Arthur of the Britons 50th Anniversary Event: Day 2 - visit to Black Rock
Saturday 15 October (I)
I went down at 9:30 to see whether everyone was ready. They weren’t, but some were on the way. Linda pointed out that people getting themselves here on time was their responsibility, not mine ... Some of us managed to get together for a group photo!
When Sean Dromgoole (who played “Krist” in the episode “The Gift of Life”, and was credited as "Sean Fleming") arrived, he chatted to Oliver for a while. They hadn’t met up for many years. We then sorted ourselves out into the smallest number of cars we could manage, and left in a convoy of about 5 vehicles.
I was invited to ride shotgun in Oliver’s huge left-hand drive Chevrolet. In the back were Jelly, Mark and Akvile. Linda led the convoy over Priddy, where we had lovely views, while Steve took his car and passengers and went his own way, and arrived first!
I had been a bit worried about the weather, but the drizzle cleared off in time for our walk, and only resumed when we were getting back in the cars, so we were very lucky.
As we walked up the track to Black Rock Quarry, Oliver said he hadn’t been here since filming the episode, “The Slaves.”
I asked about the actor/stuntman Jackie Cooper, who had to fall from the top of the quarry.
Oliver said that cardboard boxes would be piled up, to about a third of the height of the drop, and covered with a big canvas sheet. It would cover a large area, but still look very small from the top! The stuntmen are a tight knit group and all look out for each other, and make sure the site is inspected.
Oliver and Sean reminisced about the student extras, who had to wait around for long periods, and often got stoned. When they finally got the call to action, they really went for it in any fights they had to enact - some went a bit berserk!
Oliver, Sean and I discussed how long it took to film. Oliver thought it must have been a year, but I told him that filming began in June or July, and went on till December. Sean agreed that it was standard to take a fortnight to film an hour’s worth of TV, so a week per 25 minute episode made sense.
Oliver was surprised it was only 6 months - he clearly felt like he was “Arthur” for longer than that. He said that having spent so much time out in the countryside, going back to London was really hard to get used to. He felt out of place, and wondered what he was doing there. He still prefers to have countryside around him - to be able to see the horizon.
Along with Akvile and Mark, I went about halfway up the rocky slope cut into the side of the quarry, on which the slave workers had been shackled.
Akvile went right to the top - Mark and I weren’t brave enough!
Meanwhile, Jelly made some videos of Oliver and Sean, and the rest of us.
Oliver couldn’t remember whether people had been filmed up on that ledge, and Linda assured him that they had. Oliver said “Then I must have been up there … I guess …” He then speculated as to whether any horses went up there. Linda said “there would have been a lot less crud on that shelf” back then (loose rocks and plant growth), but Oliver then said, “I don’t think a horse went up on that shelf” and Sean agreed, “I can’t see a horse up there. I don’t think Ben Ford1 would have allowed that.” Oliver said, “Yeah, lovely guy. Sadly, you know, when they moved on, with Robin of Sherwood, they got rid of Ben, and he couldn’t understand it.”
More transcripts from the videos below:
OT: … lived in Stroud, with the Fords, who had a horse stable and … carriages; horses and a riding school, and they kept about … oh, I dunno, about 18 horses.
JG: Were they the horses you used on the show?
OT: Some driving horses, yeah, they supplied the horses and they had the riding school, weekends. Weekends sometimes I’d take strings of people up riding above Stroud there, and … er … which was great. And then when we moved from that location, which was … the lake where we went last time, Woodchester …. Stroud was close to there, then I moved just the other side of Bristol airport, rented a cottage there, and stayed there pretty much till the end of the programme … till we finished.
SD: Ben Ford did this, um … Olly was very … as I remember it, you found your horse quickly, and you were happy, and it was all good. Michael was slightly slower to find the right horse, and they tried one, it didn’t work, then they tried another one, it didn’t work, so they … Ben Ford went out and bought a new horse to see if it got Michael’s vote, and he called it Merlin. I said, “Why’d you call it Merlin?” He said, “Because if it keeps Michael Gothard happy, it’s gonna be a fucking miracle!”2
…
SD: Ben did a lot of carriage stuff.
