" BRASSED OFF " day two

On 1st November 1995, I was on my way to Birmingham to be in my second scene of " Brassed Off", the film that turned out to be very popular when it was released in 1996 around the same time as " The Full Monty ".
I had been chosen to be one of the Judges of the Brass Band Competition as it is being presented to the Conductor of the Grimley Colliery Brass Band.
On my way to the location at Birmingham Town Hall, where the scenes were being shot, I became stuck in a traffic jam on the M6 due to an accident. My call time on that morning was 8 am and at that time I was able to use my mobile phone to call my agent to inform her that I would arrive as soon as I was able. It was also a snowy morning which had made the journey longer than usual. I eventually arrived at the venue and was ushered immediately onto the stage to film the first part of the scene.
It turned out to be the scene where the conductor, Danny, played by Pete Postlethwaite, had discharged himself from hospital to enable himself to get to the Albert Hall in London, to be with his beloved Grimley Colliery Band who he has led through the various rounds of the competition to reach the Grand Final.
He arrives during the band's performance of the " William Tell Overture" where they are being conducted by a stand in conductor being played by Jim Carter( Mr Carson from " Downton Abbey ".
As Danny goes to receive the winner's cup from the Judge, played by Ronnie Stevens, he goes into a big speech about the importance of music and his disappointment of the Government's decision to close the coal mines in the Yorkshire area.
Pete Postlethwaite's performance was electric and he delivered the speech without a rehearsal to the audience, who were hearing it for the first time because the Director wanted to film the genuine expressions of the audience to the speech they were hearing.
There is a clip of " Danny's Speech" on Google via " Brassed Off, Danny's speech ", where I can be seen standing next to Ronnie Stevens to begin with, and then, in the long shot, I can be seen second judge from the left, behind the Championship Cup, which is sitting on a table on the stage.During the speech, I was standing right behind Pete and was very impressed with his great, and very believable  performance of an impassioned Yorkshire Brass Band leader.
It was a tremendous privilege for me to have been in that scene at close hand and experience the atmosphere created by some excellent acting from a tremendously talented cast.
I said to one of the bandsmen, during one of our breaks from filming, who are your band really, and he replied Grimethorpe Colliery Brass Band, I told him that I came from Kettering and that in the 1950's I had followed our local Brass Band, The Munn & Felton's Brass Band, when they won the National Brass Band Championship, forty years earlier.

" BRASSED OFF " 1995 - day one

On 30th November 1995, I was in Birmingham to be in a scene from " Brassed Off ", a 1996 British film written  and directed by Mark Harman.
" Brassed Off " was set in the the fictional Grimley Colliery in the mid 1990's and really followed the real  life situation that Grimethorpe Colliery faced at that time. It was about the trouble faced by a colliery brass band following the closure of their pit. It starred Pete Postlethwaite, Tara Fitzgerald, Ewen McGregor and Steven Tompkinson. Also in the strong cast was Jim Carter( Downton Abbey) Sue Johnson and Melanie Hill
 ( Bread).
The scene that I was in was supposed to be the Royal Albert Hall, but was in fact the Birmingham Town Hall, and I was in an audience listening to the National Brass Band Championships, with Grimley Colliery Band playing the William Tell Ovrture, being conducted by a bandsman played by Jim Carter. In the audience, close to the stage were Sue Johnson and Melanie Hill, and on stage, the colliery band included Steven Tompkinson and Ewen McGregor as bandsmen, with Pete Postlethwaite arriving during their performance.
Following the filming of that scene, three of us were asked to act as Competition Judges in another scene to be filmed the following day, and that has turned out to be one of my most enjoyable days filming ,being in the scene where Danny ( played by Pete Postlethwaite) gives a very emotional speech to the audience as I am standing behind him.

" WAIL OF THE BANSHEE " 1991 - " CRUEL TRAIN " 1994

On 29th November 1991, I was in Nottingham to be in an episode of  " Wail of the Banshee ", a seven part children's fantasy drama which was broadcast on CITV in 1992.

Three years later I was in Birmingham to be in a scene for " Cruel Train ", a TV Movie that was shown in 1995.
It was a sordid story of sexual passion, sexual crimes and murder, set among the staff of an English railway line in 1940-41.
The principal stars in that film included David Suchet, Saskia Reeves, Alec McCowan, Melanie Hill and Minnie Driver.

