The April issue of Hampshire Life magazine has a four-page feature celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the release of the original movie ‘Swallows & Amazons’ (1974) in cinemas, which you can now read online here.
The link with Hampshire is that my father grew up in Lymington and learnt to sail on the Solent. I’ve lived in the county for twenty years, give talks at the Southampton Boat Show and meet the Nancy Blackett when she sails down to Buckler’s Hard on the Beaulieu River where my parents spent their honeymoon.
It feels odd being described as an actress, but it’s good to get a front page byline.
This year, Amazon, the iconic dinghy used in both the 1974 film and 1963 BBC serial of Swallows and Amazons was on display at the Southampton International Boat Show. The Arthur Ransome Society, who now own her, brought her down from the Norfolk Broads especially for the event.
Sophie Neville with Amazon, the dinghy from ‘Swallows and Amazons'(1974)
Thanks to volunteers from the project ‘Sail Swallow and Amazon’, it was great chance to find out about the literary society and chat about grabbing the chance to sail Amazon yourself. She has been renovated and is looked after by Hunter’s Yard near Ludham.
Amazon will soon be available to hire at Hunter’s Yard, Ludham
You can watch Practical Boat Owner’s video taken last year.
Amazon is available to hire from Hunter’s Yard on the Norfolk Broads from 27th September until the close of the season on about 6th October. Please contact Hunters Yard near Ludham who also have the Titmouse available.
An article published in Classic Boat read:
This film gives you a quick squizz around the Boat Show when you see the Foredeck Stage where Sophie was speaking.
This question is often typed into search engines. Arthur Ransome was living at Low Ludderburn above Windermere when he wrote ‘Swallows and Amazons’ in 1929, setting it on ‘The great lake in the north’. Like me, he undoubtedly did a bit of wondering, and was inspired by many of the locations that can be seen from Windermere, envisaging the island Blake Holme as a model for ‘Wild Cat Island’ and Silver Holme as ‘Cormorant Island’ nearby.
Martin Neville aboard MV Tern on Windermere
The ‘native shipping’ on Windermere was brought to life in the 1974 film when the Swallows narrowly miss hitting the MV Tern.
MV Tern on Windermere was built in 1890 with a steam engine, converted to diesel in the 1950s, and is still operating today.
On the deck of the MV Tern on Windermere in 1973 ~ photo: Martin Neville
It was a tricky sequence to shoot and since Swallow lost her wind in the lee of the steamer she only just managed to turn in time.
You can read more about this near disaster in the diary I kept here
My father’s view of Swallow attached to the camera pontoon from his position on MV Tern ~ photo: Martin Neville
The other big scene was shot at Bowness-on-Windermere, referred to as Rio in the story.
Rio – or Bowness-on-Windermere in 1973
Steamboats such as Osprey and the Lady Elizabeth, who is currently residing at Windermere Jetty museum, appeared in the background.
The film crew of ‘Swallows and Amazons’ wait with Swallow and Stephen Grendon at the end of the jetty while Simon West, Suzanna Hamilton and Sophie Neville line up by the launch
Had we arrived in Rio? Arthur Ransome confirmed this in a letter to a young reader:
When the movie was made in the summer of 1973 the original green boat sheds, featured in Ransome’s sequel ‘Swallowdale’ were captured on film.
Is that the steam launch Osprey moored to the jetty?
Kit Seymour who played Nancy was watching the filming. You can just see the original bandstand with period cars parked in the background.
The bandstand and shelter on Glebe Road were also caught on celluloid, along with the traditional Windermere skiffs. You can see more photos of the filming on this website here.
The Price children, Perry Neville, Jane Grendon, Tamzin Neville and Pandora Doyle in their 1929 costumes on the shore of Lake Windermere at Bowness in 1973
The Swallows in Woodland Road, Windermere in 1973
After buying rope for their lighthouse tree in Woodland Road, the Swallows walk down Church Street past the Stags Head Hotel.
