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Last update 10/07/2008
Please support Tim's worthy cause I thought I'd try and tap into the Rannoch adventurous spirit and let you know about an event I’m doing in March 2009 called the Marathon Des Sables. For those of you that haven’t heard of it, it’s a 150 mile, six day run across the Moroccan Sahara. The way I see it, if we can do the 'Buachaille Dash' in old rugby kit and with nothing but a school packed lunch, the desert will be a walk park! I’m running (or putting one foot in front of the other as best I can) for Mary’s Meals, which is run by Scottish International Relief. Mary’s Meals is a school-feeding programme that feeds 330,000 school kids daily in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe. The project provides meals for the children at school, which encourages them to attend and get an education, and also relieves a certain amount of pressure from their families. It’s a simple idea and it only costs £5.30 to feed a child at school for a year. So, I’ve set up a website (www.timneill.co.uk) to help me raise some money. I’m paying the event fee myself and, unless I get corporate sponsorship, will be paying for all the kit and supplies I need too. Therefore, any money you donate will go straight to the charity. There’s also a blog on the website and, even if you don’t want to sponsor me, I’d be grateful if you would fill it with encouraging comments (or abuse) as I’m going to need as much support as I can get. If I get enough, I’m going to take some of the most inspiring comments with me for when the going gets tough, which it certainly will. You can get links to all the MdS sites, the Scottish International Relief site and the Mary’s Meals site from mine. There's also a link to my Justgiving page there. And finally, if anyone has any advice or hints on any aspect of what I’m doing I’d be grateful. Cheers all, Tim PS Spread the word! What Happened Next Stories
from former Rannoch people In
the 1970’s and 80’s I was involved with a small Charity restoring and
operating a short stretch of canal in Derbyshire. Part of our operation
included the operation of traditional horse-drawn narrowboats which
carried up to 10,000 passengers a year. Early
in 1984 my office phone rang and a breathless voice at the other end of
the line said: “Hello, this is the Beeb Beeb See” (or so it sounded.) Immediately
thoughts dashed around my brain as to what the BBC should want with our
shoestring operation. We had in the past done various bits and pieces for
both BBC and ITV but those were mainly local news stories, apart from the
by-election stunt for the Tory candidate which entrapped some of the
country’s top-flight journalists on board, but that’s for another
time. It
transpired the Beeb were in the process of setting up to make a new
adaptation of George Eliot’s 1861 novel “Silas Marner”, and they
wanted some background sequences for their film. “Oh
yes, that’s not a problem. We can help there”, I said blithely whilst
calculating a possible fee which might help our meagre earnings. A
few weeks later the Production Team arrived to look at the chosen
location. During
the intervening period I had rushed out to buy a copy of the Eliot novel.
Like most people I knew of the author and of the novel, but had never
actually read it. It was set in the mid-eighteenth century at a
time when canals were not only relatively crude but not so common. This
bothered the Beeb not at all. They just wanted ‘local colour’. We made
tentative arrangements to meet again to discuss detail but that did not
happen. In
fact a strike at the BBC caused chaos with production schedules and we
thought our chance of a half-decent fee had gone but early the next year
the whole thing was ‘on’ again. Could we supply a boat with a horse.
Could they film from this angle, that angle, any angle? Production
teams are not renowned for their knowledge of practical canal operation
– why should they be? – so we had patiently to explain to the Director
that if we put the camera in such and such a position then 120ft of
towline would gently but firmly drag it into the canal. The
Director wanted a shot of the boat passing through a bridge. Problem:
bridge is on a bend. He will see the horse and not the boat, or the boat
and not the horse. The two are 120ft apart.
The bridge in
question.
The
lead actor would be Ben Kingsley (who had won Best Actor in 1982 for
Gandhi) and the cast also included , among others, Jenny (Railway
Children) Agutter, Patrick Ryecart, Oscar Quitak, Nick Brimble, Jim
Broadbent, Freddie Jones, Chris Langham, Angela Pleasance, Frederick
Treves and Patsy Kensit. The budget was over £1.5 million. (About £3.2m
today)
The
conversation came round to our fee, and for the first (and only) time in
my life I was delighted to say to them: “You better call our Agent!”
for we had signed up with a locations and film agency a while before. This
ensured not only a proper contract but a decent fee. We
spent the next few weeks converting our traditionally-decorated narrowboat
into a drab broken day-boat. Modern PVC sheets were painted to look like
old tarpaulins, ropes were changed from polyprop to hemp, and anything
else exposed was covered in crepe paper and then painted in drab colours.