" MRS. BROWN " 1996 - day 2 with Billy Connolly

On 25th November 1996 I had returned to Luton Hoo, a former stately home near Luton, to be in  another scene of " Mrs. Brown ". After the first day, I had been chosen to play a butler in a downstairs scene with Billy Connolly who was playing the lead role of John Brown to Judi Dench's Queen Victoria.
Luton Hoo had been chosen for the filming because the rooms resembled those of Osbourne House on the Isle of Wight.
It was the scene where John Brown enters the dining room and sits in the seat normally occupied by Queen Victoria. I am sitting directly opposite to him from his position at the head of the table.
He is told he cannot sit in that seat because it is usually occupied by " Her Majesty the Queen". " That's a Tautology" is his reply " It's either Her Majesty, or The Queen" he retorts.
A maid comes to my side and is sent out of the room to seek information and then re-enters the room and whispers something in my ear. Then John Brown looks across to me and says " Am I the only one that's eating?" and I give him a  very serious look then reluctantly pick up my soup spoon.
Following the filming of that scene, I was talking to Billy and commented that I had seen him the day before but that he was not in any of the scenes. He replied " It was my Birthday yesterday, I do not work on my Birthday".
Happy 70th Birthday, yesterday, Billy.
He was a very interesting man to talk to and continues to be a very good actor.
Yesterday, I was back at Luton Hoo for an Installation Dinner for the London Guild of Toastmasters,where I was appointed Junior Vice- President, 17 years after those happy two days filming of " Mrs. Brown " in 1996.

" MRS. BROWN " 1996 - Day 1 with Anthony Sher

On 24th November 1996, I arrived at Luton Hoo in Bedfordshire to be in " Mrs Brown " starring Judi Dench, Billy Connolly & Sir Anthony Sher.
On this first day I was in a scene in the ballroom playing the part of a court official where Prime Minister, Disraeli, played by Sir Anthony Sher, hands me his coat as he enters the Ballroom to exclaim " Ah, the greasy pole".
In another scene on that day I am playing the part of the same official and am in a downstairs scene with Gerard Butler( who went on to play the lead role of in the film version of "The Phantom of the Opera"), who
played the part of  John Brown's brother Archie. The part of John Brown was played by Billy Connolly, Queen Victoria by Judi Dench and Disraeli by Anthony Sher.
The scenes were intended to look like we were at Osborne House, on the Isle of Wight, and the rooms at Luton Hoo were very similar to those at Osborne House.
It was a twelve hour day shoot and I had arrived for a 7 am call and was wrapped at 9 pm. - a 14 hour day.
I was only 50 miles from home and arrived back around 10.30pm -  a 15 hour day.
This was before mobile phones were as popular as they are today, and during the time I was returning home, the production team had called my home and requested me back for more scenes the following morning.
At the time of filming, it was intended to be for television, being filmed by BBC Scotland, but was later issued as a major film and became a very successful hit.
Tomorrow I will be recalling my day in a scene filmed with Billy Connolly, which has been the only time I have met him.

" DOCTORS " 2005

On 23rd November 2005, I was in Birmingham to take part in an episode of " Doctors".
" Doctors" Is a BBC drama series set in a busy Midlands practice following the turbulent lives and loves of the staff and patients.
The first episodes were filmed at Pebble Mill in 2000, but are now currently filmed elsewhere in the Edgbaston area of Birmingham.
The current series is Series 5 and the latest episode is episode 226. It is screened on BBC One on every week-day afternoon.
My first episode was on 6th April 2004, followed by my second on 28th January 2005, 28th November 2005 and my most recent episode was on 9th April 2008.
It is now 5 years since I was last involved on " Doctors".

" EMMERDALE " 2011

On 22nd November 2011, I was at the YTV studios in Leeds for my 84th day of involvement in                   " Emmerdale". My first day had been on 14th June 1993 and I have been very pleased to have been involved in this programme for over 20 years.
Since November 2011, I have been to " Emmerdale " 5  times in 2012 and a further 5 visits this year.
My most recent visit this year was on 27th September when I was involved in a scene in the cafe with Tony Audenshaw, who plays the cafe owner Bob Hope.
As an aside, I was involved in the scene a few years ago when the cafe was refurbished and re-opened.
When I saw that it was re-named " Hope's Cafe", I suggested that it could have been called " The Cafe of Good Hope". Someone commented that if I had been on set earlier that year and suggested that name at that time, it might well have been called that as a pun on the Cape of Good Hope.

