‘The house was small, the life was big’: how Amy Winehouse’s homes were recreated for Back to Black

That was the aim of the set designers for the Amy Winehouse biopic Back to Black, where her various homes feel as integral as Marisa Abela’s detailed study of her vocals and movements.

On a video call, Spencer and Greenwood – who have worked together for more than 20 years on films including Barbie – speak in harmonious counterpoint.

Winehouse was often charming, famously capricious and outwardly confident but inwardly quite unsure of herself: you see these traits in her evolving homes in Back to Black.

Her childhood bedroom is portrayed as a slightly unreal place of sanctuary where Abela-as-Winehouse scribbles lyrics and improvises melodies sitting cross-legged on her bed, the walls behind her whitewashed brick.

Her first Camden home, a mess of shoe boxes and mugs, features a giant jukebox customised with her own records and handwritten tracklists, the reeded glass of her front door obscuring and distorting every visitor suggesting the dangers that lurk outside.

I love that she was this old fashioned girl.” This pen-and-paper approach bled into Greenwood and Spencer’s work: despite only getting fleeting appearances on screen, in Amy’s teenage bedroom they doodled on the walls, meticulously recreated her diaries and kept everything tech-free.