OT: And then, when one would be injured or have a bit of a sprain, then I’d use the other one. But you had to train them both to things. I have a story … we go to where “The Challenge” was shot, I can tell you a story there which is pretty hair-raising … I won’t tell it now … give it away, because I can show you exactly what happened.
LW: Did you ride before taking the part?
OT: Yeah. I got … I rode since I was 12, 13, 14 … um … my parents luckily enough sent me to riding school and I never forgot that, and then, um, I rode first in a film …”Romance of a Horse-thief”, and there I worked with a group of Cossacks - they came … Yugoslavia , they had the army, the cavalry, Russian, Polish horse … (inaudible) … with Yul Brynner and Eli Wallach, and we were horse-thieves I think, we had to ride, fantastic horses, Lipizza horses, grey, Lipizzan grey, and then they had this group for a festival, which was filmed within the film, of um … you know, Cossacks, showing off their stuff, and the young character I played jumps on and does his thing and everybody claps, and all that, so I learned a lot from them. I learned, for example, that picking up a handkerchief at a gallop, hanging sideways off the horse, and all that sort of thing …. (inaudible) … that was useful, and then I went to Italy and made a film called … you mentioned it … “’Tis Pity She’s a Whore”, and there I played this character who loses his rag, gallops around this monk, picking up sand and throwing it at him in a fury and all that, and that … [gesturing at SD] … your father saw that film. Who was the American who co-produced …?
SD: Skip Steloff.3
OT: Steloff, and he said, “This is the guy; this is the guy we want! He can ride! He’s nuts, and wild, and we should hire him, so …
JG: What was his name? Skip …
OT: Steloff. That’s the reason why it then came through my agent, can we go and do trails?
…
OT: From beginning to end we were in the field.
Unk: The whole time?
OT: Yes, like we just said, we never had any studio time with “Arthur.” We filmed it in the huts … in the locations … the huts were built … the roofs were okay to take the rain …
SD: Did you watch rushes? Did you use to go back and watch rushes, or not?
OT: Very occasionally, towards the end, yeah.
SD: With “Robin of Sherwood” that was a big scene. Everyone went to the rushes, and there was one director who said “You can’t!” and all the other directors said, “Of course you can!” and literally 30 people would go and watch them.
OT: I think it’s … well, we didn’t.
SD: It made for some grumpy discussions afterwards, when people thought they’d been doing stuff and the director hadn’t picked it up, and so … it was a bit tricky but …
OT: That’s actors for you!
SD: And then of course you were at HTV so there was a bar there.
OT: Yes.
SD: Did you spend any time in the HTV bar?
OT: I did, yes, I did, yeah …
SD: I did as well … Not when I was twelve!4
OT: That was great because the crew would hang out there.
SD: People would wind down together, basically, and then get not enough sleep, and then turn up at 7 o’clock the following morning. But it was … it was a very friendly crew.
OT: Talking about riding, it comes to me that Jack Watson had a bad bone, down there [indicates left buttock/hamstring], so when he cantered or galloped it was painful for him, and, um, he’d hang on, so he’s always … [imitates Jack Watson’s rather strained posture in the saddle]
…
LW: Was there any filming on Blackdown?
OT: It’s very likely, yes; the galloping stuff [indicates rolling hills] sort of, open …
The dogs in the photos are Linda's brindle greyhound, Gwen, and white lurcher, Trigger.
…
OT: … collect the money had two or three hangers-on. They started moving into my house, all the liggers and layabouts … In those days, very few people had … money … it was the sixt- early seventies … it was different … and if you had a name, and even five bob in your pocket, you had ten people hanging onto you. It’s like all the rock stars were surrounded by you know, the … see, we called them liggers … hangers-off and … that’s what happened to me, too.
SD: I don’t think that’s changed, actually.
JG: And was that a problem, or … were they a help to you in some way?
OT: Oh, they were your greatest friends.
JG: Okay!
OT: They were all traitors, they’re all … rip … took … oh, who’s paying? You know … “Can I sit here?” “Oh, I’ll have that!”
SD: “Am I paying again? Oh, what a surprise!”
OT: “Who’s paying?” Of course, you end up paying …
JG: That’s not right!
OT: Well, it’s what it was like … I had some friends of course … some …
SD: You used to come back and see us, which was nice - that was good.
