Friday, January 28, 2005

Violent Playground

An email from John Glover:

Hi,
I was browsing through the web looking for dvd of the violent playground and came across your website featuring a photograph of the actor Stanley Baker during the filming of the "Violent Playground".

I am a former resident of the tenement block that was called Gerard Gardens i.e. the violent playground and have been searching for a copy of either video or dvd of the violent playground for many years. I, my family and relatives families were all resident at the time this film was made.

The flats in the background of the photograph were part of what was Gerard Crescent and this partucular block of flats were known locally as the "holy block" because a number of residents on the block had connection in the local parish church of St. Joseph's.

The block overlooked Gerard Crescent and backed onto Christian Street in Liverpool. Where Stanley Baker is sitting was waste land and was known locally as the "hills" they led down to Scotland road in Liverpool, which is probably the most famous road/street in Liverpool and is known worlwide.

As you are residing in Italy it may be of interest that there were many nationalities resident in this area amongst which were the Italian residents, and a book has been published about this this community called "little Italy".

There have been many local history books published containing photographic archives and only in recent months there has been a book publshed called "in a city living" by Ged Fagan and is mostly about Gerard Gardens, there is a photograph of the flats being demolished and the name of the "violent playground" is painted quite clearly upon the flats.
If you are interested in any further information or photographs please let me know.

best wishes

John Glover.

Brief Encounter - a personal tribute

Hi John,
Thank's for the link on Reel Streets. As for info on the project, we are filming in the Lakes next month at the little bridge and also taking some still photo's . As I have studied this scene from the film I have noticed that the long shot of C&T walking on to the bridge was done at the lakes, but the close up shots are done at Denham Studios. I did e-mail Peter Davies at Carnforth about this and he agreed. As we have no studio to do the close up shots we will have to do our re-enactment of the scene on the bridge, should be fun !!. We also had the BBC take interest in our project and we did some film work with them at Carnforth Staton. It was for the "inside out" programme which was aired in October 2004. It didn’t turn out too bad for our first attempt. We hope to be going back to Carnforth to do another photo shoot this year as Janet has had the double edge coat made, plus the suit and hat that Celia wore in the second half of the film. I will send you some photo's over from both shots. I managed to contact Ronald Neame who is now 93 and told him about our project. He was quite taken back by our efforts, and gave us words of encouragement to carry on, which I was over the moon about. I hope to be writing an article for the Carnforth Chron in the near future, I will keep in touch as things pan out.
Regards
Steve & Janet.

Brief Encounter - a personal tribute

Saturday, January 15, 2005

Billy Liar

Some help with Billy Liar from Gareth Nolan:

Hi John
,Just to go through your images -
1 & 2 we've covered
.......................yes, thanks
3 - I know where it is and will get a shot ASAP
........................Leeds Town Hall
6 - got a brill shot of that and it's attached
.........................Really splendid
8-10 got the shot just need to compile the pic
.......................OK
11 - got it and will send soon
....................good, off Southgate
12 - 13 that's Southgate as you know, I've got a shot I took yesterday with Barbara matted in
...................OK14 covered that
..................Prince's Way, I'm told
15-17 didn't get that shot - light let me down - will go back ASAP
.....................OK
18 - got it - need to compile the pic
.....................well done
19 no idea - there is no building that tall in Bradford
....................the tower to the right of Christie's head, a clue???
20-22 all the same location used twice and shot from different angles - got a shot similar to 22 ready to send
..................thanks
23 - not sure, still looking
...................doesn't seem to be the building in Pic 19
24 - no stadium in Bradford had 2 tiers as shown on the internal shots - assuming its the same stadium inside (where they're playing RUGBY incidentally) I'm working on this one.
..................ah, ha!25 - no idea
26 - I've got it but it's nearly impossible because the view is ruined with construction work
27 - Isn't that a cemetery and/or a public building? ;)
...................maybe you're right...................or maybe not?28 - 29 - Bradford Exchange Station - long gone and replaced by the Crown Courts and a public car park. Can't find any pics at the moment.
...................no, Marylebone in London I'm told.
30 and 31 - correct it is Midland Road.
...................Pic 6/7, coming back, and uphill.
Excellent stuff Gareth, thank you
John