“The graphic novel version of ‘Swallows and Amazons’?” Not exactly. These illustrations made up a five-part “serialisation strip” or “picture strip” provided for cinemas to include in promotional material advertising screenings of the original movie. They were designed to be, “particularly suitable for running on the Children’s Page of your local newspaper for the five days proceeding the film’s premiere.”
These were distributed in April 1974 along with colour photographs, black and white stills and background information on the characters and the actors who played them. The quotes are quite fun: ‘Ronald Fraser has few illusions about either his face or his dramatic abilities. “…it’s the old hooter that does it you know… I read Swallows and Amazons many years ago as a young rip and seem to remember imagining myself as John, leader of the Swallows. Now it turns out that I’m Uncle Jim after all.”‘
Dame Virginia McKenna said how much she loved the books, explaining that she was on a family holiday in Sardinia when she was offered the part of mrs Walker. Her husband, the film actor Bill Travers, accepted on her behalf, knowing she would love working in the Lake District.
The film director, Claude Whatham was also profiled. He had previously made the movie “That’ll Be The Day” with Ringo Starr and David Essex, which was released in cinemas with an LP featuring pop songs of the 1950s.
The LP that accompanied ‘Swallows and Amazons’ was narrated by David Wood, the screenwriter who had adapted Arthur Ransome’s novel. It is rather wonderful to have a recording of Wilfred Joseph’s iconic score. I was amazed to find pictures of myself on the cover.
Specialist advertising material such as this, being over fifty years old, is both rare and collectable. Four jigsaw puzzles and the Puffin paperback were produced, featuring film stills taken on location by Albert C Clarke.
There were puzzels, such as this maze, along with pictures to colour and “spot the difference” blocks, which you can see on an earlier post on this website. All these ideas were probably generated by our wonderful film publicist Brian Doyle. I’ve written about the preview screenings and his work on an eariler post here.
Brian was on location the entire time we were filming, showing around journalists almost every day. You can read the full account of how we made the film in ‘The Making of Swallows and Amazons’, which is now available as an audiobook, narrated by me, Sophie Neville.
Sophie Neville, who played Titty in the original film ‘Swallows and Amazons’, gave a special talk on what is was like to take the lead part in a feature film at the Museum of Carpet in Kidderminster, on Saturday 21st February.
Richard Pilbrow, who produced the original film ‘Swallows and Amazons’ had been married to Vicky Brinton whose family donated many of the items on display at the former mill, along with a huge poster in the conference room.
Sophie was born in Worcestershire, seven miles from the venue. Her great-grandfather, Canon Hastings Neville, was a curate in Kidderminster and one of his ten sons, the Olympic athlete Dick Neville, pioneered the manufacture of woolen carpets in New Zealand, developing a crossbreed of sheep for the purpose. In 1960, he employed Richard Pugh-Cook who returned to the Midlands and founded the Museum of Carpet thirteen years ago.
About seventy people packed into the conference room to listen to the talk, which enjoyed a great response. “The degree of factual information contained in it is amazing…all those details of 50 years ago conveyed with such clarity and enthusiasm!”
“….such an inspiration to so many people especially younger people who have such different lives these days – another era then, it seems, but one we should not forget.”
“a great success – everyone seemed to have throughly enjoyed your talk, hearing about the other side of filming!”
Sophie signed copies of her books after the talk when she had a chance to meet ‘Swallows and Amazons’ enthusiasts and a little girl hoping to become a film actress. The event was covered in the local news.
I thought I’d lost it! But, on clearing out our mother’s house, my sister found the cuttings book I kept whilst making the original movie ‘Swallows and Amazons’ in 1973.
It includes a plan of the London double-decker bus where we received rudimentary lessons on location. Three bunkbeds on the top floor were meant to be used so we could rest after lunch. Mum said she forced me to lie down everyday but I can only remember a couple of occasion, once when I was reluctant, once when I was freezing cold after a swimming scene.
We changed into our costumes at the top of that bus, enjoying warmth from a gas stove that leaked rather alarmingly on one day necessitating an evacuation.
