Dean's Film Industry Mission Impossible!

Dean Russell MP at Warner Bros

No two days were ever the same when I was an MP! During the 2020 lockdown, I received a call and was asked to help the Mission Impossible movie producers ensure that filming could continue at Warner Brothers Studios in Leavesden. I was pleased to organise a virtual meeting with the then Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport where they discussed the vital importance of keeping the movie industry filming in the United Kingdom which would help to bolster the economy.

I am proud to say that my intervention led to specific film and production industry rules during covid being created which countries around the world soon followed.

It sounds like something out of a film plot but my actions and the Government's response along with the subsequent campaign by Tom Cruise meant that the global film industry could continue to make films and TV shows in a safe way.

This move helped to save jobs both locally in Watford and also around the world. 

News

‘The Son’ screening with Hugh Jackman 

I was truly honoured to be invited with a small group of leaders in mental health to attend a special screening of ‘The Son’ introduced in person by director Florian Zeller & actor Hugh Jackman last night.  The film explores important themes around mental health as it followed the struggle

Dean Russell MP Chairs Westminster Media Forum Policy Conference

Dean Russell chaired the Westminster Media Forum Policy Conference to discuss the future for UK film with a range of speakers from the film industry.   Westminster Forum Projects originated in the UK Parliament and is a platform for conferences on a wide range of topics, including education,

Dean Russell MP Celebrates £3.2 Million For Hertfordshire

Dean Russell welcomed the government’s announcement that local projects in Hertfordshire will be receiving £3.2 million from the UK Community Renewal Fund.   The UK’s Community Renewal Fund is a government initiative that aims to invest in local communities and help build the safer, greener,

Mission: Possible? Protecting the film industry in the wake of the pandemic

Almost like a scene from a movie, I was sat in my Parliamentary office last year when I got a message from a producer of the Mission Impossible movies: ‘We have a problem – can you help?’. Underlying the message was a concern that new COVID restrictions would make it impossible for big tentpole mov