece.

There's the nagging suspicion that big, important lumps of this film have been left in the edit and, at times, it's tricky to work out what the heck is going on. We're never properly introduced to Meek so never develop any empathy for him. We're shown nothing of his strange childhood (his mum dressed him as a girl); how he first secretly stamped his sonic style on Frankie Laine's classic 'Green Door' - or even how he came to be at No. 304 Holloway Road in the first place.

The composing and realization of mega-hit 'Telstar', harking back to the guitar instrumentals of the 1950s, while anticipating the garage pop of the 1960s and the trash aesthetic of the 1970s, should have been the movie's big beating heart - it's the film's title after all - but is also afforded scant dramatic weight. Instead, every other scene seems to feature Meek angrily kicking someone downstairs or flashes forward to his breakdown, diluting the tension by increments.

The whole sorry saga is told much better in BBC2's excellent 1991 Arena documentary 'The Strange Story Of Joe Meek'. Fifty minutes shorter than Telstar, it also includes an audio recording of Joe in a graveyard in the dead of night talking to a cat that has a human voice. Well, we say human voice. It's much more like a miaowing kind of voice. It's just that every time it miaows, Joe has transcribed it as saying "Help me."

Yet Telstar does boast one powerful scene near the end, as bailiffs gatecrash the flat and lever off the boards that the screaming-mad Meek has nailed to the windows. As light pours in for the first time in months, Joe writhes to the ground like the vampire he's become, a seedy bloodsucker whose self-destructive streak took more than a few down with him. All involved in Telstar might like to reflect on this next time they sign up for another vanity project.

A Good Enough Film

[GrahamEngland · 8/10 · 10 October 2009]

I do know something about the mad genius that was Joe Meek. Enough to know that putting his turbulent life into one film is not easy, others have questioned why other formative elements of his life was missed out, if a film is good enough though, surely it will engage those who have seen and enjoyed it to look into it further, using the medium we are now, the internet?

Con O'Neill is excellent as the troubled Meek, he has to dominate the film and this he does. While it's true that others in the story were sometimes rather younger than the actors playing them, remember back in this period, the 'teenager' as we now understand it, was only starting to emerge, young people then still often looked, acted, dressed older.

They usually left school at 14-15, at around 18 (like Meek) many had to do military service, hand me down clothes from parents were common. All this was changing, as part of the social changes sign posted by the music, which Meek played a part in but, as shown by his dismissal of The Beatles he was doomed not to recognise fully and play a further part in.

Meek was the British Phil Spector. But he, as the film well shows, did not enjoy the financial rewards of hits, but both were innovative, reclusive, obsessive and dangerous around firearms. (Given just how many times Spector drew guns on some of the most famous music stars, as well as lovers, business associates, was anyone really surprised at the tragic events at Spector's home in 2003, I certainly thought 'he's finally done it'.)

Most music or music based biopics fail as films, while 'Telstar' is not up there with the stunning exception that is Ian Curtis biopic 'Control', it's way better than 'Great Balls Of Fire'.

I was certainly kept engaged by this film.

If this is the best British film of the decade we're in trouble.

[matmoss-1 · 1/10 · 18 June 2009]

I am not a terribly critical cinema-goer. I am, however, quite possessive of my free time and TELSTAR has robbed me of 2 precious hours.

My interest in Joe Meek began last autumn when I was taken to a documentary on the same character at the Raindance Film Festival. I believe it was called A LIFE IN THE DEATH OF JOE MEEK (an intriguing title). At the time, I had no previous knowledge of or even interest in Joe Meek or his music. In fact, I was actually dreading going! This was compounded by an interminable delay once we arrived on the queue. We waited nearly an hour for the film to begin! I mention this only as background, adding that once it was over, I regretted that I couldn't see it immediately again. It was informative (especially to someone relatively ignorant about the people, era and milieu under examination), hilarious, cogent, briskly paced, deeply emotional, inspirational and utterly engrossing. All this from what was introduced by the two young American filmmakers as a work in progress. I reiterate: a film that was complete, though not finished to their satisfaction as of the date of the screening. I am not one with a natural interest in documentaries in general (this was my first such experience in a theatre), but the filmmakers grasp of their cast and subject and sheer storytelling skill made me forget my conscious surroundings for the afternoon; and, as I mentioned, we had been standing on line for an hour previous. I was more than impressed, I had been CONVERTED. I now have an active interest in Joe Meek and his work and was eagerly awaiting the narrative telling of his story, which is the film in direct question: Nick Moran's TELSTAR.

