FILM · 1979 · UK
Scum
20 archived facts 1 topic 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (20)
- #001
Carlin was originally a Glaswegian, but Alan Clarke changed him to a Cockney after seeing the then-unknown Ray Winstone's distinctive walk.
- #002
(At around 40 minutes) Although the scene was shot in a single continuous take, Ray Winstone did not hit Phil Daniels with a sock containing billiard balls. A crew member lay down on the floor and handed Winstone another sock containing ping-pong balls. Even so, Daniels claimed it hurt a great deal when Ray struck him with the sock.
- #003
The film was labelled one of the most controversial "video nasties" during the early 1980s UK Video Nasties debate.
- #004
(At around 24 minutes) Apart from the music playing during the scene in which Eckersley accuses Davis of stealing on his radio, there is almost no music throughout the film.
- #005
Alan Clarke made this film after the BBC banned the original TV version of Scum (1991) in 1977.
- #006
David Threlfall, who first played Archer in the BBC version of Scum (1991), was offered the role in the film, but could not take it due to prior commitments with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
- #007
The greenhouse scenes were shot at HMP Wellingborough in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire.
- #008
The term "borstal" comes from the village of Borstal in Kent, where the then Prison Commissioner (Sir Evelyn Ruggles-Brise) established a prison in 1902 in which young and adult offenders were separated from one another. Interestingly, the nearby "Fort Borstal" was built by convicts between 1875 and 1895. The original Borstal is now HMP Rochester. There is also an additional building nearby called HMP/YOI Cookham Wood.
- #009
The word "borstal" is the British term used for a "youth penitentiary", but it was also used for a "detention center" and an "approved school". Borstals were for serious and persistent offenders and were run by Her Majesty's Prison Service. The meaning of the term "borstal training" was in fact another way of saying "court sentence".
- #010
The later 2010 Canadian film Dog Pound (2010) drew significant inspiration from and was influenced by this film.
- #011
The later British prison film Scrubbers (1982), set in a British women's institution, was widely regarded as the female version of Scum. Scrubbers drew inspiration from Scum's success and featured female prison inmates instead of male ones. The two films are considered complementary pieces, with Scrubbers even described as a kind of sequel to Scum. Both films share a number of identical and similar story elements.
- #012
Toward the end of this film's original cinema run, it was placed on a double bill with Quadrophenia (1979), which was released a few weeks later. Many of the actors playing the inmates appeared in Quadrophenia.
- #013
This was actor Philip Jackson's first significant role in a feature film. He had previously played an inmate (Melvin "Dylan" Bottomley) in an episode of the first series of the BBC sitcom "Porridge."
- #014
The real name of the British borstal prison was never revealed.
- #015
Writer Roy Minton claimed the screenplay was based on real events that occurred over time at various institutions. Condensing these events into a single borstal for an 80-minute film led the BBC to ban the original play, on the grounds that it was a misleading and unrealistic portrayal of a juvenile offenders' prison.
- #016
The top inmate at the borstal was nicknamed "Daddy."
- #017
That same year, Ray Winstone, Phil Daniels, John Blundell, Julian Firth, Patrick Murray, Perry Benson and P. H. Moriarty all appeared in Quadrophenia (1979).
- #018
John Judd (Mr. Sands), Andrew Paul (Betts) and Sean Chapman ("James," one of the rapists in the greenhouse) later appeared in the famous 1980s British TV commercials for Kwik-Fit ("You Can't Get Better than a Kwik-fit Fitter"). Judd and Paul appeared in the same commercial, while Chapman appeared in a slightly later one.
- #019
Despite playing inmates at a borstal for juvenile offenders, Mick Ford (Archer) and Alan Igbon (Meakin) were 27 years old.
- #020
The sleeve notes of the Australian DVD state that this film is "one of the most controversial films ever made in the United Kingdom and one of those that caused outrage when it was first shown on television."
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