‘Man Friday!’ ~ filming with Virginia McKenna in 1973

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

You can read more in ‘The Secrets of Filming Swallows and Amazons’

Author: Sophie Neville

Writer and charity fundraiser View all posts by Sophie Neville