My books
I write books about films I love, films I’ll watch again and again and recommend to other people. They’re also films I wanted to read more about. So I started talking to the people who made them and these books are the result.
Seeking Perfection: The Unofficial Guide to Tremors
A behind-the-scenes look at the making of Tremors and its sequels
“This high-access tell-all...[is] an unexpected treat” - 4/5, Empire
Welcome to Perfection, Nevada
A throwback to the kind of sci-fi B movies that had long gone out of fashion, Tremors was a box office flop that became a home video phenomenon, spawning multiple sequels and a short-lived TV series.
Seeking Perfection: The Unofficial Guide to Tremors is the first book to go beneath the surface of the Tremors franchise, featuring new interviews with more than 50 cast and crew members, including stars Kevin Bacon and Michael Gross, director Ron Underwood, executive producer Gale Anne Hurd, and the monster makers who brought the Graboids to life.
A Kind of Magic: Making the Original Highlander
‘A definitive history . . . which every fan should read’ – Scott Varnham, Starburst
‘Jonathan Melville rounds up an impressive number of key players and mixes his new interviews with plenty of material from the archives . . . the level of research is impressive’ – SFX
The story of an immortal Scottish warrior battling evil down through the centuries, Highlander fused a high-concept idea with the kinetic energy of a pop promo pioneer and Queen’s explosive soundtrack to become a cult classic.
When two American producers took a chance on a college student’s script, they set in motion a chain of events involving an imploding British film studio, an experimental music video director still finding his filmmaking feet, a former James Bond with a spiralling salary, and the unexpected arrival of low-budget production company, Cannon Films.
Author Jonathan Melville looks back at the creation of Highlander with the help of more than 60 cast and crew, including stars Christopher Lambert and Clancy Brown, as they talk candidly about the gruelling shoot that took them from the back alleys of London, to the far reaches of the Scottish Highlands, and onto the mean streets of 1980s New York City.
With insights from Queen’s Brian May and Roger Taylor on the film’s iconic music, exclusive screenwriter commentary on unmade scripts, never-before-seen photos from private collections, and a glimpse into the promotional campaign that never was, if there can be only one book on Highlander then this is it!
Local Hero: Making a Scottish Classic
‘It’s not a high concept movie, there’s actually no story there really. It’s what happens in between the story that’s important’ – Bill Forsyth
The story of an American businessman sent to buy the Scottish village of Ferness with the aim of turning it into an oil refinery, Local Hero is one of Scotland’s most beloved, and most misunderstood, films.
When Bill Forsyth’s incredible success with the low-budget That Sinking Feeling and Gregory’s Girl found him collaborating with Britain’s best-known film producer, David Puttnam, he soon found his independent ethos clashing with Hollywood’s desire for superstar actors and a happy ending.
Jonathan Melville checks into the MacAskill Arms and looks back at Bill Forsyth’s career with the help of new and archive interviews, before spending time with the cast and crew, including stars Peter Riegert and Denis Lawson, who made Local Hero on location in Houston and Scotland in 1982.
With access to early drafts of the Local Hero script (including hand-written notes) that reveal more about Mac and mermaids, excerpts from a previously unpublished interview in which Bill Forsyth explains why he refuses to call his film 'feel-good', and a look at long-lost deleted scenes with exclusive commentary from those involved, this is the definitive history of the Scottish classic.
Hamish Macbeth: The Making of a BBCtv Classic
Welcome to the Wild West of Scotland
In 1995, BBC One’s Hamish Macbeth broke all the rules of Sunday night TV. Set in the picture-postcard Highlands of Scotland, this genre-defying drama brought cannibalism and ceilidhs, marijuana and murder, love triangles and lobster tanks to millions of viewers each week.
With Robert Carlyle starring as the laid-back lawman who preferred poaching to paperwork, producers transformed the tiny village of Plockton into the fictional Lochdubh. While they attempted to evade BBC bureaucracy, they couldn’t escape the tourists who soon flocked to see Hamish’s home.
Drawing on dozens of new interviews with cast, crew and local residents, this book reveals how they crafted a vision of Highland life that was part Western, part modern fable and wholly original. Discover the battle over Wee Jock's fate, the mystery of the 'lost' musical episode and how the real-world return of the Stone of Destiny forced last-minute rewrites of the epic series finale.
Jonathan Melville, author of A Kind of Magic: Making the Original Highlander and Local Hero: Making a Scottish Classic, blends oral history and archive material into the definitive account of how this subversive series became a timeless classic.
For fans of M.C. Beaton’s Hamish Macbeth novels—the inspiration behind the cult BBC series—this is the ultimate look behind the curtain at a cosy crime classic with a wild Highland twist.