Iconic punks the Sex Pistols get the small-screen treatment in a six-episode series based on guitarist Steve Jones’ 2018 memoir Lonely Boy: Tales from a Sex Pistol. Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, Slumdog Millionaire) will direct and executive produce the series, which starts production in March and is titled Pistol.
The series stars Toby Wallace as Steve Jones, Anson Boon as singer John “Johnny Rotten” Lydon, Louis Partridge as Sid Vicious, Jacob Slater as Paul Cook, Fabien Frankel as Glen Matlock, Sydney Chandler as Chrissie Hynde, Emma Appleton as Nancy Spungen, and Maisie Williams as punk icon Jordan.
“Imagine breaking into the world of ‘The Crown’ and ‘Downton Abbey’ with your mates and screaming your songs and your fury at all they represent,” said Boyle in a statement published in Variety. “This is the moment that British society and culture changed forever. It is the detonation point for British street culture…where ordinary young people had the stage and vented their fury and their fashion…and everyone had to watch & listen…and everyone feared them or followed them. The Sex Pistols. At its center was a young charming illiterate kleptomaniac – a hero for the times – Steve Jones, who became in his own words, the 94th greatest guitarist of all time. This is how he got there.”
Singer Lydon, eternally outspoken, supported Trump in the 2020 election and last toured in 2018 with his band Public Image, Ltd.
In recent years, Jones has been a DJ with his show Jonesy’s Jukebox on Los Angeles rock station KLOS and appeared in TV shows including Californication and Portlandia.
Thanks to the disruptive 1977 single “God Save the Queen” and groundbreaking Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols album — not to mention the destructive and short life and story of bassist Sid Vicious — the Sex Pistols secured their place in music history.
A 2019 premiere for the Punk documentary found Lydon as contentious as ever, sparring with Henry Rollins and Marky Ramone at the documentary’s premiere.
