Fisher Symposium - 20th October 2020
What a fantastic day it was being on the symposium panel celebrating the Life and Legacy of my Great Great Grandfather Admiral Lord ‘Jacky’ Fisher. This virtual online talk organised by the Director of the Churchill Archive Centre, Allen Packwood and his brilliant team. It was the team’s first online symposium. I enjoyed listening to all the interesting panellists’ views on Jacky’s career and character.
The question posed to me was:- ‘Fisher: The Legacy’ SEA LORD - tell us about your vision and inspiration for this project:
Here are some of my words from my presentation.
Hi, good afternoon.
· I would like to take you back to how I came to know who my Great Great Grandfather was.
· As a child I struggled to read and write and discovered that I am dyslexic.
· At school we were asked to do a family history project when I was about 11 years old and I uncovered who my infamous ancestor was.
· I found school hard so I escaped into the world of film… this is embarrassing to say, but I watched so many black and white films that I asked my parents… “when did the world turn to colour?’!”
· As I was putting the school project together, I became absolutely fascinated with the man behind the naval uniform. I was hooked - on his career progression, the back drop of the Empire, the rapid advances in technology and most of all, his force of character.
· I became intrigued with this acclaimed man and the people in his life. On a side note I am also interested in psychology and enjoy watching character driven films - I always think of what you can learn from them and I often ask myself the questions as to what motivates a person’s decisions or how I would have responded if I was put in a similar situation as someone like Jacky.
· I can only imagine what it must have felt like as a little boy being sent away from Ceylon at the age of 6 and being told to go and find your way in the world and support the rest of the family.
· This is how SEA LORD came about.
It’s been my lifelong ambition to make a dramatic feature film that charts the astonishing rise and disastrous fall of Admiral John ‘Jacky’ Fisher. It tells the true and inspirational story of a self-made man of the Empire.
It is a compelling and intimate character driven film exploring the human psyche of the man and the key people in his life who impacted some of the most important historical decisions of British Naval History, with Jacky at the helm.
View the full symposium agenda here and the full recording of the symposium here.
Penelope Fisher
21/10/20