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.
Lesley Bennett’s photo of the double decker buses at Bank Ground Farm in 1973
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.
I’m posting this collection of images with immense gratitude for all the help, support and encouragement I received in 2024.
I was unwell for the first six months of the year with one chest infection after another, but whilst languishing in bed I managed to improve a couple of screenplays I’ve been working on and the novels that accompany them.
My biopic on Freddie Mercury’s teenage adventures in Zanzibar won about ten international script awards and was selected for many more including the Best Feature Screenplay at the Berlin Art Film Festival
My WWII story set in East Africa, Burma and Japan won about seventeen awards including the Page Turner Award for Best True Story.
Sadly, I contracted Covid quite badly and couldn’t get to more than one awards ceremony but did make it to a Hollywood party in London.
Fundraiser Caroline Dolby with Sophie Nevillle.
This story was well received in Europe, particularly in Germany.
I proudly loaded some of the laurels I was sent on my website here.
The cast of ‘Swallows and Amazons’ (1974) gathered for the 50th Anniversary – photo Lee Pressman of the Cinema Museum
One of the highlights of the year was celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the release of the movie ‘Swallows and Amazons’. The original cast and screenwriter David Wood gathered at the Cinema Museum in London for a Q&A with Brian Sibley when I was invited to read out a message from Virginia McKenna. You can watch a recording of the often hilarious event here and David Wood’s interview here.
I wrote an article about appearing in the film for Hampshire Life magazine.
The Puffin copy of ‘Swallows and Amazons’ brought out to accompany the 1974 film
I then received a message out of the blue from someone I’d never met:
“I was so excited tonight. Your episode of Antiques Roadshow came up. I had to down tools to watch you! Loved all your memorabilia.” Suzie Eisfelder in Australia.
This took me by surprise but there I was on BBC One being interviewd by Marc Allum on the shores of Windermere.
GRUMPYBUG from North Yorkshire commented,’Most actors just take a bit of something for a memento. She nicked half the props.’ The truth was that Richard Pilbrow had sent me the flags from America. The exciting news was that Swallow and Amazon, the dinghies used in the film, have survived and are being renovated for anyone to sail from Hunters Yard on the Norfolk Broads where we made the BBC serial ‘Swallows and Amazons Forever!’ back in 1983.
The broadcast coincided with an online Q&A with the writer David Wood OBE and top Hollywood make up designer Peter Robb-King. All this was great pre-publicity for 50th Anniversary celebrations of the film in Cumbria when I met film fans, signed copies of my books, gave a couple of talks and was interviewed by John Sergeant, president of The Arthur Ransome Society who hosted the two-day event.
A good account of the weekend was featured in Flip the Media. It was covered by BBC News, there was an item on Look North, North West News and BBC Breakfast television.
Sophie Neville, Suzanna Hamilton and Kit Seymour on BBC Breakfast
After chatting on BBC Radio Cumbria I was interviewed by Luke on CalonFM radio.
I returned from the north to write a Foreword to Dr Anthony Mitchell’s book ‘From Dust to Trust’, which describes life around Lake Turkana in Northern Kenya.
I then helped Paddy Heron to raise funds to help a little boy called Max get medical treatment in Germany by auctioning two signed copies of my books and later auctioned another book for BBC Children in Need.
As an ambassador for the UK charity Schoolreaders I was invited to an amazing event at the House of Commons hosted by Giles Brandreth and gave three talks on Zoom.
Having spoken at the Royal Thames and Army & Navy clubs in London, Arnside Sailing Club in Morecambe Bay and Royal Southern Yacht Club earlier in the year, I gave an illustrated talk at Yarmouth Sailing Club on the Isle of Wight before going on a trip the Galapagos Islands.
I returned to news that my mother had collapsed and focused on aspects of life that weigh-lay us all: hospital visits, repairs and redecorating, general admin and clearing out my mother’s house. She’s made a remarkable recovery. I’m left exhausted but am looking towards the year ahead with hope.
“The smell is just the same.” Suzanna Hamilton began rowing me across Coniston Water from Bank Ground Farm, taking us back to childhood days.
“It sounds the same.” The colours, the landscape, the feeling of being out on the water was still magical.