The exterior looked liked a conventional Routemaster with added curtains.
Once sitting at my desk, I found my italic fountain pen and began keeping a diary. One version of the first seven days spent in Cumbria is pasted into the scrap book. I later re-wrote a slightly more detailed and interesting version in a couple of notebooks and wrote about how I got the part of Titty, and the filming from different perspectives.
These pages describe the day spent travelling to Ambleside and a couple of days spent getting to know each other along with Dame Virginia McKenna, who played the Swallows’ mother, the producer Richard Pilbrow, David Blagden who was in charge of the sailing and the film director Cluade Whatham.
Encouraged by my mother, we began pasting in newspaper cuttings.
The Times and the Guardian were at Havethwaite Railway Station to take photographs on the first day of filming. The BBC Radio 4 newsreader, Alan Smith, who grew up in Cumbria, was a film extra that day and can be spotted standing in train doorway with his brother. He wrote to me with his memories of the day.
I began adding photos from contact sheets that Albert Clarke, the film’s stills photographer, took of the cast and crew. I wrote about the opening locations here.
There are pages of dictation and a few sketches of the film props. I drew the yellow Austin ‘taxi’ we drove in at the station.
There were some cuttings that I hadn’t seen for years until until I opened the pages of this mislaid cuttings book. Others can be found on earlier posts.
I took pages of dictation, learning about the plants and geology of the Lake District, about Beatrix Potter and the National Trust, but it’s a wonder any schoolwork was accomplished at all. We spent so much time on set. I fell behind in French and Maths but gained respectable exam grades that summer, gaining 80% in Geography. Perhaps I wrote about glacial lakes.
You can read more about the adventures we had whilst filming ‘Swallows and Amazons’ in books detailed on this website.
Different editions of ‘The Making of Swallows and Amazons (1974) by Sophie Neville’
There is now an audiobook on ‘The Making of Swallows and Amazons’ published by The Lutterworth Press and available on all online platforms including Audible.
A book signed by the author always makes a good Christmas present. Each year, I take part in an annual online charity auction organised by Children in Read to raise funds for BBC Children in Need.
You can scroll through the site on Jumblebee. co.uk. and choose from an amazing selection of biographies and other books donated by contemporary authors.
Taking part is always great fun and offers authors a bit of publicity whilst presenting readers a choice of signed and dedicated books and illustrations.
In 2023, items in the Authors and Illustrators’ auction, raised a total of £24,061 for BBC Children in Need.
This year, authors and illustrators raised £9,766.
Over the eleven years that the annual event has been running a stunning total of £141,766 has been raised. I joined in 2020 and have raised a total of £616 for this cause.
Bidding has now closed but put the event in your diary for next year.
Daphne Neville with Sophie Neville while filming ‘Swallows and Amazons’ in Cumbria in 1973
It wasn’t until we were making preparations for the 50th Anniversary of the EMI film ‘Swallows and Amazons’ that I began to list all the work my mother, Daphne Neville, accomplished behind-the-scenes.
Daphne Neville accompanying Suzanna Hamilton, Kit seymour, Sten Grendon, Simon West, Sophie Neville, and Lesley Bennett out to the houseboat on Derwent Water
When I was offered the part of Titty Walker, she’d been invited to work as a chaperone, along with Sten Grendon’s mother, Jane Grendon. This proved to be a pretty demanding job. Getting us ready and into the minibus every morning alone must have been challenging. We stayed at the Oaklands Guest House where there were only two bathrooms shared between twenty-three residents – the eight of us, various students from the Charlotte Mason College of Education and the five members of the Price family who owned the house. We had to move out over Whitsun when it had been booked by holiday makers.
Dressed for the Cumbrian weather: Daphne Neville with Liz Lomas ~ photo: Richard Pilbrow
Mum was pretty horrified by the spaghetti hoops, cuppa soups and pasties given to us for supper and asked if we could have a fruit bowl in our school bus. Location catering in 1973 was good but aimed at providing electricians with meat and two veg, rather than food for children. We enjoyed salads and chicken drumsticks but baked beans could ruin a take and sugared food made us over-active and probably annoying.
