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The Gift of Life: call sheet no. 25
Thursday, 27 July 1972 07:00 amThis call sheet was kindly donated to this archive by Peter Thornton, who was employed as Clapper/Loader – a role now known as 2nd Camera Assistant – for much of the series. The episode appears to have originally been titled “The Saxons Are Coming”, but the cast list confirms that the document pertains to “The Gift of Life.”
The episodes were given alphabetical designations, and “The Gift of Life” was episode ‘E’, which indicates that it was the fifth episode to be filmed.
The call sheet is No.25, and is dated 27th July 1972, which was a Thursday, so this would have been the fourth day of filming on this episode.
Filming was to take place at Woollard, which - at this point - is still considered to be “on location” – the main base being at Woodchester.
Geoffrey Adams (Hald) and Heather Wright (Hildred) were collected by car at 7:00, from the Unicorn Hotel 1, where guest stars were commonly billeted. Michael Gothard (Kai) made his own arrangements. These three were required in Make-up/Wardrobe at 7:30. The children, Sean Fleming (Krist) and Tamzin Neville (Elka) had to be there by 08:00, presumably brought by their parents, Patrick Dromgoole (the Executive Producer) and Daphne Neville (chaperone and extra) respectively. All had to be ready to film at 8:30.
The only horse required was for Kai.
The scenes listed to be filmed in the morning are 17 and 19. Judging by the cast needed, these would be the scene where Kai and the children arrive at the woodland path near the village, and Kai encounters Hald for the first time, and the scene where Kai and the children walk down into the village, and are greeted by the women and children working in the fields. An hour seems quite a short time to have allowed for the shooting of both Kai’s arrival with the children, and their rapturous greeting by the village, but as Heather Wright is required on set at this time, it seems the only option. The content of Scene 18, which was to be missed out, is unclear. Possibly it is the shot of Hald coming out of the woods and announcing the return of the children.
The “crowd” was collected from HTV studios at 07:00, in a “Z car bus”. This was not directly related to the BBC series, "Z Cars"; Peter Thornton says, “I seem to remember that “Z Cars” was a taxi company that had the contract to ferry cast members between the set and the hotel.” In fact, there is still a company named “Z Cars” operating in Bristol. Assuming that they were being collected from HTV Television Centre at Pontcanna, Cardiff, these extras would have arrived at around 8:20 – possibly in time to be included in the scene of Kai’s arrival with the children.
Meanwhile, Stephan Chase (Horgren), Kenneth Bender (Ulrich) and Meic Stevens (the minstrel, here listed as "Mike Stephens") were to be collected from the Unicorn Hotel at 7:45, arrive in make-up/wardrobe at 8:30, and be ready to shoot at 9:30. Also required were some “Elders” to be collected in a cast minibus “per Andrew Wilson’s instructions.”
The scenes scheduled for filming from 08:30 were 20, 22 and 23. Scene 20 must have been the scene in which the return of the children is celebrated with a feast. Scene 21, not filmed at this point, would have been the one where Krist and Elka inadvertently give away Kai’s identity as Arthur’s lieutenant. Scenes 22 and 23 would have been the shock revelation of Kai’s identity, and then his hearing before the tribe’s Elders.
No “weather cover” scenes are listed, so presumably the forecast was for a fine day.
Catering for the cast and crew – about 95 people - was laid on by George Cook, all on location.
Among the props required are listed “practical flowers” and “practical fire” - which means real flowers and a working fire: “there is a requirement for a prop to be as it would in real life” according to Peter Thornton.
A telling note at the bottom of the page shows that “pick ups” - shots filmed after the bulk of an episode has been completed – from “Enemies and Lovers” and “The Challenge”, were to be filmed at the end of the week, on Saturday 29th July. From this we can gather that those episodes were C and D. An article in the Bristol Evening Post published 13th July refers to Oliver’s spear injury, incurred during “The Challenge”, as having occurred during the week beginning 10th July, making that one episode C. “Enemies and Lovers” must therefore have been episode D, the bulk of which must have been filmed during the week beginning 17th July.
