A week after completing filming at Cofton Manor, on St. Patrick’s Day, we were based in Evesham for the first day of a three-day shoot.
Joining Shane O’Regan on the cast front once again, the boys of 452 Squadron, Chris Kaye, Rafe Bird, Jonathon Cobb, Blake Heaven and Max Robson and the first location was the Fleece Inn. Landlord Nigel Smith was even kind enough to rustle up breakfast and coffee for our cast when they arrived on set. Nigel also made a small cameo in the scene!
After wrapping on that shoot, we headed off back to Ashdown Military camp, where the next two days of shooting would also take place.
Once again, John Donovan, the Finucane family historian, and David Goldstein, a man whose encyclopaedic knowledge on the life of Brendan Finucane and all things WW2 RAF could fill several books, visited us on set. Their knowledge was called upon on several occasions as we set up various scenes. They’re also two of the nicest people you could meet, so it’s always a great pleasure to have these guys on set!
In the afternoon, another familiar site arrived on set – the full-scale replica Spitfire, built by Terry and Steve Arlow.
The following two days were centred around scenes involving spitfire interiors and exteriors. Joining the cast front was Reggie McHale and Robert Salathiel, Stuart Horobin and Robert Harrison, whom we last worked with on 7 Days – The Story of Blind Dave Heeley. Also joining the cast was Sam Cole.
Also on set, was photographer Andrew Maxted whose wonderful photos can be seen in this and our previous filming update blogs.
On the second day of the shoot we were visited by the CEO of 101 Films International, Andy Lyon. 101 Films have been so supportive of the project it was great to have the chance to show Andy our team in action.
Also dropping by for a visit during the shoot was Dr Joseph Quinn. Dr Quinn is the project co-ordinator of ‘Their Finest Hour’, a crowdsourcing initiative by Oxford University that aims to collect and digitally archive the everyday stories of the Second World War. Directors Ian and Dominic Higgins and Dr Quinn have previously talked at length about the life of Brendan Finucane on several occasions, so it was wonderful to have him on set while we were filming some key scenes!
It was an intensive 3 day shoot, early starts and late finishes, but we got more great scenes and 90 percent of the filming now in the bag.
As always, we end this blog by expressing our gratitude for those who have been so generous in their help, and so a big thanks goes out to John Donovan, David Goldstein, Terry and Steve Arlow, Nigel Smith and Emma James.
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