Let me begin: Telstar is apparently based on a West End produced play from a few years ago by Mr. Moran, an actor by trade (I knew him from the enjoyable LOCK,STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS from a decade back). I can't speak for the quality of writing, directing or acting in that production. I didn't know about it when it ran. The film version, however, I did see. And words cannot express the disappointment and disgust that I felt all throughout the viewing. The first few minutes were promising as the style tried to emulate mod films of the sixties like TO SIR WITH LOVE or UP THE JUNCTION. However, I couldn't help noticing a strong (coincidental? perhaps not...) stylistic similarity with the documentary (similar title lettering and inter-titles), but perhaps the immediately abrasive and alienating performance of Con O'Neil as Joe and the dramatically revisionist or outright inaccurate recreation of historic events and characters had me pining for the doc again. To worsen the effect even further was the mean spirited depiction of Joe by Moran. It often seemed that Joe's career was considered a joke or his superior recording ability (he was, after all, the most in demand and influential studio engineer in the 1950's here in the UK, a time littered with many formidable talents in the field) was noting but a haphazard fluke (illustrated with too many moments of Joe idiotically twisting knobs in the control booth, hoping for some of his "magic" to appear). This is insultingly condescending, again, especially in comparison to the vast testimony on display in the documentary, even from those who apparently were not that fond of the man on a personal level. My head was shaking "no" so frequently during the viewing, I could have well been mistaken for having a neuromuscular disorder! Another crucial flaw in the presentation was the supporting cast. Rather than cast boys between the ages of 15 and 17 (which was the correct age of most of the young musicians recording for Joe during his time as an independent record producer), everyone seems to be pushing 30! Imagine what Moran would do to OLIVER! Would he cast John Statham as the Artful Dodger? David Beckham as Oliver? Such toying with the ages of these lads dramatically shifts the audiences perception of WHY his musicians looked at him with such ridicule. But, according to much testimony in the documentary (it rears it's pretty head again and again), many of these young men actually seemed to like working with him due to the creative opportunities he gave them not available at more rigid studios. It was also frequently stated that Joe was not that abrasive (as depicted in TELSTAR) but that he had short, motivated period of hysterics and outburst. Another rather bizarre depiction is that he only had one band recording for him, here shown as the house band The Tornadoes. In actuality, he had many bands with many dramatically different sounds and styles; some that he created and some that recorded for him after the auditioning process. My question will always be: How did 2 young American filmmakers achieve so much accuracy, humanity and inspiration in 2 hours and Moran, a British native fail so grandly on all accounts in the exact same amount of time? In all, I found TELSTAR (the title is NOT intriguing, despite its, here, underdeveloped significance) to be a depressing, mean spirited, disrespectful, near-condemnation of someone who should rightfully be held up as one of England's few true human national treasures, despite his all too human flaws.

Badly paced. Poorly written. Incoherently structured. Frustratingly inaccurate. Depressingly judgemental.

If you are looking for a completely dispiriting evening at the cinema you've come to the right place.