John, Susan and Titty walking down to the jetty
Other scenes were shot nearby, with the film opening on a steam train running along the River Leven on Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway. You can add details about the locations yourself by contributing to the website Reelstreets which logs film locations in the United Kingdom.
Talking to the engine driver on the first day of filming ‘Swallows and Amazons’ in 1973 (Photo: Daphne Neville)
When Richard Pilbrow, the film producer asked Mrs Ransome to point out more, she claimed the Peak at Darrien could be found on Windermere. She may have been thinking of a headland at Waterhead but in the end the opening titles shot was taken from Friar’s Crag on Derwentwater with the Borrowdale Fells in the background. The secret is that the 1974 film ‘Swallows and Amazons’ was also shot on Coniston Water, Elterwater and a lily pond near Skelworth Fold.
The Kirkstone Foot Hotel, Ambleside in 1973
In real life, Richard based his production office at the Kirkstone Foot Hotel near Ambleside at the northern tip Windermere and it was from here that we practiced sailing Swallow and Amazon in May 1973. Here is a description written by my twelve-year-old self:
Preparing for filming Swallows and Amazons by sailing on Windermere
Virginia McKenna, who starred in the film as Mrs Walker, was accommodated at the Langdale Chase Hotel on the lake. The wrap party was held there to the great excitement of children in the cast. You can see the view on the hotel website here.
Dame Virginia McKenna on Windermere in 1973 – photo: Philip Hatfield
The 40th Anniversary DVD includes an Extras package on the locations and you can read more in ‘The Making of Swallows and Amazons’, available online in different editions here or direct from The Lutterworth Press.
In the long hot summer of 2022, I spent three days in a sound-proofed booth at Monkeynut Studios near Romsey narrating the audiobook of my memoir on the adventures we had making the 1974 movie ‘Swallows and Amazons’, now published in paperback by The Lutterworth Press.
I found telling the story, with all the different voices, more difficult than I had imagined but the audiobook has been beautifully produced, with sound adding a different dimension to this filmography that resonates with the lives of so many.
I gather it will be available on Audible but they are very slow to add books.
I hope it will take you back to that long hot summer in 1929 when the Swallows first set sail and remind you of the early 1970s when we made the original film in the days before mobile phones or computers without CGI or green screens. We literally walked into the page of the books and sang out Arthur Ransome’s immortal lines as the wind took us up Coniston Water. I hope you enjoy it.
If you prefer holding a book in your hands the paperback is available from Waterstones and all online retailers.
In 2022, Swallow, the dinghy that starred in the original film Swallows and Amazons was on display at the Southampton International Boat Show, greeting families as they arrive.
Sophie Neville who once played Titty Walker with her good little ship
Sophie Neville gave talks on filming afloat and the movie was made on location in the Lake District fifty years ago.
Over 103,000 people visit the show. Although busy, it did not feel crowded. There is a lot to see and do.
Sophie Neville speaking on the Foredeck Stage at #SIBS22
I grew up with boats in the garden. My father owned eight at one time, including two coracles and a vintage river launch called Ottor that he renovated himself.
Martin Neville with friends on the Norfolk Broads
As a young man, while setting up a team to develop the fibreglass hull, Dad raced on the Solent, volunteered on a tall ship, and wrangled an Atlantic crossing on the maiden return voyage of the QE2, taking us children around the liner when it reached Southampton.
Sophie Neville with her younger sisters aboard the QEII in 1969
I learnt to sail dinghies at Newport Bay in Pembrokeshire, later making my own sail for a Thames skiff so that I could take it down the lake where I grew up in Gloucestershire.
My father wanted a Mirror dinghy, but since they were beyond his budget we had a dubious one-design with a ? on its sail.
A family holiday in a Hullabaloo boat on the Broads – off season
Dad bought one of the first Toppers, which seemed quite daring at the time. It had no halyards. Its arrival caused much excitement. Called Earwig, the fibreglass hull was portable but proved precarious, soaking the crew as waves sloshed over her orange deck. I wasn’t much good at withstanding the cold and grew to loath setting off with wet feet.
