Magical Mother's Day Mystery Tour

The second Sunday in March is Mothers' Day in the UK.  In 2011 the agreement was that we would wait and acknowledge Australian Mothers' Day, but it was forgotten because there were no local reminders.   2012....well let's forget 2012.

And so it was with some surprise that I found gifts waiting for me this morning, Mothers' Day 2013, and heard the news that we were "going out."  Where to?  No details.  All I finally managed to find out was that it was somewhere near Wimbledon and it was a tour of "a place."

Thanks to track work, the train trip was rather long and we found ourselves stuck in Sunday traffic jams (?!) on the rail replacement bus.   Somewhat odd then to end up walking very briskly in a somewhat unattractive area, through an industrial estate, worrying that we were going to be late for I had no idea what!  We dashed in to what turned out to be studios but I was still none the wiser as we were given wristbands and ushered through some doors, up some stairs, out the back of the building to........

And gets very excited!

The set of THE BILL!!!!

Sally realises just where she is!

There to welcome us all was PC Gary McCann, played by Clive Wedderburn for 8 years until 2000.  As the only person who didn't know where she was going, my reaction was apparently quite entertaining for the group on the tour and great for Clive (we were very quickly on first name terms!!) to play off!

Now, what you have to know is that I watched The Bill for many years and converted Mark.  The show started in 1984 and was picked up in Australia by my English parents. I watched the program like no other until it's demise in 2010 - just before we came to the UK (I couldn't believe they did that to me)!  As I told Clive, when we lived in Damascus, video tapes of The Bill were forwarded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade via diplomatic bag for staff to watch (in the days before cable tv and to provide a break from monotonous Syrian tv).  First dibs went to the ambassador, but then it was on for young and old!

Back in Australia, Mark and I watched The Bill diligently.  Saturday night was a double billing of 2 half hour episodes and became known as Bill Night (a good night in!) at our place, while Tuesday night was a bonus with a half hour episode.  It had to be a good offer or something special to get me out of the house on a Saturday night, unless the video was set up in advance. Sad really, but it kept us happy! When changes were made to the format and filming around about 2008, like many others we got annoyed and felt the program had lost its way.  But I kept watching regardless and it was with great sadness that we watched the final episode!

The Bill Tour was a fabulous opportunity to look around the various sets and hear stories from Clive of how things worked on set, tricks of the trade, and funny stories. The sets are as they were left when the show finished 3 years ago and we very quickly started to recognise where we were!

"St Hughes Hospital"
The whole "ward" was set up with signs, posters,
equipment and machinery so that shots could
look as realistic as possible.

Clive recreates his first screen test

How many scenes do I remember shot up and down these stairs?!

Stories of half plates of cold beans and chips
served in the canteen over and over till the take was done right.

Aaah - it's C.I.D!

Talking camera angles and corridor shoots.

Gary gives away some secrets

William learns the tricks of the lift.

We learnt how cameras worked with scenes, how small spaces could be used over and over in different ways, and some of the clever techniques used in filming (great for Aisha who is in a film club at school and soon to film the story her group have written and worked on - apparently our house is to be part of the set...!)  Mostly though, it was just great fun working out where we were and having mini flashbacks!

Aisha and Sally have fun in Custody

Be quiet in there or there'll be no food!

Just as I remember it. You'd never know it wasn't real!

Look where we are!

We ended our tour in the memorabilia room.  All the publicity
photos were for sale, but Sally, like a kid in a sweet shop,
just couldn't decide and ended up getting...the t-shirt!

The real Clive Wedderburn!

As we walked back to the train station, excitedly talking about our visit, a man joined in our conversation and we had to look twice.  PC Gary McCann had changed into Clive Wedderburn!  We talked some more, got advice on where we should go for dinner and said our farewells, leaving Clive to head off and find a pub where he could watch the Liverpool match before heading home to Brighton!

Thanks for the memories and thanks Mark for a fabulous Mothers' Day surprise!!

Farewell Sun Hill