" WATER PRIVATISATION ADVERT " 1989

On 21st November 1989, I was sitting in the Dress Circle of the Richmond Theatre in London as part of an advert being filmed to encourage members of the public to buy shares in the Water Companies.
The advert involved us as members of the audience watching an orchestra playing on the stage.
During the performance the word spreads around that shares are now available for sale and a few people leave the theatre to go to buy them. Then the exodus increases and eventually even members of the orchestra begin to leave the stage to go and buy the shares. The advert concludes with no audience and only a few bewildered members of the orchestra still sitting on stage who cannot make up their minds to buy shares or not.
The Advert started to be aired in early 1990 and the sale of Water Shares was a success as well as subsequent Gas shares, Electricity Shares and other similar floatations at that time.
This was the second advert that I had been involved with. The first had been the two days I spent on one for "Shell Petrol". In 1990 I was in another one for "Cornetto" Ice Cream, a "British Telecom "one in 1992, one for "Hugo Boss" in 1994 and one for "Halifax", being part of a X in their famous human X adverts in 1999.

" BORN & BRED " 2002

On 20th November 2002, I arrived at Bray Studios near Windsor on a very foggy morning for my second episode of " Born & Bred ". My first involvement had been on 16th August on location in Wycombe.
" Born and Bred " was a light-hearted British Drama aired by BBC One from 2002 to 2005. I starred James Bolam as Arthur Guilder as a doctor and Michael French as his son Tom Gilder, also a doctor. Together they ran a cottage hospital in Ormston, a fictional Lancashire village in the 1950's.
Bolam and French's characters were later replaced by Richard Wilson ( One Foot in the Grave) and Oliver Milburn.
The exterior shots were filmed in Lancashire and the internal ones at Bray Studios.
I was in the first six episodes and all my scenes, except the first, were shot in Bray.
During 2003, I was involved in a further 11 days filming , playing the part of one of the villagers, usually in a pub scene or at other events which occured in various locations within those first 6 episodes.

" PRESTON FRONT " 1994 - " CASUALTY " 1996

On 17th November 1994, I was in Telford for my fourth day on " All Quiet on the Preston Front " in that year. It was a BBC comedy drama about a group of friends in the fictional Lancashire town of Roker Bridge, and their links to the local Territorial Army infantry platoon. It was created by Tim Firth and starred Alistair McGowan and Caroline Catz, and the episodes that I was involved in starred Colin Buchanan.
The first episode was screened on January 4th 1994 and the final episode on September 8th 1997.
Two years later on the same date, I was in Bristol for " Casualty ",the British medical drama set in the fictional Holby City Hospital, which began in 1986 and is still running today.
There have now been 874 episodes of this series and I have been in 61 of those episodes between 1988 and 2004.

" PORTRAIT OF A MARRIAGE " 1989

On 16th November 1989, I was in Peterborough to be in a episode of " Portrait of a Marriage ", a BBC TV mini- series starring Janet McTear, David Haig and Cathryn Harrison.
It was a melodrama detailing the real life love affair between Vita Sackville-West and novelist Violet Keppel
against the backdrop of post World War One England, and opposition by Vita's political husband Harold Nicolson.
Vita and Violet's romantic relationship became increasingly obsessed which spawned destructive feelings of possessiveness and jealousy between them.
The scene that I was in was filmed on the edge of Peterborough outdoor market, near to the city centre.