Suzanna Hamilton and Sophie Neville at Coniston Water in the Lake District
As girls, Suzanna and I had appeared as Mate Susan and Able seaman Titty in Richard Pilbrow’s original film of Swallows and Amazons, adapted by David Wood and released in cinemas on 4th April 1974. It starred Dame Virginia McKenna and Ronald Fraser but it was the two of us who were invited to return to the film locations in 2003 to be interviewed by Ben Fogle for an episode of the long-running BBC series Country File. Thanks to sunshiny weather and the support of Geraint and Helen Lewis, his report proved so successful that it was repeated on Country Tracks and featured in the series Big Screen Britain alongside iconic landscape movies such as The Dam Busters and Whistle Down the Wind.
We had been talking about swimming off Peel Island soon after we began filming Swallows and Amazons in the Lake District in May 1973. The director, Claude Whatham, was fresh from making a BAFTA nominated adaptation of Cider With Rosie when he cast Sten Grendon as young Laurie Lee, and the rock-and-roll movie That’ll Be The Day starring David Essex and Ringo Starr. Although happy out on the water, he knew little about boats. The producer, Richard Pilbrow, had insisted on finding children who could sail well rather than audition young actors and teach them to sail, and advertised the opportunity in sailing clubs. This was pivotal. Simon West (who played John), Kit Seymour (Nancy) and Lesley Bennett (Peggy) all had experience with a natural feeling for the wind and emanated confidence. They were only given a couple of days to get used to sailing the little boats used as Swallow and Amazon before filming began and yet their skill ended up making the film a classic.
Farewell and adieu to you fair Spanish ladies
We had instruction from a sailing director in the form of a good looking actor called David Blagden. He’d recently crossed the Atlantic in a nineteen foot yacht called Willing Griffin but was unfamiliar with blustery Lakeland winds and did not know how to break down a script. Simon, aged eleven, ended up explaining to Claude how to get a decent shot. Suzanna took her lead from him and I clung to the gunwales, trying hard not to shiver in a costume designed by Emma Porteous that consisted of no more than a short yellow dress and enormous pair of navy blue gym knickers.
It was unusual for a movie to feature so many scenes set in two small boats. Mike Turk, whose family had been building boats since 1295, and Nick Newby of Nicol End Marine on Derwentwater, took up the challenge of constructing Claude a cross-shaped pontoon to act as a mobile camera mount so that our dialogue could be captured. This extraordinary vessel had two outboards but wasn’t easy to handle. The dinghies were wired to it with underwater cables but tended to pull away. The base to Swallow’s mast broke, proving safety was an issue, but the idea eventually worked.
Richard Pilbrow and his film crew on the camera pontoon
A grey punt was also used. I remember Simon West towing it as he rowed us into Rio. It was easy to transport from one lake to another but must have been tippy. Somehow David Cadwallader, the grip, managed to keep the horizon horizontal using no more than a spirit level. Shadows were lifted from our faces by using huge reflector boards apt to catch the wind. It must have been impossible to use filler lights out on the water, although they somehow managed to power a number of sets on Peel Island.
Sophie Neville in the Amazon with DOP Denis Lewiston, his 16mm camera and a reflector board ~ photo: Martin Neville
Richard Pilbrow kindly sent me Swallow’s pennant from his home in America. Unlike Ransome’s original sketch of the crossed flags, the bird flies away from the mast, which is technically incorrect, but I was thrilled to receive the genuine film prop used in vision. If you look closely you can see some of the stitches I made whilst in conversation with Mother, played by Virginia McKenna.
It would have been good if Swallow’s hull had been painted white in line with illustrations in the books. Her varnished planks are a nod to the 1970’s when everyone was busy stripping pine, but the important detail is that she has a keel rather than a centerboard. It makes her difficult to turn, and markedly slower than Amazon, but grants her stability. This feature may have saved us when we really did just miss colliding with the MV Tern on Windermere, which alarmed my father who was on the Tern’s deck. He knew how difficult Swallow would be to turn with the larger vessel taking our wind. We were fully laden with camping gear and yet totally lacking buoyancy of any kind.