Our resident signwriter made up new “old” side boards which were an
anagram of myself and my right-hand-man, Dennis. For filming the boat was
re-named “Nathaniel” after one of the original carriers on the canal. On
the morning of 29th March 1985 the Film Crew arrived! In
order to film a very short sequence with one actor the BBC had around
THIRTY people. First to arrive was the catering wagon. In truth this was a
small pantechnicon which contained a complete fitted Wrighton kitchen!
Next came the Crew Bus – nobody on board, this was used only for
eating meals at little tables (with flowers) on board. Shortly after came
not one but three trailers with fridge/freezers on board, each with its
own little generator. A number of converted caravanettes were the costume
and make-up departments. Lastly there was a Transit with the camera
equipment.
Film Crew arrives.
The
catering staff got busy cooking at 9.30am and the camera crew opened the
back of the Transit. They did no more than reach for a large wine box of
some claret or other and pour themselves a drink. There was grumbling
because they actually had to walk 300 yards to the location. The weather
was not kind. A grey drizzly overcast hung over us, but I suppose it added
to the ‘atmosphere’. The Director approached and instructed Dennis and I to attend the costume van. There a nice confirmed bachelor dressed us in what the Costume Department had decreed would be 18th century boatmens’ clothes (long waistcoat, linen shirt, breeches and hose with a leather hat for me!) and then to the make-up van.
After make-up.
By
some unseen signal the whole crew downed tools and headed for food. A long
queue stretched towards the catering van whose menu would not have
disgraced a three star restaurant (at least two main courses and a variety
of sweets). The Director told us to join in as we were now paid BBC hands. Eventually
someone thought we ought to get something on film. It was well after lunch
and the weather had not improved. So we made our exits (stage left) to the
actual location some 300 yards along the towpath. “Go
and jump in that puddle”, said Continuity. The
Director still failed to understand that a horse-drawn boat cannot start
on cue or stop on its mark. It needs time to get going and more time to
stop. This meant man-hauling into postion, giving a good push out into the
channel (at which point extra handlers jump over wall to get out of the
picture) and only then can the boat start work. We had little radios to
tell us what to do. “Stand
by…..” “Turn
Over….” “ACTION”. My
radio crackled alive. “Get on with it please”.
After the first
take.
On
the first Take the horse took up the strain, the boat lurched into the
channel and we passed through the bridge in fine form. I had forgotten the
camera boat was right on the point where the stern would swing outwards to
round the corner and very nearly clobbered not only it but the 5 men and
the expensive Arriflex it contained. (16mm Fuji negative film, since you
ask). “CUT” “Go
Again” Meaning
the boat had to be stopped by hand on a bad corner and then, with horse
disconnected, manhandled backwards 150 yards to the starting point.
Narrowboats don’t like going backwards. And small horses don’t like
picking up heavy boats on a repeat basis.
Ben Kingsley
It
took FIVE takes before the Director decided he was happy. Each time the
boat had to be manhandled back to the start point. Each time Mr Kingsley
had to get back to his position. Each time the extra handlers had to push
us out and each time poor Strawberry had to start off a stationary boat. I
was beginning to wish I HAD hit the camera boat on the first take. “Check
the gate” The clapper/loader inspected minutely the beautiful and expensive Arri for hairs in the gate (or spiders, dandruff, former directors etc) and 30 crew plus ourselves and a horse held breath until:
And
we had more or less finished.
The
Sound Man wanted some extra tape of horse hooves on the gravel so we
walked Strawberry up and down a bit. He got his furry microphone too close
(we omitted to tell him the horse was fed mainly on oats at that time of
year) and a tired and very flatulent animal nearly blew out his
transistors. Then
the entire BBC disappeared as though through a time tunnel. One moment
they were all over the place, the next nothing. Nary a thank you. Our
fee was £2000 (£4200 in 2006 values). Dennis and I got £34 each as
walk-on extras (the standard fee at the time) and my wife’s dog Muttley
got another £34 for patiently sitting on top of the cabin while mad
people filmed her. I paid off my extra handlers with a tenner each, they
deserved more. Well
it was fun to do. By
the early 90’s that canal was well on the way back to dereliction as all
work had stopped.
Publicity
pic. L-R (Further
info on that canal can be found at:
http://www.cromfordcanal.org.uk
)
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