OT: Very much so, yeah, yeah .
SD: See, my dad and mum lived about 8 miles that way [indicates direction] towards [inaudible]. Occasionally - and not always predicted - Olly would turn up, and that carried on for years, that was great.
OT: Yeah, yeah …
…
JG: [pointing at the large rock] I actually climbed on and stripped myself to the waist …
OT: Bloody hell!
SD: I think we’re here on the wrong day!
…
Linda insisted that I get up on The Rock on which Arthur had been tied up and flogged, 50 years before. We all went over, and I got a small boost and managed to grab the top of the rock and hang there.
SD: Is that the whipping position?
LW: This is it.
OT: That’s amazing!
SD: Joya, I feel I know you!
LW: Classic social media … arms spread a bit more! Last time she did it, she took her top off.
JG: I won’t do that today - there are gentlemen present!
OT: Cut her loose!
Once I got down, Oliver and Sean had their photos taken with The Rock.
Sean Dromgoole was planning to go and see his dad, Patrick - the Executive Producer of “Arthur of the Britons” - the following day, so he got us all to stand together in front of the The Rock and say, “Thank you, Patrick, for ‘Arthur of the Britons’ while he took a video.
Then we decided to go to a nearby pub Linda knew for coffee, so we all piled into our cars, and off we went, back up the gorge and up to the pub, The Queen Victoria Inn, at Priddy.
Sean told us about how Dave Prowse (who appeared in two episodes of AotB) wanted his own voice to be used for Darth Vader, as he was the one playing the character. To demonstrate why that wouldn’t be a good idea, the Director delivered some of Darth’s lines in a Cornish accent!
We returned to Wookey Hole, and went over the road to the Wookey Hole Inn for lunch, after which Sean said his goodbyes.
~~
1 Ben Ford owned the stables which supplied the horses for “Arthur of the Britons.”
2 Perhaps it was here that we got the information that Michael was very competitive, and wanted the fastest horse!
3 Skip Steloff was Chairman and Chief Executive of Heritage Entertainment, an independent Los Angeles production company, which co-produced “Arthur of the Britons.”
4 Sean was 12 when he appeared in AotB. He later worked behind the camera on other HTV productions.
I went down at 9:30 to see whether everyone was ready. They weren’t, but some were on the way. Linda pointed out that people getting themselves here on time was their responsibility, not mine ... Some of us managed to get together for a group photo!
When Sean Dromgoole (who played “Krist” in the episode “The Gift of Life”, and was credited as "Sean Fleming") arrived, he chatted to Oliver for a while. They hadn’t met up for many years. We then sorted ourselves out into the smallest number of cars we could manage, and left in a convoy of about 5 vehicles.
I was invited to ride shotgun in Oliver’s huge left-hand drive Chevrolet. In the back were Jelly, Mark and Akvile. Linda led the convoy over Priddy, where we had lovely views, while Steve took his car and passengers and went his own way, and arrived first!
I had been a bit worried about the weather, but the drizzle cleared off in time for our walk, and only resumed when we were getting back in the cars, so we were very lucky.
As we walked up the track to Black Rock Quarry, Oliver said he hadn’t been here since filming the episode, “The Slaves.”
I asked about the actor/stuntman Jackie Cooper, who had to fall from the top of the quarry.
Oliver said that cardboard boxes would be piled up, to about a third of the height of the drop, and covered with a big canvas sheet. It would cover a large area, but still look very small from the top! The stuntmen are a tight knit group and all look out for each other, and make sure the site is inspected.
Oliver and Sean reminisced about the student extras, who had to wait around for long periods, and often got stoned. When they finally got the call to action, they really went for it in any fights they had to enact - some went a bit berserk!
Oliver, Sean and I discussed how long it took to film. Oliver thought it must have been a year, but I told him that filming began in June or July, and went on till December. Sean agreed that it was standard to take a fortnight to film an hour’s worth of TV, so a week per 25 minute episode made sense.
Oliver was surprised it was only 6 months - he clearly felt like he was “Arthur” for longer than that. He said that having spent so much time out in the countryside, going back to London was really hard to get used to. He felt out of place, and wondered what he was doing there. He still prefers to have countryside around him - to be able to see the horizon.