Sophie Neville as Titty and Sten Grendon as Roger rowing to Cormorant Island
Playing Titty in original film of ‘Swallows and Amazons’ involved quite a bit of rowing, which I kept up first as a member of the Collingwood Ladies Four at Durham University and later on the crew of The Drapers’ Shallop, a ceremonial barge that can be spotted on the Thames and River Lea, the Dart or Poole Harbour.
Rowing the Drapers’ shallop down to Runnymede
My dedication to fixed thwart rowing enabled me to take part in a Jubilee Pageant for The Queen at Henley, transport a copy of the Magna Carta to Windsor, and man an oar of the royal barge Gloriana in the Boat Race flotilla at Putney a year when Cambridge won.
Sophie Neville rowing in black cap on the River Thames at Putney
Belonging to the rowing club,City Barge, enabled me to take part in the Voga Longa in Venice – a 35km marathon – with the gold medalist Ed Coode as stroke. I later rowed a sandalo down the Amstel into Amsterdam standing to row Venetian-style, getting used to the idea of using a forcola in windy weather.
In the bows of a sandalo on the River Amstel in Amsterdam
We navigated the shallop down a tributary of the Loire in Brittany, leading a procession of two hundred and forty traditional boats into Nantes for the Rendez-vous de l’Erdre. I was asked to take the helm on the way back, great Dutch barges bearing down on us.
With the presenter and crew of France 3 news
One of my favourite vessels is a two-man canvas canoe my sister found on a rubbish dump. I nearly drowned after getting stuck in a kayak and prefer an open dugout or fibreglass equivalent. These have taken me on adventures in Papua New Guinea, across Lake Malawi and through the Okavango Delta in Botswana.
Bird watching on the Boro River – Sophie Neville with Jez Lye
Back in 1978, I helped my father, Martin Neville, to restore a 1901 steamboat called Daffodil, which they kept near Oxford at Port Meadow on the Thames.
SL Daffodil on the River Thames
We would steam down to Henley each year for the royal regatta or upstream towards Letchlade. You can read about how we renovated here here.
We took a Humber Yawl that Dad built to take part in a Steam Boat Association rally on Windermere and pay homage to launches used in the film ‘Swallows and Amazons’ kept by George Pattinson at the Steam Boat Museum, now known as Windermere Jetty.
Lullaby undersail, playing the Teasel on the broads
I a lot of time on the water while filming the 1984 BBC adaptation of ‘Coot Club’ and ‘The Big Six’ when we spent three months filming on the Norfolk Broads. The series starred a yacht called Lullaby from Hunter’s Yard, which you can now hire for holidays.
I went away from my wedding in a punt, Dad polling while I sat with my new husband, holding an umbrella while a rainbow appeared over the water.
At the Brewery Arts Cinema in Kendal for the launch of ‘The Making of Swallows and Amazons’ and the 40th Anniversary DVD
While serving as President of The Arthur Ransome Society, I gave twelve Q&As at cinemas. Members of SailRansome have often come along with the little clinker-built dinghy used as Swallow, which I helped purchase when she came up for auction in 2010.
I am often asked to write articles about my life afloat, and have spoken at literary festivals, on BBC Radio and on ITV News when I nearly capsized.
On ITV News at Ten with Nina Nannar
It is with The Arthur Ransome Society that I have been able to sail an historic wherry down the Norfolk Broads, take an old German ferry to Lundy Island and cruise down Coniston Water on SL Gondola.
Aboard Wherry Maud – photo Diana Dicker
As a member of the Nancy Blackett Trust, I’ve sailed on the Orwell, in the Solent and through the inland waterways of the Netherlands, visiting Middleburg.
~Nancy Blackett in the Netherlands~
I enjoyed crossing the Veersemere to Zierikzee in the wake of my own forefathers.