Suzanna Hamilton, in her red tracksuit top, seeing what the location caterers had for lunch on the set of ‘Swallows and Amazons’ by Coniston Water
On film sets you normally have female costume assistants or dressers to help change actresses into their costumes. On ‘Swallows and Amazons’ we had Terry Smith the wardrobe master and my mother. Whenever there was a scene with film extras, Mum helped him to fit them with shoes and hats, helping the ladies into costumes for the opening scene at the station.
Wardrobe Master Terry Smith with Sophie Neville and her mother Daphne Neville outside the Make-up caravan on location near Keswick in Cumbria
Our hair was cut and looked after by Ronnie Cogan but mine had to be washed every night by Mummy. She moved me into her bedroom, which was tiny, but had a basin. This seems a small thing, but watch the film and you see my hair flying around the whole time indicating the ever-present wind.
Daphne Neville and Richard Pilbrow on Peel Island on Coniston Water in 1973 Amazons
Mum tried to keep us warm on location, getting us into life jackets and sunhats before we were taken off to the set, which was often either a boat or island.
Daphne Neville with Sophie Neville and Simon West on Coniston Water
Having won prizes for archery, she taught the Amazons to shoot with a bow and arrow for their scene on Wild Cat Island.
Daphne Neville teaching Lesley Bennet, who played Peggy, how to shot with a long bow
She also took a vast collection of behind the scenes photos, some of which were very good.
Ronald Fraser with Daphne Neville and Sophie Neville on Derwentwater in 1973
I couldn’t bear it when Ronnie Fraser flirted, but Mum enjoyed every moment of being on set. She longed to appear in the film as a supporting artist. My father, Martin, appeared in five different shots but Mum missed the crowd scene at Bowness and sequences taken aboard the MV Tern the next dau.
Jane Grendon with other film extras on the original movie ‘Swallows and Amazons’
Back home, she had a part-time job working for HTV who had given her leave but called her back to Bristol to present an episode of Women Only and promote the channel at the annual Bath and West Show. You can read more about this on her website here.
Suzanna Hamliton, Simon West, Claude Whatham Sophie Neville, Kit Seymour, Jean McGill with Daphne Neville kneeling at Blackpool funfair in 1973
While other members of the film crew were given one day off a week, our chaperones’ work never ended. Jane took us shopping or on walks up into the fells. Mum came with us on a trip to Blackpool.
Sophie Neville having her hair cut on location for the part of Titty Walker in 1973
She must have driven me to Epsom for a pick-up shot in September when members of the Walker family had more haircuts and enjoyed being reunited.
Daphne Neville with Stephen Grendon, Suzanna Hamilton, Sophie Neville, Jane Grendon and Simon West
While we hated the publicity that came with marketing the film, Mum embraced it to the full, collecting every newspaper and magazine article.
Sophie Neville, Suzanna Hamilton, Daphne Neville, Lesley Bennett, Kit Seymour, Sten Grendon and Simon West off to the Puffin Club Party at the Commonwealth Institute in London
She took us to London for a Puffin Club show at the Commonwealth Institute devised by Kaye Webb,
Kaye Webb’s Puffin Club Show – April 1974
and to the Lord Mayor’s Show when we rode on a float set up by EMI Films.
Suzanna Hamilton, Stephen Grendon, Leslie Bennett, Simon West and Kit Seymour sailing the streets of London in ‘Swallow’
Mum was thrilled when invitations to the film premier arrived and bought me a green dress to wear to the ABC Cinema in Shaftesbury Avenue where it was held.
Daphne Neville at the London premier of ‘Swallows and Amazons’ in Shaftesbury Avenue.
She framed a film poster and kept every photo, every scrap of paper related to the film along with the LP and other items of movie memorabilia.
Fifty years later the items were valued on BBC Antiques Roadshow as being worth over £4,000.
