today say that liberty and equality are bad principles is a brave man but perhaps a necessary one since, unless they include justice, they are pernicious and self-destructive. That is at the heart of 'Britannia Hospital', though I hope it's not a preachy film but a parable. A parable is a heavenly story with a earthly meaning. I hope this is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning." Anderson did an outline and sent it to Lew Grade who was not interested. 20th Century Fox under Sandy Lieberson signed Anderson to a two-picture deal, of which one was to be Britannia Hospital. (The other was to be Dress Grey written by Gore Vidal). Anderson arranged for David Sherwin to write a script. Sherwin said the film was not "about a hospital about all. It's about everything. It's not even a film that's just about Britain." Lieberson left Fox and the studio dropped the project. Mamoun Hassan of the National Film Finance Corporation said he thought they were "too shocked by it". Then producer Clive Parsons championed the project. He raised $1 million from Britain's National Film Finance Corporation and $3 million from EMI. Hassan says that there was discussion at the NFFC whether they should support a film by Anderson, who had made a number of movies, but ultimately decided he was an "outsider". Hassan attributes the fact that the budget was raised to Parsons's persistence, and the fact the script had been around a number of years so some of the shock had "worn off". Nonetheless, he called it "a risk... a very black comedy." Shooting Filming started August 1981. It was filmed at Shepperton Studios, using Friern Hospital in Barnet as the exterior of the hospital in October 1981. Filming took 12 weeks. McDowell said he did the film just for his expenses, and no fee, because there was not enough money in the budget to pay his normal fee and he wanted to work with Anderson again. Mark Hamill also did the part free plus expenses when original choice Treat Williams bowed out. During filming, Anderson needed another $1 million and two extra weeks to finish the film. Anderson said:The film ends with a question mark, not a solution, and people don't like that. They want to be let off the hook, and this film impales the audience on rather a large hook. I think that if