On Sunday on BBC1 we watched the newest film based on the Arthur Ransome book 'Swallows and Amazons.' I read all of these books when I was a child and loved them. There are about six more in the series, some of them featuring the original children from the first book. In 1973 I worked as D.S.M. (Deputy Stage Manager) at Century Theatre in Keswick and the original film with Virginia McKenna as the mother was being made at the same time. By coincidence, it was adapted for the screen by David Wood who was the son in 'A Voyage Round My Father' which I worked on as an A.S.M. when it was premiered at Greenwich in 1971 and had the same director, Claude Watham. I didn't see any of the filming, but when we went out looking for props for the plays in the Century Theatre season we were often asked if we were from the film unit. As always on any of the repertory productions I worked on, we had to 'beg, steal or borrow' items to be used as props in those plays. Looking back more than 40 years, it's a wonder that any of the local businesses lent us so much, from quite expensive tea sets to such things as samovars, which I had to find for a production when I started out in 1969 as a rather raw student A.S.M. at the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham.
I didn't see the film unit for 'Swallows and Amazons', most likely because I was far too busy working on rehearsals and productions at Century, which was a theatre constructed of H.G.V. lorries that had originally toured around towns mostly in the north of England in the years after the Second World War and eventually ended up more or less permanently in Keswick, in a carpark near the bus station. I think the film unit would most likely have been down on Windermere, at the other end of the town, which would explain why I never saw it.
I didn't see the film unit for 'Swallows and Amazons', most likely because I was far too busy working on rehearsals and productions at Century, which was a theatre constructed of H.G.V. lorries that had originally toured around towns mostly in the north of England in the years after the Second World War and eventually ended up more or less permanently in Keswick, in a carpark near the bus station. I think the film unit would most likely have been down on Windermere, at the other end of the town, which would explain why I never saw it.
I'm digressing, but does it really matter? I think I might have mentioned some of this in an earlier blog post.
The new film is good and has all the elements of the original book, except that Captain Flint, who lives on a narrow boat on the lake, isn't linked in any way with Russian spies in the book as he is in the film, but no doubt this storyline was put in to give some more depth to the plot.
The new film is good and has all the elements of the original book, except that Captain Flint, who lives on a narrow boat on the lake, isn't linked in any way with Russian spies in the book as he is in the film, but no doubt this storyline was put in to give some more depth to the plot.
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