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Without anyone actually
dying, this extraordinary project had as many ups and downs as did Amundsen
and Scott on their way to Antarctica. But then making movies is like that,
let alone a seven hour TV series.
The wonderfully rich and textured script was by Trevor Griffiths based on
Roland Huntford's novel. It showed how men under the rigid class system in
England and led by rank rather than a natural leader were inevitably doomed
to failure. And yet Scott and his men so very nearly succeeded in spite of
it all which makes it such a moving story.
When I was invited to join the cast it was to be directed by Philip
Saville who directed 'Boys from the Black Stuff' so brilliantly. Indeed I
had the pleasure of working with him for my first three days filming. But he
was given the sack after a couple of weeks work (someone must know exactly
why but I don't) the strongest rumour being that he had decided to shoot in
story sequence (with inevitable added transport costs) rather than, as is
the custom in films, in location availability. So he went and so,
involuntarily, did several members of the cast and crew. Julian Sands was
one of those sacked and others who I can't recall right now but I just
remember turning up to work one particular day to see a whole lot of new
(but familiar) faces. Conversations such as "Hi Bill, I didn't know you were
in the cast" "Neither did I until last night!" were frequent.
So we had a 'bridge the gap' director who took over filming for two weeks
while the third and final director did his preparation. This second director
was none other than Marek Kanievska who directed the film 'Another Country'
and who was pretty hot at the time but, because he didn't know in which
style and tempo that Ferdinand Fairfax, the next director, was going to
work, he shot everything with a huge amount of cover (way beyond group
shots , two shots and close ups) abundant camera angles and lens lengths
(just to make sure that the editor would be able to put any scene together
in any way he liked). Unfortunately this made the actual task of filming
extremely tedious and difficult to maintain freshness and enthusiasm. He
also called us to many rehearsals which were based solely on script,
character and period research. These were enjoyable as they were more like
the way I was used to working on a stage play.
The filming took place largely in England with a foray up to Scotland to
film some Discovery sequences in The Irish Sea. There were also a few days
in Norway where The British expedition's departure was filmed in a dock in
Oslo. Sverre's men of course filmed for rather longer in Norway. We all
eventually met up in Frobisher Bay and Pangnirtung Canada, a penguineless
place which stood in for the Antarctic.
Happiest memory - being driven back from location to London with Max
von Sydow.
Most difficult moment during filming - trying to have a pee in
a blizzard.
Scariest moment - having to move ourselves, all our luggage and all
the camera equipment to the front of the plane so we could land at
Pangnirtung.
Best acting - I was meant to be asleep in one of the final tent
scenes, but it was so comfortable and cosy to be out of the cold and wind
that I fell asleep in reality. My gentle snoring (if you listen very
carefully) was in no way a comment on Martin's brilliant and self effacing
performance.
Abiding memory - the unexpected beauty of The Arctic. I often felt
that was why those brave explorers kept going back.
(more to follow - s.m.)
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