To read Daphne Neville’s articles on being a chaperone, please find three earlier posts on this website beginning here.
The Saucepan and her mother on a scenic railway in Cumbria in 1973 ~ photo: Martin Neville
Chloe Williams has just written from Ontario in Canada, to say, “Some books entertain. Some enlighten. And some, like The Making of Swallows and Amazons and The Secrets of Filming Swallows & Amazons, manage to bottle something impossibly rare: the feeling of looking back through a child’s eyes and realizing it was all real; the lake, the sails, the laughter and somehow, you were part of it.”
“These aren’t just behind-the-scenes diaries. They’re sun-dappled time machines. Your voice, both in memory and in your original childhood notes, is a miracle of tone: witty, observant, buoyant, and deeply human.”
Of the original movie, she wrote: “What A Christmas Story is to snowglobes and childhood winters, Swallows and Amazons (1974) is to summers on the water and you’ve preserved that magic with charm, heart, and astonishing detail.
“What makes these books unforgettable isn’t just nostalgia. It’s how alive they are. We feel the smell of old sails and camera tape, the blur of location shoots, the uncertainty and excitement of being a child caught in a grown-up world of filmmaking yet utterly at home in it. We meet legends like Virginia McKenna not as distant stars, but as fellow travelers in the adventure. And it’s a joy.”
The Making of Swallows and Amazons seems to resonate with:
Readers of nostalgic memoirs that celebrate childhood, nature, and storytelling
Adults who are captivated by the lake-country magic of Arthur Ransome
Film lovers who cherish insider views of filmmaking
Educators and parents seeking real-life adventure stories for young readers
Fans of Call the Midwife, The Durrells, and 84, Charing Cross Road
“The joy and authenticity in your books mirror exactly why Swallows & Amazons (1974) still has such a hold on people’s hearts. The memoirs don’t just tell the story of making the film, they recreate it, letting readers smell the lake air and see the magic unfold through a child’s eyes.”
The new audiobook
I’m hoping the audiobook will also amuse readers. It’s now available on all the online platforms including Audible, where isis being offered for free on their membership trial.
I continue to hear amazing stories about how the 1974 film ‘Swallows and Amazons’ has influenced people’s lives. Someone wrote to say, ‘This was my favourite movie growing up in Australia and the main reason I ended up moving to the UK!’
Rob Boden talking to Rupert Maas on BBC Antiques Roadshow.
There has been quite a bit in the popular press about what Rupert Maas, the expert on paintings, said of the movie ‘Swallows and Amazons’ (1974) which he saw aged 14. “It’s fair to say it got me into sailing. Just watching the romantic lives of these children in this wonderful summer. It never seemed to rain, the sun was always out…” He ended up crossing the Atlantic Ocean.
Simon West as Captain John in Swallows and Amazons 1974
Marc Grimston writes, “I was read the books as bedtime stories when I was too young to read them myself… but when I was taken to see the film, the stories became alive to me. I had not seen the Lake District at that point and the film changed everything. I could visualise the landscape every time I read one of the books, that was due to the film. The characters in the stories now had faces I could recognise in my head from that point on. When I read the books now, the characters are still the same 51 years on. The books, the film and the TV series of Coot Club and The Bix Six gave me a love of boats, camping, the Lake District and the Norfolk Broads.
Krista French “Those books were my part of my childhood escape toolkit.”
Simon Leach saw a poster of the 1974 film ‘Swallows and Amazons’ and said that when it came out, “my family was living in South Australia. After watching this, my parents were so homesick, that we returned to the UK.”
Others comment on how it has given them solace during difficult times. One man wrote to say that he watches ‘Swallows and Amazons'(1974) every week.
Fiona Ring said, “It literally shaped my childhood, that was me, I was Titty, the adventures the love for the outdoors. I read and watched it over and over and now it’s even better that I’m reliving it all again with my girls. Travelling up to the lakes each year to find all your secret spots. It’s amazing. Kayaking to wild cat island with our girls in April was a dream come true.”