Over the years, I’ve grabbed the chance to sail yachts to Salcombe, up the coast of Norway and through the Mediterranean but I still love taking out a small boat in the Lake District or on the Norfolk Broads.
At Wroxham on the Norfolk Broads
You can read more in ‘The Making of Swallows and Amazons’ available on line.
Over the years, I have been suggesting a variety of useful, literary gifts. I brought out this mug featuring a map of the Swallows and Amazons locations on Consiton Water, featuring on the cover of ‘The Secrets of Filming Swallows and Amazons.’ It’s currently available online for about £9.14
Design and cartography by Sophie Neville
I’ve brought out maps in a range of colours.
Mugs printed with maps used to illustrate Sophie’s books
These t-shirts might be useful for anyone liable to get lost.
I’m selling a variety of garments with my Swallows and Amazons map of Coniston Water on the Redbubble site where you can also find cushion covers.
along with throws, duvet covers and a variety of products from phone covers to laptop sleeves if you fiddle around with the site here
There is a whole selection of socks, which I have listed here
The Nancy Blackett Trust have wooly hats and some great clothing, embroidered with Arthur Ransome’s good little ship. They have an online shop where you can also find yachting caps here
Peter Willis is offering his book ‘A Good Little Ship’ about rescuing Nancy for £10 – a great present for fans of Arthur Ransome.
I love these Swallows and Amazons bookmarks available from sky.n.fern for £2.50. They stock an assortment of unique stationery, which you can see here
I found this spectacle chain decorated with swallows, appropriate for web-footed grandparents, available here
For someone without much space, you can find handmade dolls house miniatures of the ‘Swallows and Amazons’ books here Each tiny book has tunable blank pages 1:12th the original size. I’m not sure if they are paying royalties to the Arthur Ransome Estate but what a compliment to the author. I’d be thrilled if they made miniatures of my books.
There is ‘Swallows and Amazons’ confetti, for sale on this site. Each heart is about one inch in size and can be used for a table decorations.
This year, I bought packs of book-ish Christmas cards from the charity SchoolReaders. They have a variety here.
Here is something for sailors, which could include a voucher to sail Swallow, the dinghy from the 1974 film of ‘Swallows and Amazons’, which you can find out about here.
Jago Silver has produced a selection of ‘Never Stop Exploring designs. He has a beautiful Ship’s Log sketch book here
and other lovely things designed in Cornwall
One of Jago Silver’s designs
Jigsaw puzzles and digitally hand drawn reproductions of StudioCanal’s Vintage Classics film poster designed by Arnaldo Putzu for the original movie of ‘Swallows and Amazons'(1974) are available here
Or you could give a copy of the book on how the original film of Swallows and Amazons was made. Large paperbacks can be ordered from Amazon or direct from the publisher here or other stockists listed here.
I received an interesting series of emails recently from a stone mason called Philip Chatfield:
“Hi Sophie, I was watching ‘Swallows and Amazons’, the old classic, on Talking Pictures TV… great channel. Curiously, I have, hanging in my cottage ceiling timbers, the lantern you used for the Lighthouse on Wild Cat Island !!!!!!”
The lighthouse tree lantern today
‘Lanterns like this pattern are not common, so I presume it must be the one used in your 1974 film. I like to think so. There is a hole in the top of my lantern which has been plugged up and holes in the base too. If you use the lantern with candles, which is what I always do. then you cannot have a hole in the top of the lantern. Heat goes up and out of it and the rope or wooden handle may catch fire! It is stopped up with a small bolt with a flat rounded top.’
The holes would have been made to insert an electric light behind the candle so that it would show up on film.
Sten Grendon (Roger), Suzanna Hamilton (Susan) and Sophie Neville (Titty) at the lighthouse tree in the 1974 movie of Arthur Ransome’s book ‘Swallows and Amazons’
It certainly looks like the lantern we used, which I knew well at the time. A hurricane lamp is used in the book Swallows and Amazons. John, ‘tied the other end round the oil box at the bottom of the lantern’, although candle lanterns were used to mark Secret Harbour.
