BBC
When Trainspotting director Danny Boyle set out to make a mini-series about punk icons the Sex Pistols, he had one condition: The actors had to play the songs for real.
There’d be no lip-syncing and no miming. Every riff and every syllable would be captured live on stage, in front of an audience, chaotic and unvarnished. Just like the originals.
But turning a cast of predominantly unknown and first-time actors into a proper band doesn’t happen overnight. Boyle demanded, and received, a three-month rehearsal period – an almost unheard of length of time for a TV show.
Music rehearsals were overseen by Karl Hyde and Rick Smith of the dance band Underworld. But even though punk was defined by its untutored, anyone-can-play aesthetic, the young cast weren’t cut any slack.
The pain paid off.
