Trivia / Scum

• Ability over Appearance: Originally, Carlin was a Glaswegian but was changed to a Cockney when Alan Clarke saw a then unknown Ray Winstone walk in a unique way.
• Dawson Casting: Played straight with Ray Winstone (both Theatrical and BBC teleplay versions of Scum), David Threlfall (BBC Teleplay), Mick Ford (Theatrical version), Adam Butcher, and Shane Kippel (both Dog Pound); all were 20 or over during filming of their respective versions. One aversion occurred with Julian Firth in the 1979 theatrical version; he actually was a teenager.
• Gay Panic: In the original 1977 teleplay, Carlin has a sexual relationship with another inmate, but when they came to remake it for cinema two years later, Ray Winstone was uneasy with the idea and he persuaded Alan Clarke to take it out. He admitted years later that it was due to his insecurity, and it would have been better to leave it in.
• One-Take Wonder: The film's hunger strike riot was done in a single take, as was Carlin's attack on Richards.
• The Shelf of Movie Languishment: The earlier and original TV version, made for The BBC, but banned by them, was never screened until around fifteen years later in 1991, after the director's death, and part of a season on censorship. The BBC said that they banned it because "There was too much incident packed into too short a time and that they doubted the veracity." So they thought it was pure fiction, but they also said that it "looked too much like a documentary".
• Star-Making Role: For Ray Winstone.
• What Could Have Been: The teleplay had originally two suicides but had one taken out to avoid repetition and it becoming too harrowing.

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