Derek Jarman wrote the script for Jubilee quickly and even shot some footage for it before the film budget was even raised.

Producer James Whaley was able to solicit some production money for Jubilee from a former school acquaintance living in Teheran.

At an early stage in production, Jarman wrote that Jubilee was dedicated to "All those who secretly work against the tyranny of Marxists fascists trade unionists maoists capitalists socialists etc...who have conspired together to destroy the diversity and holiness of each life in the name of materialism....For William Blake."

Before he decided on Jubilee as the film title, Jarman also considered A New Wave Movie, Honi Swar Key Maly Ponce and High Fashion with the letter g in High replaced by a hammer and sickle and the letter h in Fashion replaced by a swastika.

Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Clash were originally going to appear in Jubilee but dropped out after production began because they feared the film was going to exploit the punk movement for commercial gain.

Toyah Willcox was initially given her choice of any role in Jubilee except Amyl Nitrite and selected Mad because she had the most dialogue of any character.

Willcox came from a more conservative background than Jarman and most of the cast and crew and was easily shocked by some of the scenes she was required to do at first.

After first reading the script, Willcox later admitted she was bewildered by it and "I didn't understand what Derek's problem was with the Royal Family." She said to him, "Why do you want to kill them all off?" Eventually she came to understand his point of view but in the early stages of filming she felt that Jubilee was amateurish and that she had gotten mixed up in a bizarre porno-type movie.

Jarman hired Lee Drysdale, who had never worked on a film before, as his production assistant because he was known and well liked among the younger crowd in the East End, many of whom volunteered as extras, providing "local color" in the film. Jarman called Drysdale the "Artful Dodger of Cine-History" because he was such a fervent film buff, often dragging the director to films he would never have seen on his own.

Lee Drysdale made Jarman angry enough to slap him after the filming of one scene by telling actress Jenny Runacre that she sounded as if she were reading her lines.

Many of the derelict buildings you see in Jubilee were damaged by bombing during World War II and were left standing untouched for years.

For the scenes set in the bowels of Westminster Cathedral, Jarman was able to use the Catacombs club as a substitute set. According to biographer Tony Peake, the scenes were "peopled almost exclusively by friends" and "it lasted all day and involved such quantities of drink and drugs that by the time a wrap was called, some of the participants were so comprehensively unwrapped it would take them a day or two to recover."

Jubilee was an eight week film shoot and was edited at the home of cinematographer Peter Middleton.

Jarman was able to use a fragment of the super-8 film he made with Jordan and Steve Treatment in Jubilee. The scene featured Jordan dancing around a fire while Treatment tossed books into the fire. The original plan was to burn a note and film it, which is a criminal act in England, but that was never captured on film.

Jubilee ran into some censorship trouble prior to the premiere so Jarman had to agree to cut a few seconds from the scene where Crabs and Mad suffocate Happy Days.

Compiled by Jeff Stafford

SOURCES:
Derek Jarman by Tony Peake
Derek Jarman by Rowland Wyner
Derek Jarman: Dreams of England by Michael O'Pray
Midnight Movies by J. Hoberman and Jonathan Rosenbaum
The Criterion Collection DVD liner notes
IMDB