You can see the lantern lying near Swallow’s mast
The black lantern was packed into Swallow on the voyage to the island, visible when the Walker children narrowly miss the Tern. You can see it lying in the shallow basket.
Film stills taken by Albert Clarke in 1973
It was rather uncomfortable to lean over when handing Roger the telescope.
Swallow nearly collides with MV Tern
The basket was taken out of Swallow at the landing place and Titty moves it up the beach ‘for fear of tidal waves.’ See if you can take some screen shots of it hanging from the lighthouse tree.
The same lantern was used in the movie ‘Far From the Madding Crowd'(1967) starring Alan Bates, Peter Finch, Terence Stamp and Julie Christie.
Terrence Stamp with the lantern
You can also see it hanging from a farm cart.
The same lantern
Philip says, ‘Clearly all the props went back to the Turk Phoenix shed near Teddington after shooting.’
Mike Turk’s warehouse full of film props
‘I never thought about it before but I used to work on a sailing ship called Grand Turk, which was owned by Mile Turk of Turk Phoenix who did a lot of film work.’
SV Grand Turk with Philip Chatfield firing a live shot on the Solent. “That would have given Captain Flint’s houseboat a shaking up!”
‘The Grand Turk played the HMS Indefatigable in ‘Hornblower’ with Ioan Griffiths and co. While I was on board (as Third Mate and Gun Captain) I needed more props for the gunnery dept. The lantern was one of the props we had on board. It came from Turk Phoenix who still had one of the boats used in your wonderful film.’
Swallow at Mike Turk’s warehouse in 2010
‘Mike Turk’s business provided nautical props.’ When Mike reached the end of his life and fell ill, many of these were sold at auction in 2010, including the dinghy that played Swallow in ‘Swallows and Amazons’ (1974), which was purchased by group of film fans now known as SailRansome.
Swallow prepared for auction in 2010
‘Before my time on Grand Turk I spent five years working on a lovely old square rig ship called MARIA ASUMPTA. Back in 1991 we sailed from London’s St Katherine’s Dock to Ipswich. We anchored off Shotley on the Orwell pretty much where the GOBLIN in Ransome’s book ‘We Didn’t Mean To Go to Sea’ book was set. As we hauled up our anchor we brought up a small kedge anchor. I still have it. At the time I was convinced it may have been from the story or even the sailing trip the story was originally based on. Who knows, but it is a lovely anecdote. We had sailed the autumn before to Flushing in Holland and did a tour of the inland waters of Holland.’
Philip Chatfield with a kedge anchor
‘Sadly, Maria Asumpta was lost off Padstow in May 1995 with the loss of three crew. Thankfully I was one of the survivors.’
Maria Asumpta wrecked on a desolate shore
‘You can just see me standing staggering, second from the left, in a state of shock. Three were lost but I was amazed more weren’t, frankly. My friend the bosun Graham is sitting on the stern about to leap off. He survived, just. The ship had been built in Barcelona and launched in 1858.’ By the 1990’s it was the oldest square rigger still sailing.’ A true ship wrecked sailor! What would Titty say?
Philip Chatfield in HMS Victory working on a carving of Lord Nelson in 2008
‘As a stone carver and sculptor I make memorials. A few years ago I was asked to do the memorial for one of my old school teachers and eventually his wife, who now shares his grave in Monmouth. She was Helen Bucknall but her mother was Mrs Henry Clay. The Ransome book ‘We Didn’t Mean To Go To Sea’ is dedicated to Mrs Henry Clay no less. Henry Clay was a friend and colleague of Ransome’s on the Manchester Guardian, also a keen sailor. I think Helen and her family were the inspiration for the story in the book. So Helen has a carving of the yacht they sailed as children on the large Welsh slate memorial in Monmouth cemetery.’
