Posted by Dorothea on August 18, 1997 at 00:03:30:
In Reply to: Re: BOOKWORM programme posted by Bob Hollis on August 16, 1997 at 16:35:15:
I was there. 'John' & 'Susan' skipped two day's school & came up from Somerset to take part.
The programme was based on We Didn't Mean to go to Sea. Four Tarlings appeared.
John (also known as Andrew Weeks) was interviewed along with Oliver Smith (Bourn Mafia).
The fair haired girl was Lucy Laubin (one of the infamous Magpie Pirates from Hitchin).
Read all about some of their other exploits in Signet & The Outlaw.
Filming took place over two days with a team of 5 or so BBC staff.
The interviews were conducted in mud amongst the barge hulks at Pin Mill - guranteed to rot camera tripods & tape recorders..
The shots of Nancy were filmed at or just off Woolverstone Marina.
Taqui was brought from London for her brief appearance aboard Nancy, & the team visited Hugh Brogan at his home.
Bookworm showed John & Susan (Emily Weeks) hauling up the anchor, as well as the night scene of John steering alone & happy (while we rocked the ship).
All for 8 minutes viewing time!
The programme was very positive & gave a pretty good outline of Ransome & Nancy, and drew on footage from the black & white 1963 BBC film of SA.
Several old photographs of Ransome & Genia were shown, as were two of his houses.
TARS was cited as a literary society with a difference. We did not only have dusty archives, we had Nancy Blackett.
The result was far better than we feared it might be!!