1969

THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN…Director Guy Hamilton…
A cast of thousands with plenty of work.
I’d been in the business for a couple of years by now and was getting my s Share of work, I wouldn’t get rich but it worked out I could earn enough to live on.
You would meet a lot of the same faces on the sets and sometimes go for a pint at lunchtimes or after work finished.
A lot of them had nicknames which I will mention as I go along.
A quick mention of Reg (the actor) Thomason who did a great acting job on this film...
The next week he was back in the ‘’crowd’’ dressing room with us. Well done Reg..
EDIT…Date 20/9/03….I have just had the sad news that Reg has died….God bless….

ASSASSINATION BUREAU…Director Basil Dearden.
Cast Inc…Oliver Reed…Diana Rigg…Telly Savalas…
A few days filming in Black Park and studio…Pinewood…
Aitch and Dennis Plenty playing German soldiers…

THREE SISTERS…Director… Laurence Olivier…
Cast Inc…Alan Bates…
Dressed and made up as the devil and Sir Laurence Olivier wishing me good luck as I was about to go on set. (It doesn’t get much better than that.)

RANDALL AND HOPKIRK (DECEASED)…Directors…Roy Ward Baker…Ray Austin…
Jeremy Summers…Les Norman………………..
Cast Inc…Mike Pratt…Kenneth Cope…Annette Andre…
Central Casting sent me to A.B.P.C. Studios to do some tests on a series they were about to make. It was tests for special affects to be tried out such as walking through walls etc.
I was to be Randall and a chap called Doug Lockyer was to be Hopkirk.
We did the tests over a period of a week and the following Monday the series got going for real..
I was asked ‘’Would you be a stand/in for Mike Pratt if he gets on with you..’’
Now I’m going to say no to a years work. (Not)
We got on like a house on fire from the first day. Mike told me that he and Lionel Bart wrote all of Tommy Steel’s early songs, (Handful Of Songs, Rock With The Caveman and many more)
With all the years I spent with the bands we had something in common.
We used to have a sing a long in the dressing rooms or where ever we could.
Douglas stood/in for Ken…
We did twenty six episodes over the next year and Mike, Ken and I became good friends.
I would read the other actors lines in the script so Mike could learn his.
Every two weeks we would get a new guest cast and I really wish I had saved all the call sheets with all the cast names on. I wonder how many went on to greater things.
One I do remember was a wild looking man called Dudley Sutton.
He went on to play Tinker in Lovejoy and we still send cards at Christmas time.
(Merry Christmas Dudley, it saves a card.)
Every episode I would have to double for Mike for his driving shots or walking in and out of London buildings. We used a second unit camera team (small crew) for this as
it was better for Mike to be in the studio saying the words.
Although I appeared in a few crowd scenes during the series my claim to fame are those immortal words I say to the onlookers as Hopkirk is run down by the bad guys car.. I compose myself and utter ‘’He’s dead’’
I had a few fan letters in after that scene was shown on TV suggesting I go back in
the timber game.. (It wasn’t even my voice, it was dubbed..)
When Mike had days off I had to find other film jobs to do.
We was only paid £5 a day and you only got paid if you worked
Lucky for me they were making other series in the studio and I would go in the bar and find an A.D. from Department S. or the Avengers and see if they could use me for a couple of days till Mike was back. So look out for me in other series playing a French/German/Spanish/American cop/waiter/soldier/sailor/crook etc…
I’ve been all around the world but I’ve never left English shores.
We finished shooting the series in 1969 and had a huge party to celebrate.
(It took me a week to get over it)
I’d like to say hello to the three main Stuntmen on the show, Rocky Taylor, Les Crawford and Frank ( Elstree Cowboy ) Maher.
Also my best regards to all the crew for making it a wonderful year.

MIKE…AITCH…KEN…1969.
MIKE PRATT DIED IN 1976…LONG LIVE MIKE PRATT…

ONE MORE TIME…Cast Inc…Peter Lawford…Samy Davies Jnr……
I get a phone call from Dudley Sutton asking if I’d stand/in for him on the above named film
I was glad of the work and I meet Dudley in the MGM canteen for breakfast on our first day. Dudley is to play a not so bright crook.
After breakfast we sit at the back of the set and wait for the two main artists to arrive.
A couple of minutes later they walk on, laughing and chatting to the crew.
Sammy Davies Jnr, Peter Lawford and the Director….
( SHOCK, DOUBLE SHOCK ) It’s HIM, It’s the Man, It’s the Main Man.
This is the man I watched in the cinema for all of my teenage years. ( And beyond )
I used to sit in the cinema from 1pm till 10pm and get three showings of his films.
(Me and my very good friend Freddie Simms..) We even took lunch with us.
The Director is one of the greatest comic actors ever………
MR. JERRY LEWIS..
My thoughts again turn to working on this film for free, (But like thoughts I’d had
Before they soon passed.)
All through the filming there was only one man I was watching and it wasn’t
The actors.
We filmed in the studio and on location and one Sunday we filmed in a square in London’s West End. To say that there was a crowd of onlookers there is putting it mildly. All the stand/ins and Central Casting crowd were acting as security.
I’d phoned up Freddie Simms the night before and he came along with his wife to see the main man work.
( Jerry, you made two good old boys very happy )
As well as standing/in for Dudley I got used half a dozen times in the crowd including some stuff at Ledbury Castle in the West Country…
When the film wrapped Mr. Lewis and Co donated a gym to a local school.
Well done, ONE MORE TIME Team…

MR. JERRY LEWIS.

It’s the end of 69 and I’m now trying to sell a script that I’d written.
After all the scripts I’d read through with Mike Pratt I now knew how to set them out and to time them. All I needed was a story (which I had) and to expand on it in script form.. It was called ‘’ IT’S A HARD LIFE AIN’T IT ‘’
I was called to an office in the West End to talk to a Producer. I thought to myself This is it, I’m the next Harold Pinter.
The woman producer thanked me for coming in and told me ‘’This is a good story but it needs a lot of work on it and it’s not for us’’
She could have told me that on the phone and saved me three bob bus fare.
She asked me what else I did and I thought ‘’Nothing lost, nothing gained’’ I said proudly ‘’I’m an Actor’’
She asked me what I’d done and I went on about all the films I’d had lines in.
‘’Was I fit’’ she asked, ‘’As a butchers dog ‘’ I replied.
Then she went on that she needed a tough looking man to chase the hero of the film she was already making around the streets of the West End.
It seems he was having it off with my wife and I was going to catch him and beat him up. (With the help of a Stuntman.) There were no scripted lines but I might have to ad lib. Oh yes, and could I do the Job tomorrow. (Instant Casting)

THE FREELANCE…Ian McShane
Aitch and Dave Brandon (Stuntman) spent the next day chasing Ian McShane
(Later to become LOVEJOY) around the West End streets of London..
And the climax is I never get to catch him.
(I’m not to good at this running game as you found out earlier. I’ll have to give the mokes a miss.)

CROMWELL… Director Ken Hughes…
The late, great Richard Harris.
I had a few days on the film and it was a joy to watch Mr. Harris work.

NEXT - 1970

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