March 2012 – Sophie Neville

Ronald Fraser arrives in the Lake District to play Captain Flint ~ on 20th June 1973

Sophie Neville and Simon West with Ronald Fraser playing Captain Flint — Sophie Neville, Simon West and Suzanna Hamilton with Ronald Fraser playing Captain Flint in the 1973 film of Arthur Ransome’s ‘Swallows and Amazons’

Ronald Fraser! veteran of World War II movies who had won an award for playing Basil Allenby-Johnson in The Misfits, had arrived on the shore of Coniston Water in two-tone shoes. Curiously so had two stand-ins. A short lady for me, who had dark hair, and a lady with blonde hair for Suzanna Hamilton. I have blonde hair and Suzanna is dark, but that is how it was.

Contact sheet - Ronald Fraser with Lesley Bennett

The other four actors didn’t have stand-ins, which seemed odd. Kit Seymour, who played Nancy Blackett, and Lesley Bennett in the role of Peggy, rehearsed as usual. The two boys, Simon West and Sten Grendon, were younger than us but never had stand-ins, so that seemed odder. We didn’t think the ladies would be very comfortable on Peel Island. There wasn’t exactly a powder room there.

Suzanna Hamilton and the crew with Ronal Fraser — Director Claude Whatham and Bobby Sitwell with Suzanna Hamilton playing Susan Walker and Ronald Fraser as Jim Turner aka Captain Flint

And we were some way into the filming, used to handling props that the stand-ins found alien. However they were very excited about coming over to Peel Island. They sat in our positions and read our lines back to Ronald Fraser whilst the scene at the camp site was lit, and returned to stand-in for us later when his close-ups were shot. Somehow they managed to do this in scanty summer clothing despite a brewing storm.

My stand-in. I liked her very much and was most interested in her tapestry, since I was doing one myself. Lots of the men in the crew were interested in her tapestry too. They hadn’t noticed mine.

Our stand-ins got a lot of help from the crew as they went from ship to shore. We didn’t, but then we were agile and wore life-jackets. Mummy didn’t wear a life-jacket, but she has always been surprising good at getting in and out of boats. Her comment on the matter of my stand-in was, ‘Most unsuitable for a children’s film.’ Mum became increasingly concise: ‘I don’t think that woman was invited. She just turned up.’

20th June ~ my diary page two — Enthused by our Stand-in, Lesley Bennett and I went into Ambleside that evening to buy more wool for our own tapestries.

Ronald Fraser on Peel Island The recording of our scene with Captain Flint on Peel Island went smoothly, and Claude Whatham the Director was happy with the result, but my diary reports that a Force 8 gale blew in. This spun the poor production team into a quandary.

The call sheet for Thursday 20th June documents how truly unpredictable the weather could be. We had a ‘Fine Weather Call’, an ‘Alternative Dull Weather Call’, ‘Rain Cover’ in the Houseboat cabin, and a pencilled-in end-plan entitled ‘Peel Island’, which is where we’d ended up. Richard Pilbrow, the Producer, had a 1970s embroidered patch sewn to his jeans which read: THE DECISION IS MAYBE AND THAT’S FINAL.

The Call Sheet that never-was for 20th June 1973. We ended up on Peel Island.

In Arthur Ransome’s book Swallows and Amazons there is a dramatic storm with lashing rain. We were rather disappointed that it was not included in David Wood’s screenplay. It could have been shot that afternoon, but this was not to be. I can remember Mum saying, ‘You can’t have everything.’

What had been good about the 20th June was that we, the Swallows and the

Captian Flint challenges us to capture his houseboat Amazons, were all together, not sailing but on Wild Cat Island, with the novelty of working with Captain Flint for the first time. Kit and Lesley had been so patient, waiting day after day for their scenes to come up. They were stuck having lessons with our tutor Mrs Causey in the red double-decker bus most of the time. But the fact that they were on stand-by was helpful to the production manager who had to wrestle with the film schedule and call sheets.

Blu-ray Sophie Neville with Ronald Fraser

As it was, the storm blew hard but cleared the dull-weather clouds and the next day was glorious, one to remember forever…

You can read more in the paperback or ebook here. There is also an audiobook narrated by me, Sophie Neville.

Filming the night scenes for ‘Swallows and Amazons’ on 19th June 1973

The Lake District is very beautiful. The problem about filming there is that it can rain quite hard – ‘heavily’ – was the word I used in 1973.

By this stage in the filming of Swallows and Amazons Claude Whatham only had one ‘rain cover’ option. We were kept busy recording sea shanties with Virginia McKenna at the Kirkstone Foot Hotel by Lake Windermere while Dennis Lewiston, the DOP, lit Mrs Batty’s barn at Bank Ground Farm above Coniston Water.