Simon West as Captain John sailing Swallow. Sten Grendon plays the Boy Roger
One secret of filming Swallows and Amazons is that it was set on four different lakes, a smelly lily pond that served as Octopus Lagoon, and Mrs Batty’s barn where night sailing sequences were shot with Swallow mounted on a cradle. One challenging scene was when the Swallows were cast off from Wild Cat Island to sail north to the Amazon River, leaving Titty behind to light the lanterns. I slipped underwater whilst pushing her free of branches overhanging the landing place but regained my footing and waved them off. Simon caught ‘a fair wind’ but the boom swung so far out that Suzanna held the mainsheet by the figure-of-eight knot and Swallow sped up Coniston Water like a ‘pea in a peashooter’, as Ransome wrote in Winter Holiday. A gust hit them broadside as they cleared the island and Swallow gybed, but Simon calmly stood to catch the boom, scarified the wind and took her on up the lake. Watching the sequence still brings tears to my eyes.
Simon West and Suzanna Hamilton at the helm of Swallow with Stephen Grendon in the bows, while Sophie Neville looks on from the shore of Peel Island
No one had given much consideration to the rowing involved in the story. Built as a run-about boat by William King of Burnham-on-Crouch, Swallow has two sets of rowlocks but it was tricky to keep time when she was wired to the camera pontoon. The first scene attempted was when the Boy Roger and I had to row her back from the charcoal burners with Susan at the tiller.
Sophie Neville as Titty and Stephen Grendon as Roger rowing to Cormorant Island
We rowed again on Derwentwater, making our way out to Cormorant Island to look for the treasure. It took everything in me, but I later managed to row Amazon out of Secret Harbour in one take at the end of a long day filming. The action was repeated with Denis Lewiston, the lighting-cameraman, and his 35mm Panavision camera in the stern. Cold, with wet feet, I completed the scene but had to be carried ashore by a frogman acting as the safety officer. Titty later anchors Amazon off Cormorant Island on Derwentwater, but the shot of her wrapped in the sail, sleeping aboard, was taken in the darkened barn at Bank Ground Farm. The fishing scenes were recorded on Elterwater with Swallow moored near the reedbeds.
Sophie Neville as Titty and Simon West as John
My one regret is that we didn’t follow the book when sailing the captured Amazon back to Wild Cat Island. The wind was up and Claude Whatham needed Simon to sail Swallow ahead of the Amazon which was lashed to the pontoon. I originally took the tiller as Titty is urged to in the story, but had trouble with the rudder and Susan is at the helm on the cover of the paperbacks brought out to accompany the film and a DVD distributed by the Daily Mail.
I was somewhat surprised to see Swallow outside Elstree Studios where we went to post-sync the film. They set up a tank on the sound stage so that Bill Rowe, the dubbing editor who was to win an Oscar for The Last Emperor, could capture the sounds so taken for granted and yet so evocative of handling wooden boats. I was concerned that she’d been given away (and she nearly was) but, as Richard Pilbrow made plans to adapt other Ransome books, she was sent to Mike Turk’s warehouse in Twickenham and stored with maritime props such as the Grand Turk, a replica of HMS Indefatigable, built in 1996 in Turkey for Hornblower.
When Mike’s collection was eventually auctioned in 2010 I was alerted, first by my father, then by Magnus Smith. We found Swallow’s details online, took one look at the photos and clubbed together to purchase her, launching SailRansome at the 2011 London Boat Show. The idea that others could go out in her with an experienced skipper was greeted by John McCarthy who recorded the sounds of sailing Swallow for Paddling With Peter Duck, his programme made for BBC Radio 4.
Peter Willis in the Nancy Blackett with John McCarthy
The Arthur Ransome Society now own both historic dinghies. Rupert Maas valued Swallow highly when she appeared on BBC Antiques Roadshow in 2021.Everyone gasped but her true worth is akin to Captain Flint’s hidden treasure: instead of gold ingots his trunk contained precious memories that no doubt kept him on course when the storms of life blew in. Just as Arthur Ransome’s books grant us solace, my prayer is that many will be able to grab the chance of sailing the little boats that take us into the stories immortalized on film so long ago.
