We had already cast the boarding house characters for The Insatiable Moon when one of them pulled out. On reflection he had decided he didn’t want a role where there was no dialogue for him. It left us at a loose end with not much time to go until shooting started. The marvellous Karen Kay came to the rescue, by recommending one of her talent, Jimmy Vraniqi. Jimmy’s Albanian accent would not pose any problems given that it was a non-speaking part, and may in fact add a little intrigue. We met up with Jimmy, and found him to be a lovely man and an experienced actor.

Just as we got under way with production, I received one of the most unusual phone calls I’ve had in relation to cast. It seemed Jimmy was in hospital after an accident. He’d done in his achilles tendon. They were ready to operate on it, but that would have put Jimmy out of bed for several weeks and ruled him out of the film. However, they could take the option of putting his leg in a cast, should that make it still possible for him to have his part in the film. I deliberated for a few seconds, but the doctors wanted an answer. In the end I could hardly refuse in the face of such stoic determination. So it was that the character of Morrie became someone who made his way around the house on crutches. Actually it ended up contributing a realistic and exotic element.

We discovered that Jimmy had a long and proud history of not only acting but directing in his native land, and had for many years been a television director. That coupled with his stage acting credits meant we were somewhat under-utilising his talents. But he quickly became a well-liked person on the set, and joined in the camaraderie of the blokes who were playing boarding house residents. Jimmy also distinguished himself by turning up to our launch ceremony in a beautiful suit, complete with traditional Albanian cummerbund. Like so many of the things that happened on our shoot, the inclusion of Jimmy was a real blessing to us.

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