PROJECTS
A Question of Duty
'The greatest, untold love story of WWII.' It’s the final push towards victory in WW2, and Dwight D Eisenhower, the Allied Forces’ most senior General, is becoming ever closer to his full-time driver and near-constant companion, Kay Summersby. ‘A Question of Duty’ explores the turmoil Eisenhower faced over his feelings for his vibrant, charismatic aide as his loyal, unassuming and devoted wife Mamie followed, from the other side of the Atlantic, her husband’s emergence into one of history’s greatest military leaders, eventually becoming ‘the man who saved the world from evil’.
“An engaging, compelling take on one of the most passionate, clandestine love affairs of all time, conducted during course of the deadliest conflict in human history.”
The story outlines not only how Kay's influence helped shape the outcome of WWII, it also reveals, for the first time in a feature film, one of the least-known but most important love stories ever told.
The University of Revolution
In the aftermath of the Irish Easter Rising of 1916, with Dublin city lying in ruins and the country in political turmoil, 1,800 young men are rounded up and interned in a concentration camp at Frongoch, north Wales. As the Irish peoples’ attitude towards independence shifts due to the barbaric treatment of the Rising’s leaders, a young Michael Collins organises the disparate Republican groups into one force as they fight the appalling conditions illegally imposed upon them, and the legal issue of their perverse conscription into the British Army. Following their eventual release from Frongoch, they return to their homeland to find much has changed.
'The University of Revolution' reveals how the Irish people properly embraced the idea of independence following the Easter Rising, and how the leaders of the independence movement began to prepare for it. It's about the birth of the Ireland we recognise today, and how the events portrayed led the Irish people to embrace their identity on a truly national scale for the first time.
Based on true events and using actual first-hand recollections from descendants of some participants in the Rising, 'The University of Revolution' is the first film to explore the little-known concentration camp at Frongoch, which the British originally constructed to house German prisoners of war during WWI. It subsequently came to be known as 'The University of Revolution' due to the grouping together of originally disparate factions looking to secure 'home rule' for Ireland, during a period when the British military resources were almost fully directed towards the efforts in mainland Europe. The period the Irish rebels spent interned at Frongoch is credited with being a fundamental aspect of the eventual victory Ireland secured in the battle for independence.
’88 The Second Summer of Love
London, 1988. Through the emergence of 'house' music and rave culture in the UK's clubland, the various youth tribes of the previous era began to lower their guards and embrace each other. For the first time they shared venues and dancefloors, and begin spreading an all-inclusive ideology, one of friendship and affection. This was 'The Summer of Love' in which ecstasy first combined with the new music emerging from the nightclubs of Chicago and New York to bring the youth of the UK together.
’88 THE SECOND SUMMER OF LOVE is the story of Luke, an up-and-coming DJ who finds himself at the forefront of the house music explosion that drives these events, and what happens when his estranged, career-criminal father Vince Delaney suddenly dies. Soon after the funeral Vince's Marbella based business partner Donna informs Luke of the full extent of his inheritance, which includes Vince's recent plan to open a new nightclub on the 'White Isle' of Ibiza.
Reminiscent of 'Trainspotting' and 'La Femme Nikita', '88 is an absorbing, pulsating story examining the broader changes taking place in UK society as a whole, the events also tangling with the creation of the new market for ecstacy. As Luke reflects upon his relationship with the recently deceased Vince, his feelings for his father's former business partner Donna begins to interfere with his DJing career, leading to a dramatic finale on the White Isle.
A Question of Duty (the stage play)
'A Question of Duty' is a stage play that looks at the close relationship General Eisenhower, the leader of the Allied Forces in WW2, developed with Albert Phillips, the humble, working-class British Army Sergeant permanently assigned to his 'mobile war room', train 'Alive'. The play also reveals the extent of Eisenhower's close relationship with his British Army driver, Kay Summersby, for the first time. This brand new work by Gary Tippings has been written in collaboration with Albert's descendants, who provided previously unseen 'top-secret' evidence of Eisenhower's daily schedule and his train's occupants and movements during the war.
This fascinating and delightful play is a compelling examination of the interplay in the relationships between all three characters, with all the events being set within the simple staging of Ike's personal office on train 'Alive'. It is at times funny, informative, and heartbreaking, and is set for its initial run in early 2025.
Through this production the little-known use of train 'Alive' as Eisenhower's mobile 'war room' is brought to the public's eye for the first time, a train on which D-Day was, in part, planned, and which was used by the Soviet forces' representatives as they negotiated the surrender of Germany.
Team Members
Gary Tippings
Beginning his production career at the BBC in the early 80s Gary went on to work at C4 Television as a senior production assistant. Having spent most of the 1990s working on the other side of the camera as an actor and model, he also has some twenty-plus years of experience as a writer of novels and short stories. Gary is also the writer of the highly regarded sports biography 'The Stolen Title'.
Bringing all these elements together Gary incorporated Large Art Productions with a view to developing film, theatre, and television productions. He is the writer of the WWII drama/ love story 'A Question of Duty', and the historical Irish drama 'The University of Revolution '. Gary has recently completed the screenplay for a new project, 'Lapanka' (the Polish term for the 'rounding up' of civilians), a love story set in a slave labour camp in the Nazi controlled Germany of 1942. Gary is currently developing the stage play 'A Question of Duty', based on the feature film screenplay of the same name, focusing on the interplay of relationships between General Eisenhower, his driver Kay Summersby, and Albert Phillips, the British army sergeant assigned to his top secret train that was used as a 'mobile war room' for the duration of WW2.