Alison Owen at the film premiere for Back To Black; she is the movie’s producer and Lily Allen’s mother

PRODUCER Alison Owen has told how she felt she was uniquely placed when it came to laying out how a film could tell Amy Winehouse’s life story.

She could understand what Amy went through – and how her success affected friends and family. As the Back to Black album was storming the charts, Ms Owen’s daughter, the singer Lily Allen, was experiencing a similar level of tabloid intrusion and facing the daily trials of fame.

She found herself watching the singer at venues Lily was also booked to perform.

“I met Amy and her father a few times – Lily knew them,” she said. “I know what it is like to one minute have a daughter who is arguing with her brother and then suddenly wake up one day and she is famous.

“There is no handbook for a parent, no one tells you how to deal with paparazzis climbing up your drain pipe. I could understand to a degree what Mitch [Winehouse, Amy’s father] had been through.”

Making films which tell a woman’s story in an honest and forthright way has become something of a calling card for Ms Owen.

Her previous movies include the story of how Mary Poppins was written in Saving Mr Banks, starring Emma Thompson, and an adaptation of the Deborah Moggach novel, Tulip Fever.

“I don’t set out to make films that tell women’s stories but I am drawn to them,” she said.

“Firstly, it is political. I strongly believe that you have to see it to believe it. “When I started out, there were not many films with strong female leads. There was a real need for that. Certainly, it has changed but there is still a need.”

The annual tributes to Amy Winehouse left in Camden Square

And then there is the old adage of “focus on what you know”.

“Film producing is about making hundreds of decisions every day,” she said. “You are better able to do this  if it is about a topic you know really well.

“When I talk to film students I say this: if someone asked me to be the judge of a real ale competition I might say yes, that sounds fun, but I don’t like real ale and don’t know anything about it. Ask me to judge a red wine competition, and that’s a different matter. I can tell you if it’s good.

“It’s the same with film producing. I can make good decisions if I know the subject well. I wouldn’t make the same decisions I am used to making if I was producing a testosterone-fuelled action movie.”

Lily Allen

Ms Owen believes the way Amy’s illness was talked about does her a disservice and needs to be addressed.

“I felt Amy’s legacy was becoming one of death, addiction – rather than her incredible music,” she said.

“That creativity was being overshadowed. She is a singer and songwriter who I feel was the greatest musical talent of the 21st century so far.

“To have her legacy focusing on her death felt imbalanced and very wrong. And as a feminist it annoyed me that so many people pointed a finger of blame to her father, Mitch, or her husband, Blake, or the press.”

She added: “We live in a culture that can appear to be obsessed by young women who have died. I didn’t want to see Amy join that pantheon of Judy Garland, Billie Holiday, Janis Joplin.

“This also struck me: I did not understand why people who make a documentary about Jimi Hendrix or Jim Morrison never ask – ah, but was his father to blame? That has happened to Amy. It was her life to lead, she made her own decisions and I felt that needed to come over.”

Amy died in 2011 and the fans still pay a visits to Camden Town and hold vigils outside the house where she died every summer.

“It’s not too soon – in fact it is not a minute too soon before her legacy is embellished and set,” said Ms Owen on producing biopic Back To Black.

Focusing on a specific time in Amy’s life where she fell madly in love with Blake Fielder-Civil but subsequently split up from him helped create a fresh take on Amy’s path.

“I do not want to make a picture that starts at the beginning, goes through childhood, and follows that linear timeline,” Ms Owen said.

“Instead we took a period, the most successful period. Back to Black is unarguably the most iconic and interesting period of her life. It happens to be about a foundational relationship, when she went through her greatest emotions. I made it clear we should base the story of her life on that LP, and flash back and forth to create the narrative around it.”

She added:  “Camden was a character in the film, as much as say Mitch, or Janice, or Blake. It’s gritty and dirty but it’s also glamorous and glitzy, all at the same time. You can’t achieve that on a film set.”

“And I think people who see the film will discover a completely different Amy. She was a goldfish in a goldfish bowl throughout her life. She had people always judging her. I hope this film gives her depth, the opportunity to tell her own story from the inside out, rather than the outside in.”