Sea Lord and me, Penelope Fisher
The idea of making Sea Lord into a film goes right back to my childhood. As a child I struggled with how to see the world as I am dyslexic. I was so fortunate that my parents were able to send me to a dyslexic school, which gave me the tools to read and write, but I felt - and still feel - that I see the world differently.
As a child and as an adult, I get lost in the power of film. Film was and is my safe place. Film has taught me so much about the world. I watched so many films as a child that I thought the world used to be black and white, it took a while to register that it wasn’t!
It came as no surprise to anyone when I made a career in the film business.
When I was at school I was asked to make a family tree and that is when I discovered who my great great grandfather was. I had no idea about the life of Admiral Lord John Fisher. I was a child and his name was not mentioned at home - unlike now! As I grew up I became fascinated with this famous, enormous character of a man and the people in his life.
I have spent many teenage and adult years researching his life and continue to be intrigued by my great great grandfather’s life story, particularly -
How did a little boy at the age of 6, taken from all he ever knew in Ceylon to school in London manage?
And at a mere 13 years old, where did he find the determination to join the British Navy?
What then were the odds of Jacky Fisher becoming the Admiral of the Fleet, First Sea Lord?
How did he lead men, how did he revolutionise the British Navy, mix with the aristocracy and royalty, how did that all happen?
What was in his blood, what gave him his drive, his survival instinct, how was he different to the rest of his fellow sailors, what did he have in him to believe and strive to be the best but never conform?
Who were the women in his life - he married once - for 52 years to Kitty Fisher, but why, spite of being a religious man, did he go to live with Nina, Duchess of Hamilton, 30 years his junior?
And what was behind the close relationship, then the spectacular falling, out with Winston Churchill?
These are all questions I have found answers to in my journey to bring Jacky’s story to life on film.
Penelope Fisher
8.4.2020