Back in 1974, none of us knew that Amazon had been used in the BBC adaptation of Swallows and Amazons made just eleven years previously and broadcast in 1963. I met the White family when they brought Amazon from Kent to Cumbria to feature in Country File. Ben Fogle had found their twin daughters on Peel Island, looking very much like Nancy and Peggy in damp bathing costumes having been swimming in the lake. It has been extremely generous of them to enable other families to sail such a precious boat.
Not so very long ago, a few TARS joined me at Keswick for a talk and screening of Swallows and Amazons at the Alhambra cinema when we grabbed the chance to go aboard the Lady Derwentwater. Nick Newby explained how she had been decommissioned in 1973 to appear as Captain Flint’s houseboat. Her temporary conversion was overseen by Ian Whittaker, the set dresser who went on to be nominated for a number of awards and won an Oscar in 1993 for his work on Howard’s End. The Lady Derwentwater has since been given a new stern but is in good shape, back in her role as a passenger launch.
The mfp Vinyl LP of ‘Swallows and Amazons’ with Sophie Neville and Simon West bringing Swallow into her harbour
Arthur Ransome was taught to sail on Coniston Water by the Collingwoods in a boat they kept below Lane Head, now known as Swallow I. People often ask if the original Swallow II, a sea-going dingy with a standing lugsail built by William Crossfield, and sailed by the Ransomes, is still around. After being kept on a mooring in Bowness Bay, where she was looked after by a boatman called John Walker, she was sold in September 1935 and sadly ‘vanished without a trace’.
The Amazon, originally named Mavis, and also sailed by the Altounyan family, now resides in the John Ruskin Museum at Coniston where she can be visited much like a great aunt. Ransome’s dinghy Coch-y-bonddhu or Cocky, the model for Scarab in his books, restored and owned by TARS, is on display at Windermere Jetty, the museum where the fourteen foot RNSA dinghies used in the 2016 movie of Swallows and Amazons have been moored. A few of the steamboats used to dress the scenes set at Bowness-on-Windermere or Rio in 1973, such as Osprey and George Pattinson’s launch Lady Elizabeth, may be in residence. They are currently restoring the SL Esperance used by Ransome as his model for the houseboat.
In 1983, I worked behind-the-scenes on the BBC drama serial of Coot Club and The Big Six (and wrote Extras for the DVD titled Swallows and Amazons Forever!) We spent three months filming on the Broads, using the four-berth gaff sloop Lullaby to play the Teasel, a vintage dinghy for Titmouse and a punt for Tom Dudgeon’s Dreadnaught. They have all been kept at Hunter’s Yard, near Ludham in Norfolk where you can hire classic boats. While exploring the Broads you can track down the Death and Glory, Janca, used to play the Hullabaloo’s Margoletta, and the wherry Albion used for Sir Garnet along with yachts like Pippa that were also featured in the serial. Hopefully, Arthur Ransome’s ‘good little ship’ the Nancy Blackett, bought with his ‘Spanish gold’ or royalties, will one day star as Goblin in a film adaptation of We Didn’t Mean To Go To Sea. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?
Arnaldo Putzu’s poster for the EMI film Swallows and Amazons (1974)
Half a century has passed since the original film Swallows and Amazons first came out in cinemas, the good little ships featured sailing improably on the poster. Thanks go to Magnus Smith, Rob Boden, Diana Wright, Marc Grimston, and all those who have looked after and lovingly restored the inspirational boats that appeared in the movie. They mean so much to so many. Three million cheers to those at The Arthur Ransome Society who are working with Hunters Yard in Ludham to make both little ships available for hire in 2025 .
Amazon will soon be available to hire at Hunter’s Yard, Ludham
If all goes to plan, you will be able to take them out. When you do, smell the freshness for me. Stroke the varnish, take in the feel of the ropes, the weight of the oars. It may be chilly, but that too is part of the experience of liaising with old boats out on the water.
Neville Thompson acted as the online producer on the 1974 film of Swallows and Amazons. He choose an excellent crew and took daily responsibility for scheduling the production on location in the Lake District and later at Elstree Studios where the film was edited and post-synced.