" SOPHIA & CONSTANCE " 1987 - " RUMPOLE OF THE BAILEY " 1990

On Tuesday this week I was at the Black Country Museum in Dudley near Birmingham for " WPC 56 ".
26 years earlier had been my first visit to that location to be in an episode of " Sophia and Constance ", a British drama TV series shown on BBC in six episodes between 13th April and 18th May 1988.
It was an adaption of the 1908 novel " The Old Wives Tale " by Arnold Bennett which followed the lives of two sisters through the Victorian era. It starred Alfred Burke, Linsey Beauchamp and Katy Behean.
3 years later on 15th November 1990, I was in a London Restaurant for the main scene in an episode of
 " Rumpole of the Bailey ".
" Rumpole of the Bailey  was another British TV series  created and written by the writer and barrister John Mortimer. It starred Leo McKern as Horace Rumpole, an aging London barrister who defends any, and all clients.
It was episode 1 of Season 6 and was screened on 28th October 1991.
The main scene that I was involved with was as a diner in a cordon bleu restaurant, sitting at a table next to the main character and other actors including John Bluthal ( Vicar of Dibley ).
Rumpole agrees to defend  and elitist restauranteur whom he dislikes when a live mouse jumps out of one of his gourmet meals.
It was a live mouse, and there were quite a few takes of that scene which took longer than usual because the owner of the mouse had difficulty in ctching it and replacing it under the food tureen.
I remember the meal being very tasty and enjoyed my day in that London Restaurant and being a part of that iconic series.

" VIRTUAL MURDER " 1991 - day 2

On 13th November 1991, I was at the Pebble Mill Studios in Birmingham for my second day on one of the episodes of " Virtual Murder ".
I mentioned the main characters of this series in my blog yesterday and can add that the script was written by Brian Degas, who wrote the script of Barbarella.
The first episode of the six was screened on 24th July 1992 and the sixth on 28th August 1992, all the episodes were screened at 9.30 p.m.
6 years later, on 13th November 1997, I was in Leeds for my 9th day on " Emmerdale " and yesterday I was at the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley, Nr. Birmingham, playing the part of a shopkeeper in the second episode of the series " WPC 56 " which will be screened in February 2014.
My first visit to the Black Country Museum had been 26 years ago in 1987, when I was in an episode of "Sophia and Constance " With the very talented actor Alfred Burke.
My second visit had been in 2000, when I was again at the museum to be part of an episode of " Morse" called " The wench is dead".

" VIRTUAL MURDER " 1991 - day one

On 12th November 1991, I was at the Pebble Mill studios in Birmingham to be in my first day of two for " Virtual Murder ", an unusual investigative drama series shown on BBC television in 1992.
It starred Nicholas Clay as Dr. John Cornelius, a psychology lecturer at a provincial university, and Kim Thompson as his vivacious, red headed partner, Samantha Valentine.
The series was created and produced at BBC's Pebble Mill Studios in Birmingham. The episodes were recorded between 12th August 1991 and 28th February 1992.

" EMMERDALE " 1998

Yesterday was a reflection on my 60th day on " Emmerdale ".
15 years ago, this was my 15th day on that serial. I remember being in the canteen, which was used by us as a green room, just before 11 a.m. on that morning and an announcement came over the tannoy that precisely on the hour, the studio would be observing one minutes silence. Then on the 11th hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month we all observed the one minute silence in memory of all servicemen and women who had lost their lives in all wars since 1914. It has been the only day in the past 28 years that I have been filming on the actual Remembrance Day and I recall it as being a very impressed that the studio had observed the occasion.
Today, I should have been on location in Yorkshire for a scene in episode 1 of a new 7 episode costume drama. I drove up to the location last Friday, to be fitted with my costume and my hair re-styled to look as it  would have been at that moment in history. I now look forward to whenever I am called in for that filming day.

" EMMERDALE " 2005

On 10th November 2005, I was in Leeds for my 60th day of filming on " Emmerdale ".
Between 19th January 2005 and 10th November 2005, I was involved on 8 filming days of " Emmerdale " in that year. I would be another 5 months before I was back in those studios and, following that appearance on 8th March 2006, it was another 14 months before I was invited to take part in that programme on 19th July 2007.
Since that date " Emmerdale " had been the only television programme that I have been involved with, other than one appearance in " Doctors" in 2008, up until May last year when I successfully auditioned to be involved with three days in the Cameron Mackintosh production of " Les Miserables ". Since then I have been in one episode of " Midsomer Murders " and a further 9 days on " Emmerdale". My most recent visit to the studios being on Friday 27th September 2013.

