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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Having won prizes for archery, she taught the Amazons to shoot with a bow and arrow for their scene on Wild Cat Island.
She also took a vast collection of behind the scenes photos, some of which were very good.
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.
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.
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.
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.
While we hated the publicity that came with marketing the film, Mum embraced it to the full, collecting every newspaper and magazine article.
She took us to London for a Puffin Club show at the Commonwealth Institute devised by Kaye Webb,
and to the Lord Mayor’s Show when we rode on a float set up by EMI Films.
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.
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.
Daphne is currently staying at Denville Hall in Northwood, west London, with other retired actors. You can become a Friend of Denville Hall here.
A full account of making the original movie can be read on the ebook ‘The Secrets of Filming SWALLOWS and AMAZONS (1974)’ where you can read the first section free of charge.
Sophie Neville 