The Best British Film in Years

[RobertFarrelly · 9/10 · 25 November 2008]

To be honest I only popped into see this at the LFF screening because it had Kevin Spacey in it and that bloke from Gavin and Stacey. I had no idea who Joe Meek was and couldn't sing one of his songs if you paid me. My expectations were low but I thought what the hell and settled into my seat. The first thing that struck me was the style of the piece, Nick Moran has captured the era beautifully, it looks incredible. The performances, to a man, are wonderfully heightened and there is an incredible energy to the piece. I laughed a lot and totally bought into the madness of the Holloway Road studio and its inhabitants. The second half of the film punches you right in the gut. Meeks descent from manic,comedic,volatile, music genius, to heart broken, paranoid, physco is painfully moving. Con O'Neill is amazing, it's one of those performances that just haunts you. Staying with you long after the credits role. I sat in the cinema with the rest of the spellbound audience and watched gobsmaked as Morans film launched into its final heart wrenching act. This is a British film to be proud of. Unlike anything we have seen for many, many years. A truly remarkable debut from Moran. Great stuff.

Not bad, but not quite good either

[brendan-268 · 4/10 · 6 May 2012]

Unfortunately all this film did was portray Joe Meek as a disturbed and mildly successful music producer - anyone who didn't know much about music history, or who didn't have the gumption to research the life of Joe Meek any further, could be mistaken for thinking that making a movie about Meek and his final years was a rather odd thing to do.

What was sorely lacking from this film was any proper focus on the innovative nature of his work in the recording industry (something which is hinted at in places, but never really explored in any detail until the closing credits tell us that he is considered a visionary pioneer in mus recording).

Another glaring omission was the fact that no explicit mention is made of his apparent lack of musical writing abilities and skills (something quire amazing when you consider that he was involved in so many chart busting hits).

I also found some of the details rather odd, like the decision to have him accidentally shoot his landlady - something that the eyewitness accounts don't support, or the brief moment in the movie when we are led to believe that Meek was not at all interested in Tom Jones (the 'Welsh' artist that he is told about during one scene in the film) when in actual fact he recorded Jones and then shopped those recordings around major record companies before Jones had his first major success.

Then there are also the odd things, like the inclusion of footage of the Beetles becoming hugely successful (news footage shown on TV at one point), without a very clear prior explanation/presentation of the fact that Meek written off the Beatles, believing that they would never make it big.

It also seems (not that I was a huge Joe Meek expert before seeing this movie) that the way Meek is played in this movie is far too campy and weird when compared with the actual man himself.

In the end, this movie was rushed, and as a result it's narrative becomes a little bit too confused, giving watchers only bits and pieces of information, while missing other vital things out, and then all of a sudden we're watching him shoot his landlady and himself and the credits are rolling.

Watchable, but feels like something that the Reader's Digest would make if they were into making film biographies.

For US viewers - well done!

[arisdisc · 9/10 · 4 July 2011]

I watched this last night and frankly, thought it was terrific. I was alive during this short period of musical history but was not aware of this story (and I ended up in the music business myself for the next 40 years). I see that a number of UK viewers are disappointed with the casting (apparently many are familiar TV stars) but for us in the USA this has no negative effect. Kevin Spacey is the only familiar face and frankly, I found his presence just a tad distracting, since 'anyone' could have played the part. Extremely well acted and directed. The musical segments are wonderful and I only wish they had been a bit longer. My only disappointment with the film is the thick British accent - a lot of dialog passed me by (there were no subtitles on the version I watched) but it's not a reason for US film lovers to pass this by. Fascinating story - and in my opinion, perfectly executed. See it!

Tuning by numbers

[Prismark10 · 5/10 · 22 February 2015]

Telstar is the satellite that inspired British music producer and his in house band The Tornadoes to launch the instrumental record which became the first US number 1 hit by a British group.

Meek who operated out of the top of of a leather good shop was a maverick like Phil Spector, and just like Spector with a fondness of guns.

The film starts and feels like a stage play very much in keeping with its origins as a stage play and low budget adaptation as a film. Con O'Neill (reprising the part from the play) plays Meek, harried, frazzled, on the edge with drugs keeping him going. Kevin Spacey makes a cameo as Major Banks his business backer who keeps the whole enterprise in even keel as we find that Meek is certainly no businessman.

