Mike Hodges: Director of Get Carter and Flash Gordon dies aged 90
Mike Hodges, the British filmmaker behind Get Carter and Flash Gordon, has died.
Hodges died of heart failure at his home in Dorset at the age of 90, his friend Mike Kaplan told NBC News.
Hailed as one of the greatest crime films Britain has ever produced, Get Carter (1971) was Hodges’ first feature film, transformed from novel to cinema release in just eight months.
Starring Michael Caine, it follows a London gangster who returns home to Newcastle to attend his brother’s funeral.
In a 50th anniversary tribute last year, the British Film Institute said it had “a masterful, pacy blend of the sex, violence and style that simultaneously repels and attracts crime film connoisseurs, yet offers much more”.
He was also known for cult classic space opera Flash Gordon (1980), starring Sam J Jones as the comic strip hero.
Sam J Jones and Melody Anderson in Flash Gordon
Hodges was brought in to replace director Nicolas Roeg but had “no idea what I was going to do when I took over”, he told The Guardian in 2020.
“I think that’s part of the success of the film. It’s like a souffle. We managed to put all the right ingredients in, and it sort of rose in some mysterious way.”
Michael Caine films a scene from Get Carter
Born in Bristol on 29 July 1932, Hodges qualified as a chartered accountant before completing two years’ national service in the Navy.
He later wrote that the experience fundamentally reshaped his world view.
“My middle-class eyes were forced to witness horrendous poverty and deprivation that I was previously unaware of,” Hodges wrote in a letter published in The Guardian in May.
“I went into the navy as a newly qualified chartered accountant and complacent young Tory, and came out an angry, radical young man,” he wrote.
Hodges started his career in television as a teleprompter operator and went on to write and direct Pulp (1972), The Terminal Man (1974) and Black Rainbow (1989).
Some of Hodges’ later films include A Prayer for the Dying (1987), Croupier (1998) and I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead (2003).
Entertainment
Gregg Wallace: Over half of allegations against MasterChef presenter substantiated, including one of unwanted physical contact
An investigation into Gregg Wallace’s “inappropriate behaviour” on MasterChef has found that more than half of the allegations against him have been substantiated, including one of “unwanted physical contact”.
MasterChef’s production company Banijay UK shared a summary of its report into historical allegations of misconduct against the 60-year-old presenter, carried out by independent law firm Lewis Silkin over seven months.
The report also said the number of sustained allegations made Wallace’s return to MasterChef “untenable”.
The investigation heard evidence from 78 witnesses, including 41 complainants.
There were 83 allegations against Wallace, and 45 of them were substantiated. All were related to MasterChef.
While the majority of the substantiated allegations related to inappropriate sexual language and humour, a smaller number of allegations of other inappropriate language and being in a state of undress were also substantiated.
One allegation of unwanted physical contact was substantiated.
Nearly all the allegations against Wallace were related to behaviour which is said to have occurred between 2005 and 2018, with just one substantiated allegation taking place post-2018.
Wallace and Anne-Marie Sterpini in 2014
Ahead of the publication of the summary, Wallace had said he had been “cleared of the most serious and sensational accusations” made against him.
Additionally, the report summary found that there were also 10 standalone allegations about other people between 2012 and 2018/2019, two of which were substantiated. Those people were not named in the summary.
The investigation found that complaints had previously been raised with the production company between 2005 and 2024.
Gregg Wallace on MasterChef. Pic: BBC/ Shine TV 2024
While the report flagged inadequate reporting procedures prior to 2016, when Endemol merged with Shine ahead of Banijay acquiring Endemol Shine in 2020, it said there were significant improvements to HR processes and training after 2016.
While the investigation said some formal action was taken by the BBC in 2017, it also noted the corporation held no information regarding concerns raised over Wallace centrally, resulting in issues being addressed as a first offence.
Sky News has tried to contact Gregg Wallace for contact today.
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