Angela May Corcoran – Part 1

Over the Christmas break we were given the test of talking to people who we thought we know such as friends, family and other close local people and trying to find out something that we didn’t already know about them; perhaps a unusual event in their past, their ambitions and dreams, or their deepest fears and regrets. The objective of this task being to gain the irreplaceable skill of conversing and developing a relationship with a subject. We were then asked to consider whether what was said during these conversations whether it would make an interesting film and present a single image that represented that person. For this task I chose to look to my family and to someone who I felt quite close to, my nan.

Angela May Corcoran

Angela May Darley was born in Wolverhampton in the year 1940 in the city of Wolverhampton at the end of the Second World War. Her father Norman Darley worked in an engineering factory and her mother Annie May Taft was a stay at home mum. She was well behaved at school, finding particular delight with subjects such as Maths and English as she was never a very creative minded individual. She also didn’t like History and Geography but was into her sports, at one stage she was even the school Hockey captain.

At the tender age of 11 her father passed away after an accident at work that she never really found out any details about even to this day. Due to this her mother had to find herself a job at a food warehouse. It was also at this point in her life that she first met John Corcoran, the man who would later become my granddad. Angela and one of her close friends would tease a boy named Paul who used to deliver the papers on her street who turned out to be friends with John. He was 12, six foot and slim and she remarks at how my younger brother is the spitting image of how my granddad once looked. John was into his music as many others were in the time with the rise of bands like the Beetles in the 60’s, however his dreams of starting a band with his mates quickly dissipated when he ordered a double bass for himself and his father sent it straight back. He was considered reasonable at school, good at english but lacked motivation. He went to an all boys strict catholic school.

The two dated until when John was 19 and Angela was 18 and he proposed on the back of a bus trip with their local club to Gloucestershire. They married three years later in 1961. John owned a beetle and they would travel throughout Europe on various holidays, especially across Spain and they also owned a chalet in Wales. They had two children, Susan in 1968 and my mother Andrea in 1969.

She reminisces about the happiest and sadest moments of her life.. Her happiest memories were that of her two daughters marrying and the birth of her three grandchildren; Grant, Christopher and Georgia. Her saddest memory of early life was when her daughter Susan was diagnosed with scoliosis of the spine at the age of 14 and had to go to the royal orphapedic hospital for a six week stay having traction to pull her spine and then an operation to insert a titanium rod in her back. She actually did her GCSE’s in a full body cast. Angela seems to think however that this benefited her in some respects as she had been a shy girl before this but the situation forced her out of her shell at the hospital which later allowed her to blossom into a successful career. Her most recent saddest moment however was the passing of my granddad John Corcoran of cancer in 2012.

I personally think that she had a fascinating life despite her modest approach to the storytelling, as is her nature. I already had great respect for her as a strong yet gentle woman who was the pillar in the family but learning more about her past really was an eye opener, for example I had no idea that her father passed when she was only 11. As for whether this would make an interesting film I think that it really would make for an interesting story of a young womans advancement into her elderly life and telling the tale of how such a strong gentle woman came to being. It would also make for an interesting love story of the boy named John who showed up in her life at a crucial time when her father had passed and stayed with her all the way till his passing. The story would have a lovely reversal of how he was strong for her at the start when she was missing her father and then to the end of the story at his passing from cancer and how she was strong for him in his time of need.

I hope you enjoyed reading this story and saw the potential in it that I did. It was moving to learn that I knew so little about a woman who means everything to me. It occurred to me when thinking about this that everyones life would make for an interesting film for one reason or another. We all go on a journey of highs and lows and we are shaped into the people we are today because of every tiny event that occurred in our life. Stop and think about that when you find yourself regretting something, who would you be without it?

Advice From The Pros

From the mouth of one of the big directors at this time, James Gunn, comes this brilliant snippet of advice to all aspiring directors out there. I’d like to send out thanks not only to James Gunn himself for taking the time to write to his fans about this but also my friend Ben, who took the time to link me to this:

Remember that it takes ten years or so to become a doctor. Entertainment is a far more competitive field than medicine – and, if you’re really focused on mastering your craft, it can be just as complex. So expect it to take at least ten years of hard work at the expense of a regular life to simply be competent and perhaps begin to make a living at it. And, even then, sadly, only an extremely small percentage of people are able to do so.
If you find that too daunting, consider working in another field. If you don’t find it daunting at all, consider therapy. Considering your sense of reality, you’ve got bigger problems than your career goals.
However, if you find that daunting, but still have the need or desire to continue, well, that’s at least one place to start. I wish you not only luck, but strength, perseverance, heart, and talent.
And, before you start, there are of course lots of exceptions to the ten year rule (or, as Malcom Gladwell talks about in his book Outliers, the 10,000-hours-of-work rule). But that also takes a great amount of luck, something we don’t have much control over other than putting ourselves out there as much as possible.