‘The galling thing for my friends, whose mother was Helen, is that they can’t find the original first edition of ‘We Didn’t Mean To Go To Sea’ that Ransome signed. Hope it turns up. At least that charming card exists. Love his little sketch of the dinghy.’
‘Anyway, hope this is of interest… well done for all you do. I have a hard copy of the book on order! Can’t wait. Very best wishes, Philip Chatfield’
The lighthouse tree lantern today
To read more about some of the Swallows and Amazons movie memorabilia, including Swallow’s flag and the fishing rods, please click here
To read more about ‘The Making of Swallows and Amazons (1974)’ – click here
This lovely documentary shows Philip’s recent work on railways:
Sophie Neville playing Titty Walker in the 1974 movie
‘Titty from Swallows and Amazons’ often gets typed into the Goggle search engine but when I attempt to use it as a ‘tag’ a message pops up saying: ‘Sorry, you are not allowed to assign the provided terms.’ I can only conclude that Google lacks literary enlightenment but the BBC were happy for me to talk about Titty on BBC Antiques Roadshow recently.
Sophie Neville on BBC Antiques Roadshow
‘Memory picks and choses,’ as Arthur Ransome said in his autobiography (p.33) but those who love his novels often wonder what would have happened to the characters when they grew up. It dawned on me that this might be one reason why people are interested to know what we all did with our lives. I played Titty Walker in Richard Pilbrow’s 1974 movie of ‘Swallows and Amazons’. In 1962, the film actress Susan George played the same character in the black and white BBC television serial of ‘Swallows and Amazons’ with her hair in pigtails. She was called Kitty, apparently with Arthur Ransome’s approval. BBC Films decided to call the Able seaman ‘Tatty’ in the 2016 movie ‘Swallows and Amazons’, when she was brilliantly played by Teddy-Rose Malleson-Allen who went on to star in ‘Four Kids and It'(2020).
The character was inspired by a real little girl, Titty Altounyan, who stayed at Bank Ground Farm (or Holly Howe) when visiting her grandparents who lived above Coniston Water. In 1939, Miss Joyce Cartmell acquired a signed note from Arthur Ransome explaining that, ‘Titty is short for Tittymouse which is what she was called when she was a baby. Nobody ever calls her anything but Titty now’. It appears that Ransome was also asked for a photograph of himself, to which he responded, ‘Too ugly’.
Edward Thomas (1878-1917) described Arthur Ransome as ‘exuberant, rash and intelligent.’ In 1973, I can only assume the film director Claude Whatham was looking for the same spirit in us children. It was certainly captured by Wilfred Joseph’s nautical film score.
What constantly impacts me is the number of people who write in to say how much they wanted  Titty to become their best friend. In many ways the characters from Ransome’s books become friends for life. You can easily gain others who have the same outlook on life by joining The Arthur Ransome Society, who offer activities and grants for young people as well as adults with a literary bent. You too can stay at Bank Ground Farm and run down the field to dip your hands in the lake.
Staying at Bank Ground Farm – ‘Holly Howe’ with TARS
You can read more about making the movie in the multi-media ebook entitled ‘The Secrets of Filming Swallows and Amazons’.
“One pandemic discovery for my family was 1974’s ‘Swallows and Amazons,’ a charming British film about kids just playing on a lake. On their own, they’re plenty capable of making their own tents and adventures”, the US film critic Jake Coyle wrote in a review for the Associated Press.
Many people have fond memories of watching the original movie of ‘Swallows and Amazons’ when it first came out in cinemas nearly forty-seven years ago and list it in their Top Ten feature films of all time.
David Kerr wrote: “I first saw the film while I was a junior projectionist. I was 17 at the time. My cinema was called the Astor in Bromley, part of south east London. While an independent cinema, we took the ABC circuit films. Somewhere, I have the LP record and a poster of the film. I went on to a career spanning 40 years in international film distribution.”