1 Possibly The Unicorn Hotel, West Street, Somerton TA11 7PR England – this would have been about an hour away by car.
2 Oliver Tobias (Arthur) was not involved in the day’s filming – the filming schedule/call sheets having been arranged to give him time to recover from the head injury he suffered while filming “The Challenge.”
The episodes were given alphabetical designations, and “The Gift of Life” was episode ‘E’, which indicates that it was the fifth episode to be filmed.
The call sheet is No.25, and is dated 27th July 1972, which was a Thursday, so this would have been the fourth day of filming on this episode.
Filming was to take place at Woollard, which - at this point - is still considered to be “on location” – the main base being at Woodchester.
Geoffrey Adams (Hald) and Heather Wright (Hildred) were collected by car at 7:00, from the Unicorn Hotel 1, where guest stars were commonly billeted. Michael Gothard (Kai) made his own arrangements. These three were required in Make-up/Wardrobe at 7:30. The children, Sean Fleming (Krist) and Tamzin Neville (Elka) had to be there by 08:00, presumably brought by their parents, Patrick Dromgoole (the Executive Producer) and Daphne Neville (chaperone and extra) respectively. All had to be ready to film at 8:30.
The only horse required was for Kai.
The scenes listed to be filmed in the morning are 17 and 19. Judging by the cast needed, these would be the scene where Kai and the children arrive at the woodland path near the village, and Kai encounters Hald for the first time, and the scene where Kai and the children walk down into the village, and are greeted by the women and children working in the fields. An hour seems quite a short time to have allowed for the shooting of both Kai’s arrival with the children, and their rapturous greeting by the village, but as Heather Wright is required on set at this time, it seems the only option. The content of Scene 18, which was to be missed out, is unclear. Possibly it is the shot of Hald coming out of the woods and announcing the return of the children.
The “crowd” was collected from HTV studios at 07:00, in a “Z car bus”. This was not directly related to the BBC series, "Z Cars"; Peter Thornton says, “I seem to remember that “Z Cars” was a taxi company that had the contract to ferry cast members between the set and the hotel.” In fact, there is still a company named “Z Cars” operating in Bristol. Assuming that they were being collected from HTV Television Centre at Pontcanna, Cardiff, these extras would have arrived at around 8:20 – possibly in time to be included in the scene of Kai’s arrival with the children.
Meanwhile, Stephan Chase (Horgren), Kenneth Bender (Ulrich) and Meic Stevens (the minstrel, here listed as "Mike Stephens") were to be collected from the Unicorn Hotel at 7:45, arrive in make-up/wardrobe at 8:30, and be ready to shoot at 9:30. Also required were some “Elders” to be collected in a cast minibus “per Andrew Wilson’s instructions.”
The scenes scheduled for filming from 08:30 were 20, 22 and 23. Scene 20 must have been the scene in which the return of the children is celebrated with a feast. Scene 21, not filmed at this point, would have been the one where Krist and Elka inadvertently give away Kai’s identity as Arthur’s lieutenant. Scenes 22 and 23 would have been the shock revelation of Kai’s identity, and then his hearing before the tribe’s Elders.
No “weather cover” scenes are listed, so presumably the forecast was for a fine day.
Catering for the cast and crew – about 95 people - was laid on by George Cook, all on location.
Among the props required are listed “practical flowers” and “practical fire” - which means real flowers and a working fire: “there is a requirement for a prop to be as it would in real life” according to Peter Thornton.
A telling note at the bottom of the page shows that “pick ups” - shots filmed after the bulk of an episode has been completed – from “Enemies and Lovers” and “The Challenge”, were to be filmed at the end of the week, on Saturday 29th July. From this we can gather that those episodes were C and D. An article in the Bristol Evening Post published 13th July refers to Oliver’s spear injury, incurred during “The Challenge”, as having occurred during the week beginning 10th July, making that one episode C. “Enemies and Lovers” must therefore have been episode D, the bulk of which must have been filmed during the week beginning 17th July.
1 Possibly The Unicorn Hotel, West Street, Somerton TA11 7PR England – this would have been about an hour away by car.
2 Oliver Tobias (Arthur) was not involved in the day’s filming – the filming schedule/call sheets having been arranged to give him time to recover from the head injury he suffered while filming “The Challenge.”