Somewhere within the chaos of the upstairs apartment cum music studio Meek who could not read or write music and was ridiculed for being tone deaf managed to produced a string of heats and had major musician working under him such as Ritchie Blackmore, Chas Hodges. I shall omit Screaming Lord Sutch as a major musician though.

However the pill popping, plagiarism accusations, arrest for importuning in a public toilet, his falling out with the Major lead to deepening financial turmoil and the falling out with friends and musicians. The hits dried up and in a tragic demise he ended up shooting his landlady and himself.

The film by actor turned director Nick Moran is rather messy. Moran does well with a low budget to evoke a sixties atmosphere which is away from the swinging which was so beloved by past filmmakers.

Its nice to see support from Spacey, James Corden as well as some of the real life people who associated with Meek turn up such as Jess Conrad.

However the film feels overlong and as Moran tries to imbue Meek with some psychological character traits based on his upbringing and his past family life it feels like a failure as it adds little. Many people of his generation had family affected by The Great War or trauma in childhood.

I found this a middling film whose kinetic energy runs out midway through and the film starts to drag until the tragic ending.

Not so meek and mild.

[chrismartonuk-1 · 9/10 · 20 June 2009]

At last! Nick Moran's labour of love finally reaches the big screen and it's well worth the wait. It's basically the stage play transferred to the screen but, considering how claustrophobic Joe's life at 304 Holloway Road was, it's no bad thing. When he ventures outside into a pre-summer of love 60's London, the culture clash between his dated be-suited appearance and the bright colours of the kids speaks volumes as to what an anachronism he's become. All the regular support cast in the Joe Meek story are present and correct. Kevin Spacey is the tragically unheeded voice of reason as business partner Major Wilfred Banks. Far from being an insensitive hard-headed businessman, he gave Joe the finances to indulge his talent but found, as Dennis Preston had done before, that Joe was an ungrateful employee. Banks role has been expanded to incorporate Spacey and give him more screen time and - apart from the odd lapse - his British tones are maintained throughout.

Con O'Neill must surely be up for a BAFTA. He truly inhabits the part and one can only hope it doesn't have an adverse mental effect in the long run a la Heath Ledger. One telling scene has Meek at his lowest ebb as the Beatles - whom he could have signed - receive their MBE's on a TV in the background. J J Field is the unworthy object of his affections as Golden Boy Heinz. His part is also expanded from the play as we see him grappling with Jess Conrad backstage and witness his unbelievable arrogance to his backing band. Actually, Heinz got on well with his support band in spite of their low opinion of his musical abilities. Of the rest of the cast, Pam Ferris provides sympathy for the luckless Mrs Shenton who cheerfully fails to grasp the increasingly dangerous madhouse she has given shelter to. Still, I can't imagine her family members sitting through her violent end - which is depicted as more of an accident than on stage. The actor playing Ritchie Blackmore could have provided a Brummie accent as the stage version did. But these are minor quibbles. Nick Moran and Simon Jordan deserve credit for getting this on screen. In wake of Phil Spector's recent conviction, it is more timely than ever.

Telstar? One star. No, make that none...

[getcater · 1/10 · 23 January 2012]

If he's up there, looking down on the world at forty five revolutions per minute, Joe Meek will undoubtedly have seen this horrible film. Knowing Joe, he probably burst into tears. In fact, it's surprising he didn't manage to engineer a shower of satellite debris to fall upon the collective heads of everyone involved in it.

Let's start from the known facts: Joe Meek was a genius. He was also a wayward personality, deeply troubled, a complex and infinitely intriguing human being. That's a tall order for even a decent actor to essay. For a ham like Con O'Neill it's asking way too much. It's hard to believe that there is anyone alive who could look, act and speak less like the vital lead character of this movie. Okay, so one doesn't necessarily expect a perfect Meek lookalike, but some facet of his personality has to come across. Con O'Neill misses his target by a country mile. There is nothing of the real Joe Meek here, just a badly-realised cartoon performance, one-note, manic, utterly shallow.

