The Wade Radford Archive

Wade Radford & Luke Hunter, ‘Stranger Than Us’ (2019) Copyright BedlamBD

Feeling really rather burned out from ‘The Last Sex Lies & Depravity’ I fancied something a little bit more gentle. It’s 2024 currently and this year we will be celebrating in December five years of ‘Stranger Than Us’. Its been a weird journey with this little monochrome film shot in North Norfolk in 2019, on a very cold, wet, and windy weekend…

By 2020 we all were sat rather confused within four walls and this film got lost in translation somehow. I won’t brag and say we remotely saw any success with this film … we didn’t! Even by some of our standards it came and went as if it never existed. No promotion of any kind (lockdown) and a failed DVD release pulled after just 200 copies. Without talking any bullshit – it was a complete and utter, miserable, slightly discombobulating failure… But as with most things, time is an interesting maiden!

When we started filming this movie we could pretty much agree that the best days of the so called ‘Radford/Impey’ duo had for sure come and gone! But nothing could have prepared us for the initial failure of these kind of proportions. 

By 2019 I was somewhat in and out of my own depression and personal crisis, piling on pounds and seemingly not caring so much, but caring too much at the same confusing time! The Last Sex Lies and Depravity had really destroyed my enjoyment of ‘filmmaking’ earlier that same year – but I did want to try and return to simpler ‘ad lib’ roots…

So I packed up the car, met Luke Hunter (co-star) for coffee, and talked shop. After that we picked up Jason and started the three odd hour journey to Norfolk from Milton Keynes. Behind the facade I was a wreck with anxiety, riddled with south doubt and really not ready for it! Mundesley, our shooting location however was like a mediative, ethereal place for me. It has featured in my work a lot, from the aforementioned film, to it’s book ‘All The Way to Mundesley Bay’ and later my first entry into the ‘Dear…’ Zine series with Dear Mundesley. There is something about the way the waves slap, the wind howls, the way it becomes a ghost town by a certain tide in the day. It haunts me, but equally whips up a current in my soul alike the tides that batter the coastline. I used to go there to ‘get away’, and it feels far away once hidden in a small cabin by the seas side. My last venture to Mundesley was in 2021, I probably live at least six hours from there now – it is a place I often think of and no doubt will return to.

Stranger Than Us (2019) Copyright BedlamBD

In an old cottage just up the coastline we started filming. Jason on camera, Luke and I playing out our respective roles. No script, just a simple plan to forge forward with a fire roaring in the corner, driving out the howling gusts. It’s fair to say that my downtrodden self at the time seemed to compliment the character I was playing – Maybe Luke had spectres of his own with his anxiety ridden character of Tom – Only he would know! Stranger is about just that, two strangers meeting at night, coming together for the first time for an adventure in an otherwise unsatisfactory, unfulfilling, lonely life. J.D (My role) is cocky, cock-sure and funny (to begin with), but even his ‘bullshit’ facade was the same one I held up at that time. As the film progresses J.D and Tom swap attributes, the ‘warrior’ J.D who comforts an anxious Tom becomes the vulnerable then seeking solace in Tom’s unassuming ability to be the comforter. 

Sure, it isn’t a film for everyone! It’s slow, it burns in slow motion. For some viewers the natural fly on the wall of the first half hour may seem like an eternity. You’re the only viewer , peeping in, seeing a gentle meeting that you weren’t supposed to be part of! Even in the last part of the film though voices raise and tensions flare, this may not even be enough to sustain any ‘action loving’ viewer – But action and cinematic romps aren’t the point. The point is that you look in on real people! You see the conversation that two people have after meeting on the net, you see interests peak, attraction grow, and ultimately you see the turning point that is ‘make or break’. It is slow, it is to be pondered. Our work has never suited everybody, it can’t! Alike everything we made it is either very much for you or a source of real contention. 

I’ve never had it any other way!

On Location : Left: Jason Impey & Wade Radford : Right : Wade & Luke – Wade’s Person Collection. Copyright Wade Radford.

A year ago i uploaded the film online and it has amassed nearly 300,000 viewings. If I had a pound for every viewing… … …

The figures in real terms I suppose doesn’t make it impressive, neither viral, or worthy of much mention – For me it has been the feedback! Feedback that I haven’t experienced with our otherwise fairly brutal catalogue. People shared their own stories of fear, of doubt, of heartache. Older generations commented heartbreakingly on how they wish they’d been able to achieve a relationship like this – profound in each comment as it points in the direction of the homophobia and fear experienced by a Stonewall generation. One comment even said his own love story had began on that ‘VERY BEACH!’. Stranger Than Us has not had an easy time, but I feel it is connecting to audiences now. Sure, its never put a ‘dime’ in my pocket, but these comments that keep coming recently offer an insight to the emotion that these projects can project for others, and thus for that I am happy! It is nice to see it achieve some viewership after the hard beginning it had, in spite of our best efforts. Time people! If you’re ever struggling, or your dreams diminishing, or something isn’t working out, or even you’re working super hard and life continues to beat you down… TIME! It’ll happen as it is meant to I am sure.

We are planning to release a promotional disc set this year – will be limited edition. The release will give others a chance to own a physical copy of the film on dvd, and with it will be some interview extras. Cheeky plug here; Stranger Than Us is actually based on a romance ghost story I’d penned – ‘All The Way to Mundesley Bay’ – This story offers you something new, while retaining the spark of the two guys you saw on the screen. Pick up a copy on Amazon if you can! 

Forthcoming planned Limited DVD. Copyright Bedlam BD.

I’m intrigued to see what happens going forward with this movie – if you’ve seen it, please feel free to comment in the section below and tell me about how you stumbled across it! It is soon to be available on Amazon Prime in 4K, in the UK. 

I couldn’t even tell you scene from scene, I only ever watched the film once! What I saw at the time was a version of myself that didn’t look like I was supposed to, and didn’t feel like I was meant to; that was the private image I had of who I’d become. With time that changes and I am becoming more fond of the film and the experience it has clearly offered others – that’s true pride right there! 

If you ever go into Norfolk, drive North and keep going … all the way to Mundesley bay! Walk along the quiet seafront and reflect about how you feel about yourself! The wind will certainly clear out your negativity in a blustery blast! 

Follow my eBay store and Insta for updates on the DVDS launch @waderadfordz

Wade – March 2024.