Arthur Ransome must have done much to revive the songs of the sea:

Farewell and adieu to you, fair Spanish ladies, Farewell and adieu to you, ladies of Spain; For we’ve under orders for to sail for old England, And we may never see you fair ladies again.

We never got as far as the ranting and roaring bit in the film.

No one really knows how old this naval song is. The Oxford Book of Sea Songs, mentions it in the logbook of the Nellie of 1796, long before shanties really came established as a genre. All I know is that Titty loved it and was still singing it in Peter Duck when the song became quite useful for navigating the English Channel.

‘The first land we sighted was called the Dodman, Next Rame Head off Plymouth, Start, Portland and Wight; We sailed by Beachy, by Fairlight and Dover, And then we bore up for the South Foreland light,’ or sort of.

Walking into Mrs Batty’s barn that day was hugely exciting. Simon Holland, the art director or set designer, had rebuilt the camp there, lighting a real fire.

Sophie Neville as Titty in Swallows and Amazons — Sophie Neville as Titty

Swallow was nmounted on a cradle so that she could be rocked, as if by water, as the scenes of her sailing at night were shot. It was brilliant, she even went about. Moonlight wasn’t not a problem. Richard Pilbrow can correct me, but I think it was produced by a lamp called a ‘tall blonde’. I don’t think we had a wind machine. The Prop Men used a large sheet of cardboard to produce a breeze.

Contact sheet - Simon West and Suzanna Hamilton night sailing

‘Wouldn’t Titty have liked this?’

‘Liked what?’

‘Sailing like this in the dark.’

’57, 58, 60, 61…’

‘What’s the matter?’

‘Can’t you hear it? The wind in the trees? We must be near the bank. Quick, Susan lower the sail! Roger, catch the yard as it comes down!’ Then there is a crunch as the Swallows hit a landing stage. All mocked up. Quite fun.

‘What about Titty?’

Amazon was placed on the same mounting. I climbed aboard and started wrapping myself up in her white sail.

Children always love the irony of John saying, ‘She’s at the camp. She’ll be alright. She’s got a tent,’ when the shot cuts to me looking damp and uncomfortable about sleeping in Amazon, anchored out on the water.

Burgulars approaching Cormorant Island

Later I wake up and come out from under the sail to hear the burglars heaving Captain Flint’s trunk across Cormorant Island. All in all we achieved quite a bit on that wet day in Westmorland. Much safer and easier than being out on the water. Because the cradle was at waist height Claude was able to get lower angle shots than when out on the camera pontoon. Simon West, who played John, did really well. He managed to convince me that he was really sailing when I watched the film and I knew he wasn’t.

I’m pretty sure this scene of us inside a tent at night was actually shot on Peel Island but I may be wrong. We had a fire in the barn. If you look closely you can see an electric cable going into the lantern to boost light from the candle. The night scenes were tricky to light and shoot, but there was something about them that was intimate and exciting for children. I assume they would normally be in bed but it was the summer holiday and excitement was afoot.

Sophie Neville in the tent at night

Back at our guest house in Ambleside there was a real life drama. Little Simon Price had gone missing. He was the small boy last seen on the beach at Rio, having his shorts pulled up by his sister. The Police were called and everything. But as in a lot of real life situations, things were sorted out, and we returned to the mundane world of maths lessons. I was tutored by Helen, one of the students at the Charlotte Mason College of Education who was also lodging at Oaklands as Mrs Causey, our teacher, could not ‘do modern Maths.’

You can read more here:

Being Robinson Crusoe on Wild Cat Island ~ filming ‘Swallows and Amazons’ on 18th June 1973

Sophie Neville as Titty on Peel island — Sophie Neville as Robinson Crusoe the shipwrecked sailor

I did not envisage it beforehand, but at this point in my life I became one of the actors who played Robinson Crusoe on film, with Virginia McKenna, now Dame Virginia, taking the part of Man Friday. It would come across rather well on a chat show. The audience would be taken unawares and we could meet the other actors who took the same parts after us. I am sure they were stranded on warmer desert islands.

Losing a milk tooth when you are twelve-and-a-half years old is really rather embarrassing. When you are in the middle of appearing in a feature film it’s disastrous. Not only was the gap sore but since it was an upper tooth at the front of my mouth the continuity of the whole movie was blown. I think today they may have tried to fit a bridge but Claude Whatham, the Director decided he would just have to live with the problem.

Virginia McKenna greeting Sophie Neville

I spent the next few days trying not to let my teeth show, but even today, all these years later, those who know the film well, comment on the fact that I lost an eye tooth.

Virginia McKenna on Peel Island — Virginia McKenna playing Man Friday in 1973 ~ photo: Daphne Neville

As it was, I had to concentrate on pushing the hideously heavy Holly Howe rowing boat away from our desert island in the scene when I bid farewell to Virginia McKenna who was gallantly playing Man Friday.