We know from the preserved film and audio of Meek in person that the reality was far more subtle than the brash, shouting, bungling oaf of this movie. The Meek who comes across in the extant archive clips is an apparently mild-mannered, gently spoken individual who betrays no outward sign of the violent emotion of which he was capable. O'Neill plays him as a pilled-up lunatic, hectoring his performers and frantically twiddling knobs in the hope of engineering some audio accident. Sure, Meek had his moments of mania, but to interpret this as his entire personality is a complete misunderstanding of the man. And he was not Welsh. Newent, Meeks' birthplace, is not in Wales. It's in Gloucestershire. So why the Welsh lilt? O' Neill looks and sounds like someone doing a really, really bad impersonation of Rob Brydon. Oh, and Meek would never have said 'whoop-de-doo.' Neither would anyone else back then. It's far too recent. At least he didn't punch the air and shout 'yes' but he might as well have done.

This being the central performance, and the entire raison d'être for the movie, it's hard to see past O'Neill's sheer awfulness, and the movie's better aspects are easily overshadowed by this towering piece of monumental miscasting. Any of the other actors here would have made a better Meek. Even, at a pinch, Kevin Spacey, whose performance in The Shipping News was probably a lot closer to the reality of Joe Meek. Spacey is amusing to watch - evidently having been briefed that the movie was a comedy - but better by a long, long way than anyone else on show here is JJ Feild as Heinz Burt. Voice, appearance and demeanour all agree exactly with what we know of Heinz from the archive. James Corden won't disappoint, if you're expecting his standard fat, charmless git. He can't do anything else, evidently. And he looks nothing like Clem Cattini, either.

After all this awfulness, the film's period atmosphere is surprisingly good, with Meek's studio flat realised in fine detail, and the contemporary footage integrates almost seamlessly with the new material. One might quibble at anachronisms like a 1970s Gretsch guitar, but generally the production design is top notch and really captures the feel of early 60s Britain. But all this effort is reduced to mere window dressing, turd-polish on a film that's deficient in so many other departments.

If Joe Meek were given a copy of this film on DVD, he'd smash it with a hammer. Then he'd throw the director, and Con O'Neill down the stairs. Meek's is a great story, shot through with incident, intrigue, emotion and genuine human drama. Telstar the movie is a bit like Joe's original off-key demo of his classic instrumental: a wayward shot at something that could be done much, much better.

One star - and that's ten stars too many.

Disturbing film with some great moments

[arjunkaul · 9/10 · 13 December 2011]

This is a cinematic adaptation of the life of Joe Meek.

If you don't know who Joe Meek was, lets just say that he was a pivotal figure in the evolution of popular music whose innovative production techniques and zeal for creation laid the path for a lot of the things that are recorded and broadcast today.

This movie by Nick Moran may not be factually accurate let me say that upfront. So don't treat it as a dossier on Joe Meek's life or that of his colleagues. This film is however a tribute to Joe Meek and certainly has some of the things that Joe was great at: Music, Inspiring people and being a sensitive soul.

Good performances from everyone. Thats one thing about British cinema. You can be assured of superior acting than their American counterparts. That's a given.

I've put an open letter from Patrick Pink in the forum below in case you may care to read it. Its his less than happy reaction on the film.

However, this film will certainly help spread the legend of Joe Meek and Telstar and its definitely a good movie to watch.

You will feel lousy for him at the end of the movie. For him as well as the other pop music heroes who then succumbed to their less than great fortunes as ordinary people and died in squalor and poverty unknown to the rest of the world. That's pretty phucking sad!

Watch it, let the music inspire you and say a prayer for them.

