Beautiful Thing (film) Beautiful Thing (film) Beautiful Thing is a 1996 British film directed by Hettie MacDonald and released by Channel 4 Films. The screenplay was written by Jonathan Harvey based on his own original play of the same name. The film was originally intended for television broadcast only, but it was so well-received that it was subsequently released in cinemas. The atmosphere of the film is heavily influenced by a soundtrack consisting almost entirely of the music of The Mamas & the Papas and "Mama" Cass Elliot. The story is set and filmed on Thamesmead, a working class area of South East
The Mamas & the Papas singles charted in the UK. The Mamas & the Papas cut their first three albums at United Western Recorders in Hollywood, while the group's subsequent releases were recorded at the eight-track studio John and Michelle Phillips built at their home in Bel Air (at a time when four-track recording was still the norm). John Phillips said, "I got the idea to transform the attic into my own recording studio, so I could stay high all the time and never have to worry about studio time. I began assembling the state-of-the-art equipment and ran the cost up to about a hundred