“It remains one of my top ten films even to this day. I worked for 20th Century Fox…Polygram…and United International Pictures which distributed Universal, Paramount and Dreamworks films. I had a good career and witnessed the good the bad and the ugly during my travels.”
Simon West and the camera crew at Bank Ground Farm
“From memory, I can recall that the film was released over the Easter school holidays in 1974. It’s just been helped as I have found a press ad online and it lists South London unusually running the film first on April 14th.”
Simon West, Sten Grendon and Sophie Neville with the director Claude Whatham
“I believe the film was supported by ‘The Lion at Worlds End’ …the documentary that Virginia and Bill Travers made with George Adamson about returning an African lion to the wild. I know I ran the film again either in 1975 or ’76 as an afternoon matinee only with a Kung Fu adult programme in the evenings.”
Brenda Bruce and Simon West on location above Coniston Water
“The film means a lot to me and has done so since 1974. It made me revisit the books…which I still read (currently dipping in and out of an old hardback edition of ‘Pigeon Post’) but I believe I had only read one during my childhood, which I think was ‘Swallowdale’. I also embarked on a number of holidays in the lakes because of the film. That first year I camped on a farm at Torver on the west side of Coniston.”
Simon West as John Walker studying the chart at Holly Howe before the voyage.
“The reason I include it in my top ten is simple. It is pure storytelling that takes the viewer on an adventure. You do not notice the individual aspects of film making you just become engrossed in the story. And that is what a good film should do. I watched it again just last week on a streaming service… It makes me smile ….what more can I say.”
Virginia McKenna with Sophie Neville on location at Bank Ground Farm
John Rose wrote: “I can remember watching the film in 1974 with my mum and grandma when I was a nine or ten year-old, at the then called Mecca Cinema in Horsham, Sussex (sadly now demolished). I remember loving the natural setting and the adventure in the film and remember it being thrilling and suspenseful! Still my favourite film, so cheerful and up-lifting. The lovely music! All still brings a tear to my eye. Â Back then in the ’70s we didn’t have the lakes but at every opportunity our little band of local children would run off over the fields playing, building camps and climbing trees in the woods – such happy, carefree days.”
Simon West, Suzanna Hamilton, Sophie Neville and Sten Grendon in Swallow
Last time the film was broadcast on BBC Two, David Stott, who worked as a unit driver on ‘Swallows and Amazons’ when he was fresh out of college, wrote in to say: “I remember how cold you all were whilst filming the swimming scene. The lily pond scene brought back memories of a very wet day on Pull Wyke caravan park. Most of the day was spent in the two double decker buses that were your school room and the canteen waiting for the rain to clear. Everyone was so grateful to pack up and go home.”
Sten Grendon as Roger with Suzanna Hamilton as Susan
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“I had many incidents with the parrot that I had to collect in the morning and return at night. I hated the bird, often it was let free in a bathroom at Kirskstone Foot and l would have to catch it and put it in its travel bag. I notice in the film that it is chained down whilst it is sitting on your shoulder.”
Kit Seymour as Nancy, Sophie Neville as Titty and Beauty playing Polly the green parrot.
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“I would spend a lot chatting to Ronnie Logan the hairdresser while the shooting was taking place, such a nice man.”
“The day they filmed the walking the plank scene I remember very well. I took Ronnie Fraser to the Lodore Swiss hotel at  lunchtime and he was really very well plastered by the time I got him back for the afternoon filming. I suppose it was the only way they managed to get him in the water. He was not a happy chappy that afternoon when I eventually took him back to Ambleside.”
“I had to put the rushes on the train to London in the evening and collect developed film (how times have changed). One of my treats was that I was allowed to watch the rushes with the production team in the evening. Watching it again this afternoon was a real trip down memory lane. I cannot believe that I was a student starting out in life at the time and now l am a pensioner. Where has all that time gone?”
Simon West and Sophie Neville on Peel Island in 1973
Sophie Neville 