Along with Akvile and Mark, I went about halfway up the rocky slope cut into the side of the quarry, on which the slave workers had been shackled.
Akvile went right to the top - Mark and I weren’t brave enough!
Meanwhile, Jelly made some videos of Oliver and Sean, and the rest of us.
Oliver couldn’t remember whether people had been filmed up on that ledge, and Linda assured him that they had. Oliver said “Then I must have been up there … I guess …” He then speculated as to whether any horses went up there. Linda said “there would have been a lot less crud on that shelf” back then (loose rocks and plant growth), but Oliver then said, “I don’t think a horse went up on that shelf” and Sean agreed, “I can’t see a horse up there. I don’t think Ben Ford1 would have allowed that.” Oliver said, “Yeah, lovely guy. Sadly, you know, when they moved on, with Robin of Sherwood, they got rid of Ben, and he couldn’t understand it.”
More transcripts from the videos below:
OT: … lived in Stroud, with the Fords, who had a horse stable and … carriages; horses and a riding school, and they kept about … oh, I dunno, about 18 horses.
JG: Were they the horses you used on the show?
OT: Some driving horses, yeah, they supplied the horses and they had the riding school, weekends. Weekends sometimes I’d take strings of people up riding above Stroud there, and … er … which was great. And then when we moved from that location, which was … the lake where we went last time, Woodchester …. Stroud was close to there, then I moved just the other side of Bristol airport, rented a cottage there, and stayed there pretty much till the end of the programme … till we finished.
SD: Ben Ford did this, um … Olly was very … as I remember it, you found your horse quickly, and you were happy, and it was all good. Michael was slightly slower to find the right horse, and they tried one, it didn’t work, then they tried another one, it didn’t work, so they … Ben Ford went out and bought a new horse to see if it got Michael’s vote, and he called it Merlin. I said, “Why’d you call it Merlin?” He said, “Because if it keeps Michael Gothard happy, it’s gonna be a fucking miracle!”2
…
SD: Ben did a lot of carriage stuff.
OT: And then, when one would be injured or have a bit of a sprain, then I’d use the other one. But you had to train them both to things. I have a story … we go to where “The Challenge” was shot, I can tell you a story there which is pretty hair-raising … I won’t tell it now … give it away, because I can show you exactly what happened.
LW: Did you ride before taking the part?
OT: Yeah. I got … I rode since I was 12, 13, 14 … um … my parents luckily enough sent me to riding school and I never forgot that, and then, um, I rode first in a film …”Romance of a Horse-thief”, and there I worked with a group of Cossacks - they came … Yugoslavia , they had the army, the cavalry, Russian, Polish horse … (inaudible) … with Yul Brynner and Eli Wallach, and we were horse-thieves I think, we had to ride, fantastic horses, Lipizza horses, grey, Lipizzan grey, and then they had this group for a festival, which was filmed within the film, of um … you know, Cossacks, showing off their stuff, and the young character I played jumps on and does his thing and everybody claps, and all that, so I learned a lot from them. I learned, for example, that picking up a handkerchief at a gallop, hanging sideways off the horse, and all that sort of thing …. (inaudible) … that was useful, and then I went to Italy and made a film called … you mentioned it … “’Tis Pity She’s a Whore”, and there I played this character who loses his rag, gallops around this monk, picking up sand and throwing it at him in a fury and all that, and that … [gesturing at SD] … your father saw that film. Who was the American who co-produced …?
SD: Skip Steloff.3
OT: Steloff, and he said, “This is the guy; this is the guy we want! He can ride! He’s nuts, and wild, and we should hire him, so …
JG: What was his name? Skip …
OT: Steloff. That’s the reason why it then came through my agent, can we go and do trails?
…
OT: From beginning to end we were in the field.
Unk: The whole time?
OT: Yes, like we just said, we never had any studio time with “Arthur.” We filmed it in the huts … in the locations … the huts were built … the roofs were okay to take the rain …
SD: Did you watch rushes? Did you use to go back and watch rushes, or not?
OT: Very occasionally, towards the end, yeah.
SD: With “Robin of Sherwood” that was a big scene. Everyone went to the rushes, and there was one director who said “You can’t!” and all the other directors said, “Of course you can!” and literally 30 people would go and watch them.
