What a day !!!!!!!
Wakened at an unearthly hour to be greeted by a squad of motor vehicles outside the house, the garage filled with breakfast goodies and a host of busy little people doing things whilst feeding themselves on a variety of goodies from fruit juices to cereals to bacon butties and loads of milk, coffee and tea
‘May we have the use of a room in your house to dress the actresses ..... the van we have is apparently not clean enough’? says the producer
I peer at him through bleary eyes not yet open (and still in my pyjamas)
‘when would you like this?’
‘now’, says he, without even a glimmer of pity in his eyes
It was painfully obvious that my home was no longer my own as I granted access to those involved and headed back upstairs to wash and dress ... certainly no point in going back to bed for an hour or so ... sleep was over for the day
Ten minutes later I re-
Whilst the actresses got dressed I was denied access to part of my own home. We moved them to an upstairs bedroom ..... more people trooping through the house at will so we just reconciled ourselves to the fact that for one day at least, we were just going to be onlookers
‘May I use your kitchen to wash up’
The caterer took over the kitchen and utility room
‘May we use your computer?’
The producer and others took over my inner sanctum
I wandered over to the Japanese Garden to find a great flurry of excitement, masses of equipment, cameras, lighting, dollies and slide rail fingys ... you name it ... it was all there
The crew had taken over my garden
And so it continued for the rest of the day
Lunch time saw everybody up around McCoubrey’s pub tucking into a beef and pasta dish and a selection of drinks etc before they all headed back over to the Japanese Garden for more scenes
They filmed in the Tea Garden, around the island, in the wildflower meadow, in the woodland, in the dry garden, in the Teahouse
Soup and sandwiches for everybody at five o’clock or so and it was not until after 8 that I got my home back again. I heaved a sigh of relief as I gallantly waved good bye to Brian before I collapsed in exhaustion at the end of a very tiring day indeed
And they all have to do the same for two more days!!!!!!
I have to admit though, that I couldn’t have met a bunch of nicer guys and gals, polite and courteous, and that they left the place in quite reasonable shape considering the turmoil of earlier happenings
Notwithstanding the fact that I helped sponsor this film with the provision of free location facilities, I have promised not to divulge details of the storyline nor to show any video of the actual screen footage until after the film is released next year, so you all have to wait expectantly on that event
