Peter Chelsom

Although he played leads at the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal Court and the National Theatre before reaching the age of 30, Peter Chelsom cut short his decade-long acting career to concentrate on writing and directing films. His first effort, the short "Treacle" (1988), received considerable international acclaim, but several years would pass before he directed a feature film. Gaining experience at the helm of TV commercials, Chelsom finally realized his ambition with "Hear My Song" (1991), a sentimental, amusing whimsy loosely based on the real-life story of the beloved Irish tenor Josef Locke, co-written by Chelsom's leading man, Adrian Dunbar. He completed his trilogy of "hometown movies" with "Funny Bones" (1995), a show business fairy tale featuring performances by Jerry Lewis and Leslie Caron that blur the boundaries of their real and screen personae. Set primarily in his boyhood home of Blackpool, England (considered the entertainment Mecca of the North), "Funny Bones" endearingly resurrects show business nuggets from the past while depicting a decidedly twisted Oedipal drama involving Lewis and his two comedian sons, one (Lee Evans) which he had conceived and abandoned and the other (Oliver Platt), in whom he fostered then squelched ambition.