David Tennant’s Obscure Short Films: ‘Bite’ (1997)

My normal David Tennant history post heads in a new direction: to one of his rare first performances on film as opposed to TV and theatre: the short film Bite. I’ve got personal history with this short, so it’s dear to my heart.

Bite is one of DT’s long-lost gems. Most of his fans know it exists, but few have seen it. It was produced by Su Bainbridge and written by Andrea Gibb, who DT fans may recognize as the author of the brilliant DT audio Sunburst Finish. Paddy Cunneen, who also wrote the music for The Pillowman, was its musical composer. Directed by Brian Ross and with a running time of 6:58, Bite was produced on 16mm film and screened at the Edinburgh Film Festival in 1997. It was broadcast in November 1997 as part of an STV arts program called Don’t Look Down.

But what is Bite about?

“Bite is a film about Alistair Galbraith, a passive postman who tires of being a spectator in his own life and decides to take control. When Alistair’s wife, Alison, commits adultery on their wedding day and shortly afterwards he is savaged by a ferocious dog, Alistair hits rock bottom, unable to cope with even the most undemanding of life’s tasks. From the depths of despair, he is galvanized into action and in true anti-hero style sets out to take revenge on those who have wronged him. Through taking this action, he is re-born.”

David played Alastair Galbraith, and his wife Alison was played by Sharon Small, who recently reunited with David onstage in Good at the Harold Pinter Theatre.

At this juncture everyone usually asks, “Can I see it?”

Yep! You can reserve a viewing time if you’re close to the Moving Image Archive in Glasgow, as a copy is held for private and research viewing only.

And I’m pretty sure it’s available, either directly or indirectly, because of me!

But before I get into that (it’s the personal aspect I talked about earlier) here’s a bit of Bite you can see. The film’s editor, Gary Scott, has a :44 extract of the film online, and you can watch it right here:

ALSO - SPOILER ALERT - If you’re interested in a blow-by-blow, spoiler-y summation of Bite because you can’t visit Glasgow to see the short, here’s a detailed plot summation.

And now: how I wheedled it so Bite became available to view.

When I discovered back in 2014 that a copy of Bite was archived at the Scottish Screen Archive (now the Moving Image Archive) but not available - while his earlier short film SPACES was? - it made me wonder why, so I made inquiries at the archive to see why. It turned out SPACES had a viewable copy, but the copy of Bite in the archive was still on 16mm.

Now, this would’ve stopped any ordinary human being.

I am not an ordinary human being.

I was not a professional archivist then but I am now. The decision to become one this late in my life is partially due to my love of knowledge, organization and research, but also to my experiences since becoming - basically - an archivist and researcher with regards to DT’s body of work. These things combined makes me rather dogged when there’s something I wish to attain.

I learned Bite was on 16mm and they couldn’t make a viewing copy. Why? Because it was in copyright. And even funnier? They didn’t know who held the rights! But I thought it should be available, so - even though I’m in the US and everyone else was in the UK - I decided to try and make that happen.

Archive personnel suggested I ask Creative Scotland about the rights, who suggested I ask the film’s production company. I was told it was rumored they had a VHS/beta copy of the film. I contacted each and every one of them to find out if this was true.

After months of back-and-forth emailing with the production company and soldiering on even through staffing rotations and I had to retell my entire story of the hunt again and again, I was still in a state of limbo. Finally the production company said they for sure did not have a copy of it but they could begin to negotiate with the National Library of Scotland for one. A few months later they learned they’d be able to procure a copy, but it would cost them X amount for a post-production company to digitize the 16mm, etc., etc.

Progress, right? Frankly, it felt like a scene in a comedy, as each thread in this chain of people needed to make their own copy in this format by this company for this archive or that person or…you get the gist. And no one could tell me if it would actually get done. So I kept reaching out.

To make a ridiculously long story short, one full YEAR afterwards, the archive finally managed to obtain a copy that was viewable for others to view onsite!

That was a reward in and of itself. An obscure piece of David’s body of work had been pulled from its original 16mm - where it might have languished forever - and preserved on a format available to us today.

But I got a few tangible rewards, too. One, an email from the production company’s owner that made me laugh harder than I’d laughed for a while: “Feck my old tin boots! I’ve just looked at who we cast in that film!”

Yes, sir. You DID cast David Tennant! Indeed you did!

And two, my very own copy of Bite (which, of course, I had to sign my life away for!) I got permission to release some screen shots, but that was it. And while it felt like an acknowledgement, I’m really just pleased we rescued it.

I took my copy to a convention DT was attending, and when I laid it down to have him autograph it, he immediately looked up at me. “How - and where - did you get THAT?”

I laughed. “Ummmm…..persistence?”

He laughed and shook his head. “I hadn’t thought of that one in a while. I remember that dog.”

“You were a great postman.”

And he was.

Lastly, I thought I should post some new screenshots. I apologize that they’re not of the greatest quality, but neither is my copy.