Believing Mr Banks: a lesson in how to link fiction and history

P. L. Travers and Walt Disney

Farther to my recent thoughts on biopics, over Christmas we recorded Saving Mr Banks and watched it a few nights ago. As most of you probably know (spoiler alert!) this tells the story of Walt Disney’s attempts to get P.L.Travers’s agreement to let him film Mary Poppins despite her strong opposition,  manifested in her ridiculous insistence on all kinds of changes to the script. These events are intercut with scenes from Travers’s (born Helen Goff) sad childhood which ends with the death of her beloved father and it’s only because Disney eventually stumbles on this hidden story that she gives in, apparently persuaded the film will go some way to rewriting her past.  

Over-all it’s a feel-good film with many musical reminders of the Disney version, and the scenes where Travers argues with the film’s script and song-writers are very funny. To me as a viewer it wasn’t a major concern how much was documented history and how much was tweaked or even concocted to serve the purpose of a satisfying plot. (‘Hero’s journey’ anyone?) I was happy to have whiled away a couple of hours in the excellent company of Tom Hanks and the superlative Emma Thompson. Then, as the credits rolled there was something extra, beyond, as it were, the fall of the curtain. When Travers first discussed the intended script she insisted on having every meeting recorded so that her demands could not be ignored and extracts from those original audio tapes are played at the very end of the film. Have a look here if you want to listen.

For me that little coda was a wow moment, such a powerful way of reminding us that the film was inspired by actual people and events. It said to me ‘Yes, this is fiction, but at its heart is the story of a real woman, one whom you can see from this we’ve tried to portray as she really was.’ It left me with a totally different feeling about the film, suddenly not just an enjoyable confection but a story inspired by and rooted in history.

I won’t deny a certain satisfaction too, because the heroine of my work in progress is for the most part an enigmatic figure whom we can glimpse only through the words of her friends and associates.  She left only one written testimony about her meeting with Robert Louis Stevenson and I’ve included it as an epilogue in the hope of creating exactly the effect I experienced with Mr Banks. Let’s hope it has the same wow factor!

More Emma Thompson

Anyone who’d like to remind themselves of Emma Thompson‘s long and varied career should pick up Tutti Frutti which was recently aired on BBC 4 and is still on -player. In it she co-starred with the late great Robbie Coltrane. The Glaswegian banter is hilarious and if it’s a bit too fast for you to catch, there are always subtitles!

Coming soon

Meanwhile here are a few excellent historical/biographical fiction titles I’ve been reading recently. Look out for reviews and comparisons!