" LOCK STOCK AND FOUR STOLEN HOOVES" 1999 - day two

Yesterday, I mentioned my first day of filing " Lock Stock and Four Stolen Hooves" at Fontwell Park.
Following a night in a hotel in Bognor Regis, I arrive back at the Racecourse for my second day of filming on that episode.
Our main scene on this day, 10th November 1999, involved a fight scene featuring Nick Brimble who played Uncle Derek and a group of travelling showmen, inlcuding his brother Ian Brimble playing Uncle Brian, which ended up with a violent punch which put one of the characters on the floor. Nick and Ian had been made up by the make-up department to look really convincing as thugs and they were so good that I was convinced that they were genuine rather than acting.
The next scenes were filmed nearer to the Race track and this second day was a genuine race meeting at Fontwell Park. One of the jockeys was Tony McCoy an the first two of his three mounts on that day were unplaced. I thought that he must have been there for a certain race and I passed a comment to a fellow actor that I would like to bet that he was there to win the last race of the day. I did not manage to get a bet on that horse and Tony rode it to victory by quite a few lengths. By the time that I got home later that day I had travelled 357 miles to be in that episode.

" LOCK STOCK AND FOUR STOLEN HOOVES " 1999

On the 8th November 1999, I arrived at Fontwell Park Racecourse in West Sussex for an episode of  "Lock Stock & Four stolen hooves". It was episode 20 of a TV series which was a spin-off from the film "Lock Stock and two smoking barrels ". I was there for two days of filming and on the first day I was playing the part of a racegoer and my first scene involved me looking around the fairground at the rear of the Grandstand. My second scene was amongst a disturbance in the Grandstand where a group of travellers disrupted the paying customers. The leader of the group, Uncle  Derek, was played by Nick Brimble and his brother, Ian Brimble, played Uncle Brian. Lorraine Chase played Barbie and Bradley Walsh also played a small part in that episode.
As I was to be involved in two more scenes the following day and I was 180 miles from home plus my call time was 8 am., I booked into an hotel in nearby Bognor Regis.
This first day had not been a real race day and we were moved around the Grandstand for various shots so that the stand appeared full on the screen. The following day was a real race day and I will go into more detail tomorrow.

" BOON " 1990 - " THE CHIEF" 1994

On 7th November 1990,  I was in Nottingham for my 9th appearance in an episode of " Boon" starring
Michael Elphick as Boon, David Daker as Harry, and Neil Morrissey in his first ever role as Rocky.
Originally the series was filmed in Birmingham but by 1990 it had moved to Nottingham.
Between 1986 and 1992 , I appeared in 13 episodes, my last one was in series 5. The last episode to be screened was on 1st May 1995 and was an out of sequence episode from series 8, which was never screened in full.
Four years later, on 7th November 1994, I was in the Fens near Chatteris in East Anglia for an episode of " The Chief". The scene involved an actress to be playing the part of a woman who had been murdered and found in a water filled ditch. It was a cold morning and the actress did a great job of holding her breath as she was pulled from the water. The scene was very realistic in reality but I never saw the episode when it was screened.
35 episodes of " The Chief were screened between 20th April 1990 and 16th June 1995, I appeared in 6 of those episodes which were filmed between 20th December 1989 and 7th November 1994. So this day in 1994 was my last filming day on this programme.

" INSPECTOR LYNDLEY" 2002 ; " CITY LIGHTS" 2006;

On 5th November 2002 , I was at Knebworth House, Hertfordshire, for an episode of " Inspector Lyndley", a British crime investigation series based around aristodratic, Oxford educated Detective Inspector Thomas Lyndley, played by Nathanial Parker, and his working class assistant Barbara Havers, played by Sharon Small.  The scene I was involved with was shot inside one of the rooms in Knebworth House where much of the interior had been designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, and in 1913-1914, was leased by Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia and his wife Natalia Brasova.

On 5th November 2006, I was in Acton, North London, for an episode of " City Lights". I was involved in a scene with Robson Green and Mark Benton. The series was a sequel  to " Northern Lights" and also a spin off of the 2004 "Christmas Lights" and was broadcast in 2007.

