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arthur_of_the_britonsSaturday 15 October (II)
After a break, we went to the hotel’s Waterwheel Suite, where we watched “People of the Plough” and “The Gift of Life” while waiting for Oliver to arrive, and I drew lots for the order in which people could get their autographs, chats, and photos with Oliver.
At around 4 pm, the celebratory cake was delivered by "Tile Cakery." It had photos from "Arthur of the Britons" on the outside, framed like slides.
Soon after, Oliver and Jelly arrived. After unwrapping the cake, and photographing it, we prevailed upon Oliver to cut it for us.
He did a great job, serving everyone, and it was delicious! Very moist and rich, lemon-flavour, with buttercream and lemon curd inside.
So while we ate, and chatted, I called people up to have their individual talks with Oliver, and get their autographs. While Oliver was doing this, Jelly was in the bar, doing tarot readings.
María José told Oliver she has three degrees, one of them in history, in which AotB originally sparked her interest.
One person brought a publicity photo for “The Stud”, of Oliver, with his arms around Joan Collins, to be signed. Oliver said his expression showed what he was feeling – that he wished he was somewhere else! He felt that Joan Collins was the kind of woman who would ignore or dismiss any other woman in the room. At a later date, when he introduced his wife, Arabella, Joan was dismissive of her, and from then on, Oliver took a dislike to her.
Annette spoke of her job helping children who were in trouble of some kind – she said she always talks to the parents; she and Oliver agreed, “It’s never the child’s fault.”
Christine asked about the “Bravo” award Oliver won from the eponymous German teen magazine. I hadn't asked him about them before, because he’d once said that he didn’t have any mementos from the time.
He said he didn’t know how, but he still had not one, but two Bravo awards, on display under his TV: one for "Arthur of the Britons", and another for "Luke's Kingdom."
Carole got Oliver to sign the early publicity photo which appeared in "Bravo", of him posing as Arthur. He said the sword wasn’t the one that was used in the series, and he also had a beard in the photo.
Below, Janet and Oliver have a good chat.
Martin was there for 20 minutes, though he started by saying that Oliver had already answered all his questions! They spent some time talking about bikes, as he’d brought Oliver the gift of a vintage biker magazine.
Phil had brought in a small strip of 16 mm film from the “Arthur of the Britons” credit sequence, to show Oliver. Oliver explained that due to the 16 mm film only having a single set of sprockets, you can sometimes see a slight drift, especially during the credits. This looks like a “shimmer”, which modern directors sometimes try to emulate.
One behalf of a fan who couldn’t attend, I asked what was Oliver’s favourite series to work on after AotB; his reply was “Luke's Kingdom”, because it was so real, and well-researched.
We were just getting ready to move out when Phil showed up with a replica of Arthur’s sword, which he had made himself, in the 1980s. He swore that he’d asked the hotel - despite their ban on weapons on the premises – and they let him bring it in, on the grounds that it was blunt! So of course, we had to have a go at posing with it – Martin and I, anyway.
Later, we all sat in the bar, and chatted. Topics included politics (again), and horses – Oliver says people don’t appreciate them. At some point during the weekend, we spoke about how the scene in “The Challenge” was filmed, where they were laying into each other on horseback, and we were seeing the action from below. He said there was a bench or something between them for the cameraman, who would be turning this way and that, and the horses and riders would be either side. The horses would have to be very co-operative.
We spoke of how horses in Westerns were very badly treated – Linda mentioned trip-wires being used. At some point, Oliver spoke of how someone he knew had been in India, in the army, and when he left, his commanding officer made him shoot his three horses. “Can you imagine having to do that?” Oliver said, with horror in his voice. I said I would prefer not to! He told us that man had PTSD because of it.
He also spoke about Yul Brynner. I put it to Oliver that Brynner was rarely seen in “Romance of a Horsethief”, and that Oliver should have been the star, as he did most of the work! He pointed out that Yul Brynner’s name brought in the money to make the film!
Yul Brynner is a very small but powerful man. And he had an extensive set of conditions, or “rider” on his contract, including a particular breakfast, involving eggs which he insisted should be brown, and cooked in a particular way, with some special kind of meat.
One morning, Oliver was having breakfast with him, outside Brynner’s trailer, when the film’s composer Mort Shuman drove past, throwing up lots of dust which ruined Brynner’s breakfast. Brynner refused to do any work until Shuman had been thrown off the set!
Perhaps Brynner had realised that the soundtrack was far from being the film's best feature ...