Sophie Neville as Titty with Virginia McKenna in Swallows and Amazons (1974) — Sophie Neville with Virginia McKenna on Peel Island

This was more tricky than it would be in real life as the massive 35mm camera, the Cameraman was in the boat with Virginia. The water was cold, the rocks rather slippy. And I had the telescope in my hand. This was in order to deliver Arthur Ransome’s line, ‘Duffer. That’s with looking too hard. Try the other eye,’ whilst lowering the telescope to wipe away a tear. I’m afraid that what came out was ‘That’s for looking too hard.’

Filming with Virginia McKenna on Coniston Water

I busy thinking of terribly sad things, all geared up to produce the tears, when glycerine was blown into my eyes. The most enormous tears, far more difficult to contain than real ones, gushed forth.

Virginia McKenna rowing

And I think that the Wardrobe Master must have forgotten about a hanky. You can tell that the square of white cotton I had tucked in my knickers is just a frayed piece of cloth.

Daniel Defoe’s hero Robinson Crusoe has been portrayed on the big screen by Douglas Fairbanks, Dan O’Herlihy – who earned an Oscar nomination for playing the part in 1952, Aidan Quinn, Pierce Brosnan and me. Or rather me playing Titty being Robinson Crusoe. Oh, dear, Oh dear.

Sophie Neville as Robinson Crusoe with film director Claude Whatham — Rehearsing the shipwrecked sailor scene with Claude Whatham

The scene opens with Titty sitting on a biscuit tin, reading from her log. ‘Twenty-five years ago this day, I Robinson Crusoe, was wreck-ed on this desolate place.’ The fact that I had missed the -ed from wrecked was real. I hadn’t written the word down properly. As you can see in my actual diary there was then a dash ______ . At this point I flung myself to the ground and dragged my exhausted body into the camp grasping my throat so as to portray the fact that Robinson Crusoe was virtually dying of thirst.

Sophie Neville playing Robinson Crusoe in the movie Swallows and Amazons (1974)

I hauled myself to my feet by grabbing the forked stick by the fire. What I didn’t realise was that Graham Ford, the Sound Recordist had hidden his microphone there. You can still hear the sound crunch as I grasp the crossbar that held the kettle. He was a perfectionist and, despite my apologies, was really rather annoyed about it.

‘Make a good place for a camp,’ Titty declares heartily, whilst looking around. ‘I’ll build my hut here out of branches and moss.’ And so continued my solo performance. ‘Can’t have two tents for one ship-wrecked mariner.’

Sophie Neville as Titty on Peel Island - contact sheet

As I have mentioned before, my mother is very theatrical. In her eyes this was my great soliloquy. The most embarrassing thing I have to admit is that for ages after the film, during my sensitive teenage years, Mum would insist that I used this scene as my audition piece. Can you imagine? It was dotty. Instead of something appropriate for a young girl, like a scene from I Capture the Castle, which Virginia McKenna had been in, or even something from Shakespeare such as Romeo and Juliet, I would fling myself to the floor of the audition space and enact Titty playing a bearded man. Even now I blush as I remember doing all this in front of five amazed executives, who had never seen Swallows and Amazons. They were looking for nothing more than a normal girl to be in an advertisement for Parker Knoll armchairs.

Have you ever read the book? I don’t think many nine-year-olds would manage the prose. Despite the impression given by the poster above there are no girls in it. It’s about slavery. And cannibals. And rearing goats.

Douglas Fairbanks’ film came out in 1932, too late for Titty, but ‘The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe’ was released as a movie in 1922 and in 1929. I wonder if Arthur Ransome ever saw either version? I have to say that if there is ever a Hollywood line-up of actors who have played the part, I want to be included in it. I might make up for the ignominy I suffered.

I’ve written more about Titty and Robinson Crusoe on this websiter here were you can listen to the song from the musical version of ‘Swallows and Amazons’ here

You can read more about working with Virginia McKenna on the film here:

‘Man Friday!’ ~ filming ‘Swallows and Amazons’ with Dame Virginia McKenna on Wild Cat Island, 17th June 1973

Dame Virginia McKenna and Sophie Neville on Peel Island in Cumbria, during the filming of ‘Swallows and Amazons’ in 1973 ~ photo: Daphne Neville

I didn’t know that Virginia McKenna was in the Lake District.

‘They were very savage savages’ ~ Dame Virginia McKenna with Sophie Neville ~ photo: Daphne Neville

I didn’t know that we would spend that Sunday cooking on the camp fire.

Bill Travers watching Virginia McKenna — Bill Travers watching the scene featuring his wife Dame Virginia McKenna who is talking to Director Claude Whatham ~ photo: Daphne Neville

I didn’t know that Virginia had come up with her husband Bill Travers.

Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers as Joy and George Adamson in ‘Born Free’, Kenya 1964. Virginia later devoted her life to The Born Free Foundation.

I still don’t know how Lee Electric managed to get so many lights working out on Peel Island. I can’t remember having them for any other scene. They must have had the generator on the bank and run cables under the water. It looks as if it was a pretty dark day. It was wonderful having the flood lights – they kept us warm.

Virginia McKenna as mother in Swallows and Amazons — Dame Virginia McKenna as Man Friday in Swallows and Amazons 1974

There was a hushed reverence when Virginia McKenna was on set. Gone were the saucepan jokes. Funny really, as it was frying-pan scene. ‘I waited til no-one was looking and jumped out of the pot and escaped!’ The pemmican potato cakes she made me were delicious. And very hot.

Virginia McKenna with Sophie Neville in Swallows and Amazons

Working with Virginia and Arthur Ransome’s dialogue was altogether an exercise in charm, or managing charm. I hope I didn’t over-cook it. I was rather pre-occupied by my loose tooth but loved being involved in a proper scene around the camp fire.

Sophie Neville as Titty getting her makeup done — Sophie Neville being made up for the part of Titty by Peter Robb-King in 1973

Then Virginia was gone and I was a saucepan once more. A saucepan now with a very wiggly tooth indeed. Saucepan-lid, kid. No more lights. I was sitting up a tree above Coniston Water in my navy blue knickers, and descended feeling a bit like Pooh Bear.

me up a tree — ‘Up a tree for fear of ravenous beasts’ with David Bracknell the First Assistant Director ~ photo: Daphne Neville

It is still there, the mossy tree. You can climb it.

You can read more in the ebook ‘The Secrets of Filming Swallows and Amazons’or the paperback on ‘The Making of Swallows and Amazons’ now available as an audiobook.

'The Making of Swallows and Amazons (1974) by Sophie Neville' — Different editions of ‘The Making of Swallows and Amazons (1974) by Sophie Neville’

A day off in Blackpool ~ whilst filming ‘Swallows and Amazons’ on 16th June 1973

Apart from referring to us as The Swallows and The Amazons, our director Claude Whatham always called us his artistes – ‘My art-istes!’ This was, of course, because far from being trained actors we were just the children who made up his cast.

It was Saturday morning on 16th June 1973 and a day off from filming. We’d all been working hard. Instead of resting, Claude took us all to Blackpool, the famous holiday destination of the north west. None of us had ever been before. It was a great treat and hugely exciting. I can remember choosing the clothes I would wear, and putting on a shell necklace Daddy had brought back from Africa, for the occasion.

A complete contrast to camping and sailing in the wilds of Westmorland, Blackpool proved a day trip to remember.

It must have taken more than an hour-and-a-half to travel from Ambleside to the Blackpool promenade in those days. Jean McGill, our friend and driver, drove us down in the unit mini-bus. We were joined for the day by Ronnie Cogan, the hairdresser on the film crew, and of course Mum and Jane came as our parents and legal chaperones. I’m pretty sure Ronnie smoked the whole way there and back, but we all adored him and were thrilled he wanted to come too.

The first thing we did was to buy those crazy hats. I chose one I could wear later as I rather needed a sunhat. y the end of the day Sten had swapped his for Claude’s cap, which he wore for ages afterwards.

Blackpool funfari 1973 — Claude Whatham with Stephen Grendon and Daphne Neville with Leseley Bennett

I think Claude must have liked fun-fairs. Before Swallows and Amazons he directed That’ll be the Day, a rock and roll movie produced by David Puttman, set at a fun fair of the 1950s. It starred David Essex and Ringo Starr with Billy Fury singing “A Thousand Stars”, “Long Live Rock”, “That’s All Right Mama” and “What Did I Say”. Claude gave me the LP, which I played again and again.

Blackpool. We did it all. I was most impressed – and terrified out of my wits – by the big dipper but have always loved going in a pony and trap and racing donkeys. Looking back it seems we took a number of risks. What EMI’s insurance company would have said I do not know. Falling off a donkey could have cost quite a few expensive filming days but then EMI did own the circus we went to. There we saw true artistes, with snakes and crocodiles. The mind boggles.

We were exhilarated by the whole experience. Whilst it was tiring, it energised us, bringing us together as a family, all looking up to Claude as our father figure. He had two children of his own, but they must have been at college by then. Paul had been about sixteen when we made Cider with Rosie – Mum remembers him as a curly haired boy talking to his father about the casting. He sadly died in a motor cycle accident driving home from Oxford Polytechnic when he was only about nineteen. Claude never got over it. I weep for him, even now.