Sophie Neville with Suzanna Hamilton
Andy Stuart loved Arthur Ransome’s simple book illustrations. “And equally perfect were the the actors in the 1974 film. If I think of the Swallows and Amazons, those are the faces I see when I read the novels in which their characters feature, and my mind’s eye visions of the Norfolk children and the D’s are conjured from who I imagine would have fitted in alongside the original cast. You were all wonderful, Sophie Neville!”
Simon West, Sophie Neville, Suzanna Hamilton and Sten Grendon in Secret Harbour
The author Duncan Hall says, “I can’t remember if I read the books or saw the film first. I don’t remember picturing the Swallows and Amazons differently so I maybe saw the film first? But would have been at a similar time. It sparked a lifetime obsession with the Lakes, boats and stories.”
Lesley Bennett and Kit Seymour as the Amazon pirates dancing on Peel Island
Rob Twycross said, “I saw myself in the children in the film. We lived our childhood like that, going off exploring, discovering and learning. Halcyon days that I fear are gone now. It’s lovely to watch it again now and feel young again, if only in my head and heart for a little while!”
Sophie Neville as Able seaman Titty in Swallow
You can now listen to the story of how the 1974 film was made on location in the Lake District on any of the audio-book platforms, including Audible.
Whilst clearing out my mother’s house recently we found a few letters written by my parents to my great aunt in June 1973. They report on the progress of making the original EMI movie of ‘Swallows and Amazons’ in the Lake District.
Stephen Grendon as the Boy Roger, Sophie Neville as Able-seaman Titty and Simon West playing Captain John Walker beside Derwentwater in 1973 ~ photo: Daphne Neville
My mother had been given headed writing paper designed for members of the production to use on location by Brian Doyle, who managed the film publicity.
It looks as if my father used his children’s felt pens.
It is interesting to learn how much my sisters earned as film extras when they appeared in the scenes shot at Rio (Bowness on Windermere).
Kit Seymour and Jane Grendon watch the filming on the jetty whilst Tamzin and Perry Neville eat ice creams with the one man in Cumbria willing to have a short-back-and-sides. You can just see the period cars parked in the background
They made £5 a day, which was the same amount as the green parrot. I calculated that those of us with leading parts, who he describes as ‘the 6 children’ earned £7.50 a day. This was probably because we were only meant to be on set for a couple of hours. As Dad mentions, I effectively worked twelve-hour days but seemed to be thriving.
Until reading this letter, I didn’t know that the movie (or ‘picture’ as Mum called it) was originally due to be released in time for the Christmas holidays. It was launched in ABC Cinemas but not until April. You can read about the film’s release and premiere at what was then the ABC in Shaftesbury Avenue on my website here.
If you go down to Riverside Studios in London you might be in for a surprise. It is on the slipway below Hammersmith Bridge that the first daleks emerged from the River Thames in 1964, intent on invading Earth.
I’d been invited to a screening of the two-part ‘Doctor Who’ serial ‘Vengeance on Varos’, first broadcast in 1985 when it was watched by 7 million viewers.
After enjoying a very good lunch, I was taken down to the cinema foyer.
There I met up with the lovely actors I’d worked with in 1984 when I was their AFM – Assistant Floor Manager. As a production team we had office 513 in Threshold House above the Post Office on Shepherds Bush Green. The producer, John Nathan Turner and his secretary Sarah Lee shared a double office – 204 Union House, which was part of the same block. The technicians and designers such as Annie Hardinge, our costume designer, and Dorka Nieradzik, our Make Up designer, were based at Television Centre but came over for production meetings. Tony Snowden, our designer, worked out of Room 400 in the scenic block near the vast prop store where he found a questionable chair for the T.A.R.D.I.S. The Visual Effects Department had their own redbrick building on the West Way at North Acton.
