Suzanna Hamilton’s first impression of Ronald Fraser was that, ‘he was quite nice but v.fussy.’ It seems to me that he loved three things: acting, ladies and laughter. Whilst he had a small mouth his capacity for alcohol of almost any kind was legendary. Funnily enough this was the day that we all had a drink on set. The clapperboard or slate had snapped shut on the 500th shot of the movie and in, line with tradition, a bottle of champagne was cracked open. Somehow I managed to end up with the dregs. I thought them utterly delicious.
I’m not sure exactly what was going through Ronnie Fraser’s mind at this point but Denis Lewiston has a call sheet in one hand, so must have still had his mind on work. I think we’d reached the end of a pretty good day.
The fishing rod was such an excitement. Simon West was very generous and let us all catch fish with it. Arthur Ransome would have been proud of him.
Suzanna added another story ~
Suzanna refers to the 500th take, but she was mistaken. We rarely took more that 3 takes of each shot. It was the 500th slate. I now know that we happened half-way through the filming, since the total came to 1003 slates.
It doesn’t seem much to me now. I went on to work on drama serials with so many episodes that they would have amounted to films four or five hours long.
I remember operating the clapper-board on this occasion because the entire camera crew were involved in pulling off a 360 degree shot, the cameraman Andrew Dunn up on a crane while a stiff wind was blowing, but that’s another story. I was just the girl saying, ‘Shot one thousand and forty-nine, take three.’ Quite fun.
Did appearing in ‘Swallows and Amazons’ inspire me towards working on a film crew? No, at the time the hanging around aspect of filming bored and frustrated us children. Later, when I did work on productions, any time I was able to relax on set was treasured, absolutely relished. I was an assistant director with a Motorola on my hip and rarely had a chance to take the weight off my feet. And never had to cope with a green parrot.
I have just watched the scene shot in the cabin of the houseboat and have noticed an odd thing. We have a travelling chest of drawers exactly like Captain Flint’s and I set a mirror on top of it just as Ian Whittaker the set-dresser had.
One secret of the scene is that, once we start to clap and sing, ‘What shall we do with the drunken sailor?’ Claude Whatham, the director shouted, ‘Go round’, not once but twice. If you listen very carefully you can just hear him the second time. He wanted us to dance around the room. I knew this but couldn’t move much with the parrot, so went up and down. Kit Seymour was absolutely boiling in her red bobble hat and no on else could move much for fear of knocking the furniture. It was left to Suzanna to dance about – a tricky thing to do without seeming self conscious. All in all I think we needed a glass of champagne by the end of that day.
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Sophie Neville 
I must say, you may have been only left with the dregs, or lees, but from the photograph you seem to be enjoying your swig of champagne!
‘The lees’ – that is a new term for me!
That’s the official term for the sediment in a bottle or cask of wine.
Thanks! Is this common in champagne? Should I write Champagne with a capital C?
Yes, it’s for all wine. I’m not sure about a capital C for Champagne; I wouldn’t have thought that was necessary but I shall investigate.
Thanks! I know it’s a region.
It is, and it obviously needs a capital C for that. I will check about the wine.
That’s very kind.
I have checked several ‘authorities’ and it seems that you need a capital ‘C’ for the region but not for the wine. It is apparent, however, that many people deviate from this rule and use capital ‘C’ for both region and wine! The conclusion, therefore, can only be that ‘it’s up to the individual’. I’m sorry I can’t provide a more definitive answer.
Thank you!
No Problem. You’re very welcome.
Hmm, alcohol and actors, the less said the better! We had one man many years ago who was a real old soak and almost got the sack for forgetting lines, being in the wrong place and running the continuity staff ragged with forgetting his modern watch and jewellery. We had to re-shoot one scene as his digital watch appeared, not something seen in 1929! the director was furious when he saw the rushes and everyone was given a ticking off that day! I love the snap of you with the Champagne bottle, very showbiz!
I expect that one reason why Ronnie was available was because he was on the booze, but it made things very difficult. His drivers were wonderful at sobering him up but Peter Robb-King, our make-up artist, said he really didn’t know how he could perform. He knew others in Ronnie’s gang – who appeared in ‘The Wild Geese’ in 1978 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078492/
David Stott – a local driver, aged 17, did much to make the film happen simply by keeping Ronnie out of the pub: https://sophieneville.net/2016/03/03/more-memories-of-making-the-original-film-swallows-amazons-in-1973/
The Wild Geese, now there’s a film, Richard Burton and some other huge names. Unfortunately the demon booze often spoiled a great career, so sad. At least Ronnie managed to play his part well, from what we as the viewer can tell. A worry when children are around though.
I don’t know how those film actors got away with it – or how they could perform. But it seemed to go with the territory. Journalists would ply them in the bar. I come to a story about that soon.
I never knew you worked on ‘My Family and other animals,’ That was a super series. My late wife and I also enjoyed the recent re-visit to that family with ‘The Durrells’ too, another great little series.
Yes- we spent 3 months on Corfu. It was very special. I worked on the new series for a day or two, filming the otter sequences at my parents’ home in Gloucestershire.