Producer Richard Pilbrow and Production Associate Neville C Thompson on Derwentwater in the Lake District in 1973
Neville was born in Ipswich in 1933. Although gregarious at times, he was a quiet man who was once a maths teacher in Scotland. He had five children to support, but decided to go to RADA and become an actor. When a pair of twins came along he moved the family to Croyden and went into film production. He began work as a location manager for Mike Newell and became a production manager for Ken Russell.
Richard Pilbrow gained the rights and film finance for ‘Swallows and Amazons’ but came from a background in theatre and knew nothing about film production. He asked Neville to help set everything up.
Neville C Thomas (top centre) with Richard Pilbrow, Claude Whatham et al
Neville came to Burnham-on-Crouch for our sailing audition when the dinghy ‘Swallow’ must have been purchased from the boatbuilders William King.
Second Assistant Terry Needham, Associate Producer Neville C Thompson and Production Manager Graham Ford with the unit radio on a sunny day in June 1973
Neville was passionate about film making, becoming known as ‘the last gentleman producer.’ He would have been the one making the executive decisions, the man ultimately in charge of the schedule, personnel, safety, insurance and bringing the film in on budget.
Claude Whatham, Richard Pilbrow, Gareth Tandy, Peter Robb-King, Ronnie Cogan and Neville C Thompson with Kit Seymour and Lesley Bennet trying on hats
His daughter, Mandy, told me that he was a wonderful Dad but had been away a lot. ‘He had eight children in nine years and was keen for them to make their own way in the world.’ Mandy became an occupational therapist, George became a ballet dancer, Chris Thompson went into film making. Neville was diagnosed with Lukemia at the age of 47 but lived another twenty years, ending his days in Woodbridge in Suffolk.
Neville Thompson relaxing on set – photo taken on Sunday 24th July 1973, by Daphne Neville
Neville established a production office at the unit hotel on Windermere. By the time he reached the location he was often exhausted. Everything he’d set up was in motion so, like an experienced parent, he could relax and enjoy the boats.
Richard Pilbrow and Neville Thompson ~ photo:Daphne Neville
When Neville died in Woodbridge in Suffolk at the age of sixty-nine in 2002, Richard told me that ‘Swallows and Amazons’ was broadcast on television as if in his honour.
You can find an impressive list of Neville C Thompson’s production credits on IMDb here
Sophie Neville looks on as Stephen Grendon organises his costume helped by Jane Grendon with Claude Whatham and Neville C Thompson when filming pick up shots near Epsom.
You can find details of how to purchase ‘The making of Swallows and Amazons’ here on line or listen to it on audible and other audiobook platforms.
On 6th April, the original cast of ‘Swallows and Amazons’ (1974) gathered to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the film’s release in London with David Wood who wrote the script.
It was unexpectedly amusing as can be seen in this recording kindly brought to us by Lee Pressmen and volunteers of the Cinema Museum where the original movie was shown before we were invited on stage by Brian Sibley.
Brian Sibley talks to Simon West, Suzanna Hamilton, Sophie Neville, Sten Grendon, Kit Seymour and screenwriter David Wood – photo Lee Pressman of the Cinema Museum
As soon as self-confessed ‘super fans’ arrived, the venue began to buzz with the question, “What was your favourite line from the film?”
“They’ve got India rubber necks.”
“They’re girls!”
“… must be a retired pirate. He’s working on his devilish plans.”
Sten Grendon, who played Roger, said it was undoubtedly: “I said – ‘Yes’.”
I’ve always liked: “X marks the spot where they ate six missionaries.” Although I often use, “Here we are, intrepid explorers making the first ever voyage into unchartered waters,” I think “I’ve got her. I’ve got her!” is the most appealing.
One viewer on Instagram claimed their favourite line was: “Titty that way.”
What is your favourite line?
Do add your line to the Comments below.
A recording of Brian’s interview with the screenwriter David Wood can be watched on this website here.
On 6th April 2024, the author and screenwriter Brian Sibley interviewed award-winning writer David Wood OBE at the Cinema Museum for the 50th Anniversary of the release of the classic film ‘Swallows and Amazons’. This can now be viewed on YouTube. I read a special letter from Dame Virginia McKenna towards the end.