I’d been responsible for setting up the read through with our glamorous Production Assistant, Jane Whittacker. It had then been my job to run and organise the rehearsals on the second floor of the BBC Rehearsal Rooms in North Acton where a star-studded canteen could be found on the top floor. Colin Baker remembered it as a tower of creativity that has sadly been torn down. Geraldine Alexander reminded me of the poles I used to mark out the sets, which were pretty abstract in Philip Martin’s script. I’d used coloured tape (rather than chalk) to given an idea of the dimensions on the rehearsal room floor. We had a T.A.R.D.I.S. consul but Colin had to tell me about sonic screwdrivers and blind us with fictional technology.
We had a small office off the rehearsal room where I’d work out call times for the read through, each rehearsal and set everything up for the studio – TC6 at BBC Television Centre where parking was near impossible. The little note book I kept has all the details. Programme ID: 50/LDL/G338P. We recorded one episode on 18th, 19th and 20th July, the other on 31st July, 1st and 2nd August 1984. It was high octane stuff.
It had been my responsibility to provide and look after the action props, prompt the actors and read parts if someone was missing. I’d also time each scene, reporting back to the script editor at the end of each day. You can read more in The Doctor Who Big Blue Podcast.
Sophie Neville with Geraldine Alexander, Nicola Bryant, Stephen Yardley, Colin Baker – the 6th Doctor – and Forbes Collins
Geraldine, Nicola and I were all born in 1960. Geraldine rushed over from the set of ‘Bridgerton’ where she is playing Mrs Wilson in her/their forth season. It is unusual for those working behind the scenes to be photographed with the cast but Who fans appreciate our involvement and know we hold secrets kept for years.
After watching the first episode of ‘Vengeance on Varos’ on the big screen, Stephen Yardley, Forbes Collins and I were invited to speak on stage and answer questions from the audience. Stephen told us that he’d been working as a hod carrier, building the Victoria Line, when he saw auditions being advertised in a copy of The Stage at his library and won his first part as an actor.
I spoke about the Varian knitting I’d invented for his fictional wife played by Shiela Reid and the secret of how the T.A.R.D.I.S. judder was achieved. Philip Martin’s original script had called for rock tunnels but our director Ron Jones had decided that passages lined in iron plating would look more convincing and unusual. We had a ventilation shaft, but no crawling. Ron thought it too corny.
Stephen Yardley, Sophie Neville and Forbes Collins talking about ‘Doctor Who’
After the Q&A official photographs taken under the auspices of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society who printed them out on the spot.
It was great to meet some of the serious ‘Doctor Who’ fans as we had made the series thinking of what would interest them. I had mentioned that I’d worked with Colin Baker and Patrick Troughton (photos and full disclosure on my last post here) but forgot to tell them that I’d met Tom Baker, the third Doctor, when I’d appeared in ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ and had invited Peter Davidson on ‘Russell Harty’s Christmas Party’, which I’d set up in 1982 when I was first a graduate trainee at the BBC.
Rob with Sophie Neville, Geraldine Alexander, Nicola Bryant, Stephen Yardley, Colin Baker and Forbes Collins
After a screening of the second episode, Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant and Geraldine Alexander spoke at a second Q & A. Colin remembered that Nicola’s underwear and red shoes had been stolen from her dressing room halfway through the recording. The memory came storming back to me. It had created quite a panic. I think she had to transmogrify into a bird in a pair that was rather rapidly dyed.
Sadly the actor Nabil Shaban, who had played our monster Sil, was too unwell to come. He’d been a delightful actor to work with, driving in from Aldershot in Hampshire, although he also had a base in Tooting. Nabil had used his wheel chair in the rehearsals, but Ron Jones needed him to ride on something that would have him at head height with the other actors, so he could achieve ‘two-shots’. The Visual Effects Department built an aquarium podium on wheels. I insisted there was a gap at the top of this to show that it was not merely a disguise.
Colin Baker speaking about ‘Doctor Who’ with Nicola Bryant and Geraldine Alexander
I was then invited to sign copies of my books and some beautiful new ‘Doctor Who’ posters, which will be sold to raise money for charity. I already had a fan interested in one, which will benefit The Waterberg Trust. I was joined by our production associate Sue Anstruther who had arrived from BBC Radio to work on the series and look after John Nathan Turner who spent rather too much time in the BBC bar.