As an addition, I recall 5th November 1963, exactly 50 years ago, when I had been successful in reaching the semi-finals of the  "People" National Talent Contest. I was appearing at the Queens Theatre on the North Pier and sang one of my own compositions and playing the guitar. We had been through the rehearsals the day before and I had qualified to appear by winning a weekly heat earlier that year at the Ocean Hotel at Saltdean near Brighton.
I had returned to the Ocean Hotel in September and won the Hotel Finals. The judges on that night were had been John Barry( James Bond  theme composer) Norman Newell( Shirley Bassey's manager) Jimmy Carr( composer of South of the Border & Hang out your washing on the seifried line) Mike Reagan( Russ Conway's manager) and Tony Lewis( owner of London's Top Talent Agency).
I was offered a recording test at E.M.I. studios at Abbey Road (where the Beatles recorded most of their hit records.) At the time that I was in Blackpool for this semi- final, I had not yet been to London for that recording test.
After my performance, Jimmy Tarbuck, who had been in the audience, came up to me and said that he liked my song and that it ought to be recorded. I told him that I hoped to be able to do that before the end of the year.
I was one of twelve acts to perform that evening, and there were another 12 acts who were on theSouth of England final being held at Cliftonville, Margate during the same week, but was not in the final six who were selected to perform in the Final, which was held at the Victoria Palace, London in January 1964.

" PEAK PRACTICE" 2000

Yesterday, I recounted my 2nd appearance on " Peak Practice" in the centre of Derby.
7 years later on 4th November 2000, I was in Ilkeston, Derbyshire for my 24th appearance on that series.
The scene was filmed in the centre of that town and involved an encounter on the main street. I had arrived at a school car park for a 10.30 am. call time and was only involved in a couple of shots, allowing me to be on the way back home less than 2 hours later at 12 noon. Not a lot of action for me to be involved with on that day other than the 150 mile return trip via the M1 motorway.

" PEAK PRACTICE" 1993

On 3rd November 1993 I was in Derby for my 2nd appearance in an episode of "Peak Practice".
" Peak Practice" was a British drama series about a G.P. surgery in Cardale - a small fictional town in the Derbyshire Peak District - and the doctors that worked there. It ran on ITV from 10th May 1993 to 30th June 2002, was originally based in Crich, moved to Belper and finally to Codnor in the Amber Valley.
The series starred Kevin Whately as Dr. Jack Kerruish, Amanda Burton as Dr. Beth Glover and Simon Shepherd as Dr. Will Preston. Other actors to play the part of Doctors in that series included Gary Mavers, Maggie O'Neill and Adrian Lukis.
Between 1993 and 2002, I appeared in 26 episodes where the 1st Assistant Director was nearly always George Gerwitz. The episode being filmed on 3rd November 1993, was shot on the banks of the River Derwent, near to the centre of Derby.

" RUMBLE" 1994

On 2nd November 1994, I was at the Magnet Centre in Maidenhead, Berkshire, for my second day on
 "Rumble". My first day on that wrestling based, short lived series, had been on 30th September at the same location. The series starred Leslie Joseph , from " Birds of a Feather", as the female manager of a group of wrestlers, Steve Hartley, and Brian Glover, from " Kes" as the M.C. I sat next to Brian Glover at the Ringside, because I was playing a non speaking part of the Timekeeper with the bell.
The wrestling scenes were choreographed by the Wolverhampton body builder and wrestler, Johnny England, who had won the titles of Mr. Europe 1972, Mr. Adonis ATV 1973, Mr, England 1975, Mr. Central Britain 1976 and Mr. Midlands 6 times. One of the scenes also featured one of the top wrestlers Jackie Pallo who regularly appeared on UK TV wrestling shows. He was 72 years old at the time he appeared on this TV programme. The series was screened in 1995.

" CASUALTY" 2000

On 1st November 2000, I was in Bristol for another appearance in " Casualty".
Between 5th April 1998 and 23rd September 2004, I have been in 61 episodes of " Casualty".
The most dramatic scene that I was involved with was the final episode of series 6 , which focused on a plane crash. It was postponed  until February 1992 after being initially scheduled for transmission on 20th December 1991 - one day before the 3rd anniversary of the Lockerbie disaster.
My only major part has also been in " Casualty " , when I played the part of a Boxing Master of Ceremonies in episode 23 of season 12, " Taking sides", which was screened on 7th February 1998.
The British  medical drama " Casualty" was first broadcast on 6th September 1986 ,based on the fictional Holby City and focuses on the staff and patients of the Accident and Emergency Department.
Originally filmed in Bristol, the production team moved to a purpose built studio and back lot set at the BBC Roath Lock studios in Cardiff in March 2009.