If you’ve been to Gateshead recently, you might have noticed something missing. Yup, the Gateshead car park once graced by legendary actor Michael Caine in the cult gangster classic ‘Get Carter’ has been razed to the ground to make way for a major redevelopment in the centre of Gateshead – just in time for the 40th anniversary of the cult film set in the North East.

Demand for commemorative pieces of the concrete from the demolished iconic structure was huge, and they sold out in days. But now anyone who still longs for a lump of concrete once graced by the white MkII Ford Cortina driven by Caine or hankers after a piece of the parapet where crooked Cliff Brumby was thrown to his death can get lucky courtesy of The Northern Line.

We have FIVE pieces of this landmark brutalist carpark to give away and all you need to do is sign up to The Northern Line mailing list. We’ll choose 5 subscribers at random on March 13, to celebrate the film’s 40th birthday.

Simple.

Commemorative screening

And if you’re a real Get Carter fan, you might want to check out the commemorative screening of the film at the Tyneside Cinema in Newcastle where director Mike Hodges will be guest of honour.

In an echo of scenes featuring Michael Caine’s Jack Carter character as he travels from London to Newcastle, Mr Hodges will also be filmed on the train by Northern Stars, a group of young film makers based at the Tyneside Cinema.

In the years since its release in 1971, the Tyneside-set film has won almost universal acclaim as the finest crime thriller to come from a United Kingdom director, and one of the best ever British films of any genre.

Mr Hodges has said: “It was important that Jack Carter came from a hard, deprived background, a place he never wanted to go back to. The only place was Newcastle. I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it. Get Carter broke barriers and had a huge influence on British crime drama on film and TV.”

Created in collaboration between several North East cultural organisations, supported by Northern Film & Media and sponsored by East Coast Trains, the anniversary screening is one of a number of Get Carter- themed events in March at the Tyneside Cinema and in landmark locations across the city.

Media historian and former Lindisfarne drummer Ray Laidlaw is putting together a special, two-hour long, Get Carter location tour.

And The Tyneside Cinema will be showing a season of Hodges’ major film and TV work from March 10-16. The season will feature films which share similar themes or origins to Get Carter. Newcastle-based music development agency Generator is also inviting musicians and re-mixers to create a new twist on Roy Budd’s Get Carter soundtrack by entering a competition to reinterpret his original film score.

It is also hoped that some of the new mixes will be played at the Tyneside Cinema during the anniversary screenings.

Artwork and stills exhibition

The cinema will stage an exhibition of artwork and original stills from the film, drawn from the collection of Get Carter book author and Professor of British Cinema Steve Chibnall and there will be projections of Sally Ann Norman’s film No Parking, about the now demolished Get Carter car park in Gateshead.

Chris Phipps, who lives in Washington, said: “We are finalising the Get Carter tour route, which will offer something for the hardened fan and also for the casual film goer. It will be a combination of locations in which Jack Carter walked and others which sum up the essence of and are evocative of the film.”

But in the meantime, join The Northern Line mailing list for your chance to get your hands on one of the last FIVE remaining pieces of that car park.

By Barry Bell on February 27, 2011