Sue Anstruther, Alex Moore and Sophie Neville
The day had taken me back forty years and was most enjoyable. Many thanks go to Alex Moore and all those who organised it so beautifully. You can find more photos on my previous blog post.
The end credits to ‘Vengeance on Varos’
I put one, brief story about a sand monster in ‘Doctor Who’ and a few more about working in television in my memoir ‘Funnily Enough’, which is available online as a paperback, ebook or audio book. You can read a sample for free here:
Funnily Enough – the paperback with black and white illustrations
On Sunday 9th February 2025, I was invited to join the Projections in Time panel since I worked on ‘Doctor Who’ in the summer of 1984 .
An email arrived with this wonderful invitation:
“Over the last few years, I have been part of a team at Riverside Studios in Hammersmith, organising screenings based around a number of television series, but the most popular and regular of these events have been based around Doctor Who.”
“In conjunction with the Doctor Who Appreciation Society, the next event at will be a screening celebrating Vengeance on Varos, a Doctor Who story made in the studio at BBC Television Centre.
The story will be shown, followed by Q&As, as well as a photo studio session, in which fans can have a photo with the guests, and an autograph session. So far, Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant, Nabil Shaban, Gerladine Alexander, Stephen Yardley and Forbes Collins will be joining us. You can buy tickets here.
“I always do my best to include crew at these events as I think they have more of an overall impression.” Apparently those on the production team have been very popular and do well at the autograph table. I’ve been thinking up some stories.
Sophie Neville working on the set of Doctor Who in TC6 with Nibil Shaban, Martin Jarvis and Forbes Collins
Below is a plan of the day after, lunch for the guests, with two panels of guests.
“At the autograph table we’ll provide photos to sign, although attendees normally bring their own items. There are normally a handful of posters of the event, which we ask all of the guests to sign, which are then sold for charity.”
The story was recently re-released on a Bluray – with studio footage.
In 1983, I worked for the director Andrew Morgan on the BBC adaptation of Arthur Ransome’s books ‘Coot Club’ and ‘The Big Six’ that was screened under the title ‘Swallows and Amazons Forever!’ and is now available on DVD.
Swallows And Amazons Forever! (Coot Club & The Big Six) SPECIAL EDITION [DVD]
Andrew cast Colin Baker as Doctor Dudgeon. I had found Henry Dimbleby to play his son Tom Dudgeon, the hero of the story.
Colin Baker as Doctor Dudgeon in ‘Coot Club’ – photo Sophie Neville
I also took this photo, below, of Patrick Troughton who played Harry Bangate the eel man in in ‘The Big Six’.
Patrick Troughton playing Harry Bangate the eel man in ‘The Big Six’ – photo Sophie Neville
Many of those working on our crew worked on episodes of Doctor Who at some stage, including Di Brookes, Liz Mace and the sound recordist Colin March. I have written about the Doctor Who connection here. Having read Andrew Morgan’s memoir, I remember that Colin found out that he’d been offered the part of The Doctor while he was with us on location in Norfolk. He was thrilled.
Assistant Make-up Designer Penny Fergusson with John Woodvine who played PC Tedder in ‘Coot Club’, having appeared in ‘Doctor Who’
If we could promise a big enough audience, I could ask if Riverside Studios would host a similar event celebrating ‘Swallows and Amazons Forever!’ Please let me know if you’d be interested in coming in the comments below. I’ll ask Colin Baker if he could come when I see him on 9th February.
Those who played Time Lords had other incarnations. As a researcher, I invited Peter Davidson to sing on the chat show Russell Harty’s Christmas Party, which was fun, and appeared with Tom Baker in Sherlock Holmes. He was brilliant in that role. I wore rather a tight corset.
Sophie Neville with Tom Baker in ‘Sherlock Holmes’
You can read more about the adventures I had working in film and television in ‘Funnily Enough’, now also available on audible.
Funnily Enough – the paperback with black and white illustrations
Sophie Neville 