Bad movie

[zoltan-22 · 2/10 · 22 December 2010]

Joe Meek was a genius, he was a pioneer of his field. His influence on pop music is still discernible after almost 50 years. Alone Telstar was a breathtaking creation, completely different from the music of its time and from anything else before. This is what made Joe Meek famous. When I first heard Telstar, I was astonished and thougth that this music is not from this planet (just as Telstar was off planet). I assume this movie is watched by people who felt the same and recognized the genius of Joe Meek. However, this movie shows Joe Meek as a homosexual lunatic involved in all kind of conflicts. Many people have similar fate but nobody would make a movie of them. In case of Joe Meek all the negative events shown might have been reality, nevertheless Joe Meek was Telstar, The Tornados, Heinz, The Honeycombs and other successful, great music productions. Why would one wash dirty laundry when there are so many beautiful things to show? This movie is the same kind of miscarriage as Ray. Disappointing, despite of great acting.

Great film people need to watch it learn about Meek and his contribution to music

[Janet1612 · 10/10 · 6 February 2021]

A great film, if difficult to watch due to the bad language, but at least it's true to life and has not had the awful Hollywood touch.

Good to hear the old tunes and see Meek's genius and sometimes horrible nastiness. I hadn't realised that Ritchie Blackmore was one of his musicians, or MItch Mitchell (if briefly).

He didn't rate the Beatles when he heard their promo tape from Epstein! His drug taking (not shown in the film) and paranoia/depression, homosexuality for which he was arrested, as well as debts, caused him to accidentally kill his landlady and end his own life.

The actor playing Meeks is fantastic but often difficult to understand, due to his Gloucestershire accent, which fluctuates and changes quite a lot.

watch it if you're absolutely bored senseless and you can think of literally nothing else to do

[Ellie_81 · 1/10 · 3 May 2012]

I watched this film a while ago with my brother and mum.We were looking forward to watching it as we thought it would be an interesting, entertaining film. We were however, disappointed.

From the start of the film the pace was I felt rushed in parts, it seemed to lack direction and 'flitted' from scene to scene with little explanation as to why. Prior to watching the film we(my brother and I) knew a little about Joe Meek. I didn't do any reading before watching the film to find out anything else about him.

The film focused on Two aspects of Meek's portrayed personality- 1) homosexuality and 2) Frequent temper tantrums- and that's it , thats the basis of the story. There's a brief appearance of singer's Billy Fury(the tornado's were at one time his backing group) and Gene Vincent. The portrayal of Vincent is in my opinion 'cringeworthy' and disappointing.

In short, my advice is watch it if you're absolutely bored senseless and you can think of literally nothing else to do.

Superb film!

[Lucy-Lastic · 10/10 · 19 August 2015]

Joe Meek was a man I knew little about despite the fact that he was of my era with many mega hits he wrote and produced during the early 60s, most notably "Telstar" which was a massive hit.

An English Phil Spector if you like and even more remarkable for the fact that all this big sound he produced was on basic recording equipment in his flat that was over a leather goods shop in Holloway Road, London.

A flawed genius (aren't they always?) played superbly by Con O'Neill with excellent support cast including Kevin Spacey who effected a remarkably good English accent as a retired Army officer who financed Meeks.

What also surprised me was the number of session musicians that came out his stable to go onto huge fame later in life and the number of then unknown artists he worked with. His life ended in a terrible double tragedy. If it ever comes on TV again I highly recommend you see it.

Worst directed British film ever?

[info-4733 · 1/10 · 29 January 2010]

Because I am old enough to remember Joe Meek I approached this film with real relish. That was my first big mistake. Telstar is truly appalling, largely due to the direction of Nick Moran. It is a complete mess from start to finish, lurching around at a frightening speed without any real explanation of what is going on, one minute offering up infantile farce, the next Shakespearian melodrama. It is hard to believe that anyone could have taken such an interesting and sad story and made such a dog's dinner of it. But the director is not the only one to blame. It is hopelessly miscast with not one person looking comfortable in their role. Kevin Spacey looks like he's just wandered into the wrong studio from some sixties sitcom while most of the "band" are totally unbelievable. And Con O'Neil with that horrible squeaky voice delivers a performance so over the top that he makes Brian Blessed look like a restrained actor. The whole sorry mess drags on and on for close on two hours without ever being even remotely involving. I wish there was a star rating below one. Telstar is worthy of it.