Sophie Neville, Suzanna Hamilton & Sten Grendon with David Wood and Claude Whatham in 1973
Until I listened to this interview I didn’t know that Peter Hammond was originally going to direct the film or that Bernard Delfont was behind financing the movie at EMI. He also brought out ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ in 1974 and ‘The Deer Hunter’ in 1978.
Other secrets are revealed. Mrs Ransome (who held the rights) wanted all the Swallows to have blonde hair and blue eyes.
I’ll feature the Q&A with the cast on another blog in a few days time. Do sign up so you don’t miss it.
Brian said he drew his knowledge from ‘The Making of Swallows and Amazons’, which is now available on audible.
The audiobook narrated by Sophie Neville
A copy of the paperback is currently being auctioned to raise funds to help a little boy called Max who is very ill. You can see how the bidding is going on jumblebee
Sophie Neville speaking about Richard Pilbrow at the National Theatre
I was invited to speak at the National Theatre by Fred Pilbrow who rehearsed the presentation at his studio in London.
He put together the most extraordinary celebration of the life and works of his father, Richard Pilbrow, who died recently at the age of ninety.
The most talented technicians in the theatre world gathered to speak on his life and works. A recording of the event has been made available on Youtube.
Sophie Neville speaks about making ‘Swallows and Amazons’ (1974) at 1.15.15
It was a fitting tribute to the man who lit up the lives of many and produced a movie that apparently has been broadcast on television more than any other British film and fifty years after the premier in Shaftesbury Avenue is streaming on Amazon today. Read more in ‘The Making of Swallows and Amazons’ now available on Audible.
Different editions of ‘The Making of Swallows and Amazons (1974) by Sophie Neville’
Richard Pilbrow told me that the most difficult thing he ever had to do was to persuade Mrs Ransome to grant him the rights to make ‘Swallows and Amazons’ into a movie.
But he did. He found funding from EMI Films and asked Dame Virginia McKenna to play Mother.
Virginia McKenna at Bank Ground Farm in 1973 ~ photo: Daphne Neville
Neville Thompson put together a great crew
Second Assistant Terry Needham, Associate Producer Neville C Thompson and Production Manager Graham Ford with the unit motoroller on a sunny day in June 1973
with Denis Lewiston as DoP,
Dennis Lewiston, director of Photography on ‘Swallows and Amazons’ ~photo:Richard Pilbrow
the Oscar winning set dresser Ian Whittaker,
The local fisherman, Ian Whittaker, Simon Holland and Gareth Tandy ~ photo: Daphne Neville
and the avant guard director Claude Whatham fresh from making ‘That’ll Be the Day’ with David Essex and Ringo Starr.
Claude Whatham with the children he eventually cast as the Swallows
Filming on location in the Lake District wasn’t easy.
Producer Richard Pilbrow and Production Associate Neville C Thompson on Derwentwater in the Lake District in 1973
How they lit the scenes on Peel Island I do not know.
Dame Virginia McKenna as Mother with Sophie Neville as Titty WalkerKit Seymour with Claude Whatham, 1973
It rained so hard that Simon Holland had to order black drapes from Pinewood Studios so they could shoot the night scenes in Mrs Batty’s dusty barn.
Sophie Neville as Titty
But the film worked because Richard had insisted that the children playing the lead characters could sail.
Filming Swallows and Amazons (1974) from a camera pontoon
The film didn’t make much at the box office but it worked well on television.
Sophie Neville as Titty Walker in the ITV trailer for the movie of ‘Swallows and Amazons’ when it was first shown on television in 1977
I’m told it has been broadcast more than any other British Film. Having a U certificate it has allowed many parents a lie-in on Sunday mornings.
Simon West, Sophie Neville, Suzanna Hamilton and Sten Grendon in Secret Harbour
Families assure me that they have watched the VHS or DVD thirty times or more. StudioCanal remastered it for cinemascope Blu-ray and we filled the big northern cinemas.
Sophie Neville with Suzanna Hamilton
The good news is that, fifty years after the premier in Shaftesbury Avenue,
Sophie Neville and Suzanna Hamilton with Ronald Fraser in Swallows and Amazons
we are restoring the dinghies: Swallow and Amazon for families to sail.
I wrote up the diary I kept on location as a twelve year-old. Richard sent me the flags.
