Bath Tec School

80 000 Suspects

8/12/2009 2:24:10 PM
In 1962 or perhaps 1963, some of us found ourselves recruited to ride round in a double-decker bus as extras in a fairly iffy film called 80,000 Suspects.  The only requirement was that we should be available for nighttime filming. Several classmates of mine kept the opportunity of making some extra pocket money on the side very quiet and only trumpeted about it after the event.  Those of us living in far-flung places missed out on the chance but I think it was less about cash than the excitement of seeing if not meeting real live film stars (in particular Claire Bloom who at the time a notably "classy" lady).

As it turned out all we heard about were stories of the cold and the boredom of sitting around for hours doing nothing.

Can any body remember anything notable about the film or perhaps being one of the extras?

Comments

- 8/12/2009 2:49:32 PM
Hi Mike, I could only find this  http://www.britmovie.co.uk/directors/v_guest/filmography/003.html
- 8/12/2009 2:58:16 PM
Hi Guys,
All I can say is ..  "should have gone to sharlotte Ramplings set" .. weren`t they doing "Far form th Madding Crowd" as well then ?
 
The old City has been the backdrop for many a production .. I can vaguely remember something in the Chronicle about extras wanted for a Sci-fi film ..but, thank goodness.. I`d discovered girls by then , and night times were spent secreted away in the various Bath parks ...ssssscchhhh !! .. don`t tell the wife ..
- 8/12/2009 5:11:20 PM
Hi All
 
80000  (population of Bath at that time) suspects was the film shot in Bath. My only claim to fame is that the opening shot is a policeman in Abbey Churchyard at night in a cape (raining). That policeman was a real bobby and he was my Unle Fred (Fred Book).
 
Bet you are enthralled or am I confusing you with somebody that is interested in what I am saying?
 
A mine of useless information!!
 
Cheers
 
Steve
 
 
P.S. Bill, email accidently deleted - do I have to delete something?
 
 
- 8/12/2009 10:11:48 PM
Look what I found .. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/80,000_Suspects
- 8/12/2009 10:25:16 PM
Hi Guys.
Interesting to learn of the film 80000 Suspects, must admit that I had never heard of it before. Good work Anth, in digging out the information on the web. Sounds as though it was fairly mediocre, but interesting to think that some of our compatriots may have been in it. Your contributions Mike and Steve, bring some local interest to it also.
My only contact with the film industry was equally insignificant. They were shooting some crime mystery in Brighton once at a time when I was there working. Didn't think much of it at the time, but a couple of years later it was televised and one scene had a backdrop of one of the major Hotels and there very clearly in the car park was my pick up truck. I remember parking it there as it took some time to convince the commissionaire that the two scruffy oiks in the pick up were guests and had not come to service the elevators or something!
Incidentally, there was another film made in the Bath area that I dare say that few people have ever heard of, or would want to. It was made by the British Transport Commission in 1956 on the Somerset and Dorset around the Binegar area and for the sake of the movie the aforementioned station was renamed Boiland and Shepton Mallet was renamed Averton Hanger. The film was a training tool and was titled 'Emergency Single Line Working'. The renaming took place as the mandarins of the BTC wanted to keep the location from being identified as the proceedure should apply to any region of British Railways. However, during the making of this 'epic' one of the locos used was a rather distinctive S & D 7F, which really let the cat out of the bag!
I guess someone had a red face.
Have to go now guys, bore you all again soon.
John.
PS Been on the site Bill, thanks for revealing another source. Curiously, there still seems to be some interest in the film!
- 8/13/2009 12:04:27 AM

My only experience of the film industry was a brief encounter with the Shoestring team in the early eighties.

My wife and I were keen member of a local am dram group and were asked by the production team to provide background bodies for a number of shots they wanted to make locally.  It was during the school holidays and so being a teacher (as everyone knows we gently waste our 6 weeks doing absolutely nothing - I thought I'd get that one in before any one else did) we could spend the time doing the takes over two days.

Now I taught in a CofE Comp at the time and my Head was very conscious of image and moral rectitude. Nevertheless, I didn't think he would mind me appearing in the background of a couple of pub scenes (even if I could be recognised).  However we underestimated the wiles of the production company.  Ensconced in a mock-up pub (set up in a back room of a local hotel) we were given packets of cigarettes to create a smoky atmosphere and pints of real beer to keep us happy. Horror of horrors, they had imported a real stripper (not an actress) from Bristol to dance amongst us, draping herself and her ample mammaries around those she passed.  All would have been well had we been seated in the background, but no, we were part of a tracking shot where the camera followed the dear lady's derrière at our face height.  No way could I avoid the inevitable. 

I had a rather uncomfortable few months anticipating the worst.  However when the episode was broadcast I was enormously relieved to see that they had only used a second or two of the shot and that the rest ended up on the proverbial cutting room floor.

- 8/13/2009 11:00:34 AM
Hi Mike, any idea of the episode title, or series as it is easy to find and download, but the total is around 16 gigs and there are twenty one episodes.
- 8/13/2009 12:38:44 PM
No Anthony, only that it was one of the second series which included a fight on the Biblins footbridge close to Symond Yat on the Wye.

Mike