After a break, we went to the hotel’s Waterwheel Suite, where we watched “People of the Plough” and “The Gift of Life” while waiting for Oliver to arrive, and I drew lots for the order in which people could get their autographs, chats, and photos with Oliver.
At around 4 pm, the celebratory cake was delivered by "Tile Cakery." It had photos from "Arthur of the Britons" on the outside, framed like slides.
Soon after, Oliver and Jelly arrived. After unwrapping the cake, and photographing it, we prevailed upon Oliver to cut it for us.
He did a great job, serving everyone, and it was delicious! Very moist and rich, lemon-flavour, with buttercream and lemon curd inside.
So while we ate, and chatted, I called people up to have their individual talks with Oliver, and get their autographs. While Oliver was doing this, Jelly was in the bar, doing tarot readings.
María José told Oliver she has three degrees, one of them in history, in which AotB originally sparked her interest.
One person brought a publicity photo for “The Stud”, of Oliver, with his arms around Joan Collins, to be signed. Oliver said his expression showed what he was feeling – that he wished he was somewhere else! He felt that Joan Collins was the kind of woman who would ignore or dismiss any other woman in the room. At a later date, when he introduced his wife, Arabella, Joan was dismissive of her, and from then on, Oliver took a dislike to her.
Annette spoke of her job helping children who were in trouble of some kind – she said she always talks to the parents; she and Oliver agreed, “It’s never the child’s fault.”
Christine asked about the “Bravo” award Oliver won from the eponymous German teen magazine. I hadn't asked him about them before, because he’d once said that he didn’t have any mementos from the time.
He said he didn’t know how, but he still had not one, but two Bravo awards, on display under his TV: one for "Arthur of the Britons", and another for "Luke's Kingdom."
Carole got Oliver to sign the early publicity photo which appeared in "Bravo", of him posing as Arthur. He said the sword wasn’t the one that was used in the series, and he also had a beard in the photo.
Below, Janet and Oliver have a good chat.
Martin was there for 20 minutes, though he started by saying that Oliver had already answered all his questions! They spent some time talking about bikes, as he’d brought Oliver the gift of a vintage biker magazine.
Phil had brought in a small strip of 16 mm film from the “Arthur of the Britons” credit sequence, to show Oliver. Oliver explained that due to the 16 mm film only having a single set of sprockets, you can sometimes see a slight drift, especially during the credits. This looks like a “shimmer”, which modern directors sometimes try to emulate.
One behalf of a fan who couldn’t attend, I asked what was Oliver’s favourite series to work on after AotB; his reply was “Luke's Kingdom”, because it was so real, and well-researched.
We were just getting ready to move out when Phil showed up with a replica of Arthur’s sword, which he had made himself, in the 1980s. He swore that he’d asked the hotel - despite their ban on weapons on the premises – and they let him bring it in, on the grounds that it was blunt! So of course, we had to have a go at posing with it – Martin and I, anyway.
Later, we all sat in the bar, and chatted. Topics included politics (again), and horses – Oliver says people don’t appreciate them. At some point during the weekend, we spoke about how the scene in “The Challenge” was filmed, where they were laying into each other on horseback, and we were seeing the action from below. He said there was a bench or something between them for the cameraman, who would be turning this way and that, and the horses and riders would be either side. The horses would have to be very co-operative.
We spoke of how horses in Westerns were very badly treated – Linda mentioned trip-wires being used. At some point, Oliver spoke of how someone he knew had been in India, in the army, and when he left, his commanding officer made him shoot his three horses. “Can you imagine having to do that?” Oliver said, with horror in his voice. I said I would prefer not to! He told us that man had PTSD because of it.
He also spoke about Yul Brynner. I put it to Oliver that Brynner was rarely seen in “Romance of a Horsethief”, and that Oliver should have been the star, as he did most of the work! He pointed out that Yul Brynner’s name brought in the money to make the film!
Yul Brynner is a very small but powerful man. And he had an extensive set of conditions, or “rider” on his contract, including a particular breakfast, involving eggs which he insisted should be brown, and cooked in a particular way, with some special kind of meat.
One morning, Oliver was having breakfast with him, outside Brynner’s trailer, when the film’s composer Mort Shuman drove past, throwing up lots of dust which ruined Brynner’s breakfast. Brynner refused to do any work until Shuman had been thrown off the set!
Perhaps Brynner had realised that the soundtrack was far from being the film's best feature ...