Matt Cooper, the host of Today FM’s popular radio show The Last Word will interview the motor racing legend Tommy Byrne in a post-screening Q&A at the IFI’s special opening night screening of Crash and Burn next Friday 2nd December. The film’s award-winning director Seán Ó Cualáin will also take part in the live interview where audience members will have the opportunity to ask Tommy and Sean questions too.
Tommy was the equivalent of George Best and Muhammad Ali of the 80’s motor racing scene and Crash and Burn charts how he went from driving a Mini Cooper in stock-car racing to the big-time in Formula One in a little over four years and shows that for a fleeting moment was the best driver in the world and a serious rival of Ayrton Senna’s. Eddie Jordan the former team-owner, who worked with both Senna and Michael Schumacher has said: ‘Forget Schumacher and Senna. Tommy Byrne was the best of them all.’
Tommy’s rise was meteoric and his fall spectacular. He was a cocky, aggressive driver from humble roots and the F1 glitterati simply didn’t like the mix. Directed by award-winning filmmaker Seán Ó Cualáin, the documentary shines a light on one of professional racing’s most dashing and charismatic talents and a glittering career that was doomed before it ever began. It is the story of the greatest F1 driver never to emerge.
The five-star reviewed Crash and Burn has been going down a storm with audiences at the Galway Film Fleadh and the Cork Film Festival in Ireland as well as the prestigious Sheffield DocFest and this week’s screening in Picturehouse Central London in the UK.
The film will be released in Irish cinemas on Friday 2nd December. The special opening night screening will take place in the Irish Film Institute on Friday 2nd December at 6.30pm. Tickets are now on sale on the IFI website.