I knew Ant for what seems like all of my life and it certainly has been well over half of it, more than 35 years. That was a measure of our friendship and of Anthony – he was a constant; always there, always charming, always caring, always bloody good fun and above all really mischievous, which he was quite good at hiding, until I got to know him.
I first met him when he was a highly successful screenwriter and I was a young’ish upstart Producer. He was the consummate professional and a great listener; so much so that, unlike with other writers (and directors) we both knew, I looked forward to getting his scripts. As a result we won many awards together and Ant proved the adage that as long as you have a great story, you’ll get a great movie. Some time into our working relationship he developed a hankering for directing – or maybe he had just been hiding his light under a bushel, because once he was unleashed he was off and never looked back. In fact so much so that I doubt there’s a train driver on the UK rail network that hasn’t at one time or another seen one of Anthony’s safety videos. One of his longest commissions, and for a while over beer and Chablis it was red lights, STOP protocols, TDLCs, RIS standards… Good grief, was there any manual that he had not read? Unlikely. Needless to say I drank more Chablis then… By that time I’d moved out of the corporate film business but Ant’s and my friendship had been firmly sealed long before. We became each other’s confidante and although his exploits were disproportionately far more interesting and complicated than mine, nothing was off limits and that was him. Probably thought it would come in handy for a poem or story at some point in the future!
I was thrilled for him with his move into historic house/museum installations. He was so fired up by them and they were the perfect outlet for his imagination and attention to detail and above all his skill as a storyteller. And they were good; really, really good. He was incredibly excited by his new business with Ellie and it’s a cruel injustice that he hasn’t been able to continue with that, I’m guessing it would be his greatest sadness too.
I will always think of Ant as a realistic optimist. When things worked out, great – cause for celebration – if they didn’t, that was ok, move on to the next chapter, but appreciate what you’d learned. Because there was always a pint to pick you up. He was a fighter and as we know he fought off some pretty nasty health scares over the years, but this one clearly gave him no choice which was a horrible shock because I was convinced that my peter pan friend had many many more years ahead of him. And although he may no longer be here to laugh and cry with us and be very surprised by the lovely things that we’re saying about him, I hope he would be happy with the story that is Anthony Matheson -Pineapple Resident, Colleague, Storyteller, Lifetime Friend, Director, Trainspotter, Romantic, Historical Whizz, Business Partner, Imagineer. Very much missed. Rest easy Anthony, With love…
Jane Mitchell