Different editions of ‘The Making of Swallows and Amazons (1974) by Sophie Neville’
At the 50th Anniversary celebrations this April a man in the audience stood up to say that as a young doctor, he was working at a hospital on Good Friday. As he walked around he found peace in every ward, sick children snuggled up and happy. They were all watching ‘Swallows and Amazons’ on television. Richard’s gift.
Arnaldo Putzu’s poster for the EMI film Swallows and Amazons (1974)
Richard and Molly’s dream became an inspiration to many.
Molly and Richard Pilbrow in 1973
Here you can see Richard and Molly with Claude Whatham, Neville, Fred, Abigail, Suzanna Hamilton and me at the sailing audition held in Burnham-on- Crouch. Simon West who was cast as Captain John went on to win the Optimist British Championships and represented the UK overseas.
Richard and Molly Pilbrow, Claude Watham, Fred Pilbrow, Sophie Neville, Suzanna Hamilton, Abigail Pilbrow
The original film ‘Swallows & Amazons’ was first screened at a preview in London on 31st March 1974.
Brian Doyle, the film publicist, noted it in his diary. This was sent to me by his daughter, Pandora Doyle, who was taken along with her mother Jo and friend Alison.
The cast of ‘Swallows and Amazons’ either joined them there or at an afternoon press screening on 2nd April. We certainly went to one preview. It utterly amazed us. We had not remembered the Lake District being so sunny.
The premiere was also held at the ABC cinema in Shaftesbury Avenue, London, at a Royal Gala Premier on 4th April 1974.
The film has since been dubbed into at least eight different languages and screened all over the world. A number of different titles have been used from ‘Svaler og Amasoner’ to ‘El Capitan Pirata’.
They do not provide a release date for the Czech Republic, but it has been dubbed into Czech twice and is popular there. You can easily buy copies of the French version
Caught shrieking on the cover of the French DVD of ‘Swallows and Amazons'(1974)
It is now screening on Netflix Europe and Amazon Prime.
There was a big splash when ‘Swallows & Amazons’ was first screened in Gloucester. Sten Grendon, who appeared as the Boy Roger, and I were taught to swim at the leisure centre there. Chris Maloney, who was awarded an MBE for his part in founding the Special Olympics, began to coach me when I was ten. I’ve been told that he also taught Sophia Loren to swim for ‘The “Goodness Gracious Me” Heiress’.
As we lived locally, Sten and I were asked to attend the first screening at the newly converted triple screen ABC in Gloucester, which was daunting. They were also screening ‘The Sting’ and ‘The Great Gatsby’ that both starred Robert Redford.
Chris Maloney later got Suzanna Hamilton and I jumping off the high board at Gloucester Leisure Centre. She was far braver than I.
Richard Pilbrow produced the original movie ‘Swallows and Amazons’ (1974) in which I appeared in a as a girl. I’m told that it has been broadcast on television more times than any other British movie and has been an inspiration to many.
Arnaldo Putzu’s poster for the EMI film Swallows and Amazons (1974)
Back in the early 1970s, Richard was busy producing iconic West End musicals such as ‘A Funny Thing Happened On The Way to The Forum’ when he was inspired to make a film adaptation of Arthur Ransome’s novel while taking a break in the Lake District.
Richard Pilbrow on location with his colleague Neville Thompson ~ photo:Daphne Neville
He said the most difficult task he ever took on was persuading Mrs Ransome to grant him the rights. Arthur Ransome had famously disliked a BBC adaptation and passionately did not want a ‘Disneyfication’ of the book based on his own childhood memories.
Richard said that raising the film finance was relatively easy. Nat Cohen of EMI Films happened to be looking for a classic story akin to ‘The Railway Children’, which had been a box office success. He’d never heard of ‘Swallows and Amazons’ but an assistant in his office was wildly enthusiastic and Richard secured a budget of £250,000 to make a ninety minute movie entirely on location in the Lake District.
