Behind the scenes

[Phil Reynolds]

Walking home from town just now I stopped to watch the BBC doing some filming for the new series of Upstairs Downstairs, the Eaton Place exteriors for which are filmed in a street just around the corner from our house. In fact, there was no actual filming going on - just a lot of vans and equipment and people sitting around waiting for something to happen - but it was fascinating to have a look all the same. The modern road and pavement surfaces were disguised with gravel, and there were piles of sandbags in front of all the houses in the terrace (the new series is evidently set in wartime).

What's really interesting (to TV trickery geeks like me) is the way they make the street look as though there are houses on both sides, like the real Eaton Place in London. (The street where they film has houses on one side and a small park on the other.) There were quite a few shots in the last series where, for example, you'd see a couple of people walk out of the front door and across the street to a car in the foreground, before it then cut to a reverse angle of them getting into the car and driving off; in fact the camera was pointing in the same direction for both shots and the car was repositioned so that the "reverse shot" could show it parked at the pavement edge with houses behind. A couple of establishing shots appeared to show both sides of the street in frame at the same time, which was done by stitching two shots together with CGI.

I remember years ago as a kid going on holiday with my mum to Lyme Regis in Dorset and being puzzled by the fact that some of the shop fronts in the main street appeared to have fake peeling or weathering painted on the woodwork. We discovered from the owner of our hotel that location filming for The French Lieutenant's Woman had taken place there some weeks previously; it had taken four months to age and dress the street for about three days' filming (resulting in a few minutes' screen time) and they were now half way through another four months of restoring it all to the 20th century.

Anyone else interested in this kind of stuff and with stories to tell?

[Brian Moore]

No geekiness about the subject, but the topic did remind me of my school days in Bristol, when they filmed the destruction of 'Minster Cathedral' at Bristol Cathedral. Cue loads of polystyrene pillars and extras. (Not sure if the extras were polystyrene too.) Watching the trailer for the film, I can't quite work out whether it was a serious or a really good spoof. Though there is one interesting pre-echo of 9/11 in there. Was Richard Burton's character the real inspiration for Bin Laden, I wonder. Quite spooky.

EDIT
Another couple of clips:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZgv6gKbQow - rarely has so much polystyrene bounced around in the cause of disaster (I didn't realise that the Victorians had made such extensive use of this lightweight yet surprisingly rigid building material.)

And, vyving for the Oscar for Principal Eyebrows, step forward Lee Remick: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcukyYDc ... re=related

[Ian Volante]

Sometimes see filming on Royal Terrace in Edinburgh, cobbled street and church could easily look 18th/19th century. Once went past in July, and it was covered in snow, quite unexpected...

[Ryan Taylor]

When I was down in London 2 years ago they were filming Johnny English: Reborn and they were filming on The Mall. If you've seen the film, it's when he is in his motorised chair thing and has to squeeze under a lorry. In the film it looks like the chair has actually been custom built to travel at a high speed but he was just being pulled by a motorbike. And for the filming of going under the lorry, of course he didn't have to do that. He was only filmed going up to the lorry then there's a cut to another camera angle from his POV which goes under the lorry. Rowan Atkinson looked quite miserable, it was cold. I shouted "I love you Rowan" in a high pitched schoolgirl fan voice but he didn't smile. Or even look at me.

[Phil Reynolds]

Watching the trailer for the film, I can't quite work out whether it was a serious or a really good spoof. Though there is one interesting pre-echo of 9/11 in there.

Wow, that shot certainly does resonate with the post 9/11 viewer, and for the time the special effects hold up pretty well.

[Brian Moore]

Wow, that shot certainly does resonate with the post 9/11 viewer, and for the time the special effects hold up pretty well.

If I had seen the whole film (I really can't remember if I have) that moment certainly didn't register particularly at the time. It certainly does now, especially the shot looking up at the moment of impact. And yes, given what we now know, it's certainly pretty realistic. Unlike Lee Remick's eyebrows.

[Julie T]

Walking home from town just now I stopped to watch the BBC doing some filming for the new series of Upstairs Downstairs,

Anyone else interested in this kind of stuff and with stories to tell?

I'm certainly interested, but I must go around with my eyes closed!

It always surprises me when I hear that certain dramas have been filmed in Hatfield or nearby without me noticing. They even filmed a whole feature film "The Martins" here, which I only found out about after watching it on telly. Fun recognising the locations though.

Ooh, just remembered. I was in St Albans town centre a few years back, and they were using an old council building to represent a bank, with fake signs and stuff. Some prog with Joanna Lumley in IIRC. I remember thinking how do they get away with having fake police cars out on location, legally. Not terribly interesting, but the only one I recall seeing filmed.

Also, a bit of trivia: the front of the old jail in St Albans was used for the shot of the slamming gate of Slade prison in the opening credits of "Porridge".