OT: I think it’s … well, we didn’t.
SD: It made for some grumpy discussions afterwards, when people thought they’d been doing stuff and the director hadn’t picked it up, and so … it was a bit tricky but …
OT: That’s actors for you!
SD: And then of course you were at HTV so there was a bar there.
OT: Yes.
SD: Did you spend any time in the HTV bar?
OT: I did, yes, I did, yeah …
SD: I did as well … Not when I was twelve!4
OT: That was great because the crew would hang out there.
SD: People would wind down together, basically, and then get not enough sleep, and then turn up at 7 o’clock the following morning. But it was … it was a very friendly crew.
OT: Talking about riding, it comes to me that Jack Watson had a bad bone, down there [indicates left buttock/hamstring], so when he cantered or galloped it was painful for him, and, um, he’d hang on, so he’s always … [imitates Jack Watson’s rather strained posture in the saddle]
…
LW: Was there any filming on Blackdown?
OT: It’s very likely, yes; the galloping stuff [indicates rolling hills] sort of, open …
The dogs in the photos are Linda's brindle greyhound, Gwen, and white lurcher, Trigger.
…
OT: … collect the money had two or three hangers-on. They started moving into my house, all the liggers and layabouts … In those days, very few people had … money … it was the sixt- early seventies … it was different … and if you had a name, and even five bob in your pocket, you had ten people hanging onto you. It’s like all the rock stars were surrounded by you know, the … see, we called them liggers … hangers-off and … that’s what happened to me, too.
SD: I don’t think that’s changed, actually.
JG: And was that a problem, or … were they a help to you in some way?
OT: Oh, they were your greatest friends.
JG: Okay!
OT: They were all traitors, they’re all … rip … took … oh, who’s paying? You know … “Can I sit here?” “Oh, I’ll have that!”
SD: “Am I paying again? Oh, what a surprise!”
OT: “Who’s paying?” Of course, you end up paying …
JG: That’s not right!
OT: Well, it’s what it was like … I had some friends of course … some …
SD: You used to come back and see us, which was nice - that was good.
OT: Very much so, yeah, yeah .
SD: See, my dad and mum lived about 8 miles that way [indicates direction] towards [inaudible]. Occasionally - and not always predicted - Olly would turn up, and that carried on for years, that was great.
OT: Yeah, yeah …
…
JG: [pointing at the large rock] I actually climbed on and stripped myself to the waist …
OT: Bloody hell!
SD: I think we’re here on the wrong day!
…
Linda insisted that I get up on The Rock on which Arthur had been tied up and flogged, 50 years before. We all went over, and I got a small boost and managed to grab the top of the rock and hang there.
SD: Is that the whipping position?
LW: This is it.
OT: That’s amazing!
SD: Joya, I feel I know you!
LW: Classic social media … arms spread a bit more! Last time she did it, she took her top off.
JG: I won’t do that today - there are gentlemen present!
OT: Cut her loose!
Once I got down, Oliver and Sean had their photos taken with The Rock.
Sean Dromgoole was planning to go and see his dad, Patrick - the Executive Producer of “Arthur of the Britons” - the following day, so he got us all to stand together in front of the The Rock and say, “Thank you, Patrick, for ‘Arthur of the Britons’ while he took a video.
Then we decided to go to a nearby pub Linda knew for coffee, so we all piled into our cars, and off we went, back up the gorge and up to the pub, The Queen Victoria Inn, at Priddy.
Sean told us about how Dave Prowse (who appeared in two episodes of AotB) wanted his own voice to be used for Darth Vader, as he was the one playing the character. To demonstrate why that wouldn’t be a good idea, the Director delivered some of Darth’s lines in a Cornish accent!
We returned to Wookey Hole, and went over the road to the Wookey Hole Inn for lunch, after which Sean said his goodbyes.
~~
1 Ben Ford owned the stables which supplied the horses for “Arthur of the Britons.”
2 Perhaps it was here that we got the information that Michael was very competitive, and wanted the fastest horse!
3 Skip Steloff was Chairman and Chief Executive of Heritage Entertainment, an independent Los Angeles production company, which co-produced “Arthur of the Britons.”
4 Sean was 12 when he appeared in AotB. He later worked behind the camera on other HTV productions.