Producer Richard Pilbrow and Director Claude Whatham discussing the script in the Capri on Derwentwater. Molly Pilbrow is in the boat with them ~ photo: Daphne Neville
Richard loved being out on the water and took Mrs Ransome to find authentic locations. Being determined that the six children playing the Swallows and the Amazons should be able to sail well, he advertised in yacht clubs and interviewed about 1200 candidates. I met the director at the Theatre Project offices in Shaftesbury Avenue. Those short-listed were taken on a sailing weekend in Burnham-on-Crouch to see how they coped afloat.
Richard Pilbrow, Claude Watham, Fred Pilbrow, Sophie Neville, Suzanna Hamilton
Mrs Ransome kept a close eye on the script, insisting that the part of Titty was played by ‘an English rose’, which must be why I was cast as the heroine.
Sophie Neville as Titty Walker in the ITV trailer for the movie of ‘Swallows and Amazons’ when it was first shown on television in 1977
My mother came up to look after us six children who played the Swallows and Amazons. We landed on Wild Cat Island and began playing out the characters that sprung from the pages of the book.
Daphne Neville and Richard Pilbrow on Peel Island on Coniston Water in 1973
Claude Whatham was actually the second director appointed to work on the film. He had only made one other feature – ‘That’ll Be The Day’, starring David Essex and Ringo Starr, but he was an outdoorsy person and got on well with Richard who gave him a free rein. They embraced the 1929 period and the idea of somehow capturing childhood innocence.
Producer Richard Pilbrow with Director Claude Whatham in their wet weather gear at The Secret Harbour on Peel Island, Coniston Water
Unpredictable Lakeland weather and working out on the water could make scheduling and logistics a nightmare but Richard had the support of an excellent production team working under Neville Thompson who also organised the post-production work at Elstree Studios where the film was post-synced.
Producer Richard Pilbrow and Production Associate Neville C Thompson on Derwentwater
Neville was passionate about film making, becoming known as ‘the last gentleman producer.’ Although gregarious at times, he was a quiet man who had begun working as a location manager for Mike Newell and became a production manager for Ken Russell.
Neville C Thompson, the Associate Producer relaxing on set – to be fare this shot may well have been taken on Sunday 24th July 1973, by Daphne Neville
Neville was diagnosed with Lukemia at the age of 47 but lived another twenty years, ending his days in Woodbridge in Suffolk. you can find his impressive list of production credits here
Director Claude Whatham with Sophie Neville, Stephen Grendon, Suzanna Hamilton and Simon West. Producer Richard Pilbow looks on ~ photo: Daphne Neville
The Pilbrows spent their family holidays on the Isle of Coll, so it was not surprising that Richard wanted to make ‘Great Northern?’ as a sequel even though Mrs Ransome wasn’t keen.
Henry Dimbleby and Rosemary Leach in ‘Coot Club’ and ‘The Big Six’
Sadly it was too difficult in the mid-1970s to raise money for filming and Richard never produced another movie. He sold the rights to adapt ‘Coot Club’ and ‘The Big Six’ to the BBC, and I saw him in Norwich in 1983 when I was setting up the drama series with Joe Waters.
When Richard heard that I was giving talks on ‘The Making of Swallows and Amazons (1974)’ he kindly sent me Swallow’s original burgee and Captain Flint’s white elephant flag, along with a Jolly Roger – all handmade props used in the original film.
We last met up in Covent Garden when he came to London to receive an honour from the Central School of Dramatic Art where he had originally studied Stage Management and Technical Theatre Studies.
Sophie Neville with Suzanna Hamilton
He later wrote to thank me for collecting information on how the film of ‘Swallows and Amazons’ was and writing about the impact it had. He loved hearing about our Q&As at cinemas and admired StudioCanal’s remastered DVD. ‘They really did a beautiful job—a very subtle enhancement.’
Simon West, Sophie Neville, Suzanna Hamilton and Sten Grendon in Secret Harbour
I sent Richard and his family on safari to the Waterberg in South Africa, where he ended up riding a horse past grazing rhinos. He is survived by his three children, grandchildren and his wife Molly who worked as his assistant on ‘Swallows and Amazons’.
Sophie Neville in Swallow
Richard’s obituary in the Telegraph can be found here
The momentous story of his life and work is recorded in his memoir ‘A Theatre Project’ available online here.
Suzanna Hamilton, Richard Pilbrow and Sophie Neville
Sophie Neville 