FILMING BANTLING BOY
'Bantling Hall', better knows as Dorney Court, Taplow.
"The scene I was involved with required me to shoot two arrows. The first was to hit the target, but not in the Gold. The director wanted it in the Red. The second was to miss on the left hand side. This was a bit tricky as I was shooting a wooden longbow arrow from a TD01 bow. The longbow that will be seen was too small for me to use, as it was a child's bow. The nock was a little large and it kept sliding off the nocking point. This meant that instead of shooting 'Hunter style' at this very short distance, I had to keep the arrow on the string shooting 'Olympic' or 'European' style. As I had had no practice or rehearsal, the arrows went higher than required on the first shots. So lowering the bow (there were no sights either) I got the first arrow in the Red after a couple of shots. The second required me to reduce the power of the shot, and only drew the bow half way to get the correct flight and landing of the arrow.
"In the programme, you will see 'Peter Craxton' played by Thomas Grant, shoot an arrow, and he is quite happy as it is near the Gold. He runs (OK, yes I know, but it's only a film) up and shouts that he wants to go for gold next or the (ahem) 'bullseye'. He is accompanied by 'Geoffrey Bantling' played by Philip McGough who makes a point of helping him. He protests and the arrow is loosed to totally miss the target. Naturally he is upset and slumps down on the ground ordering 'Geoffrey' to "go fetch". Meanwhile, Barnaby (John Nettles) has interrupted 'Angela Hartley' (Caroline Blakiston) who was hammering a fence post, and they walk towards the hall. Barnaby stops and looks back and sees an arrow shot into the ground, then looks around and sees 'Angela' still heading towards the 'Hall'.
"I managed to get John Nettles' picture during a break in filming just before I left. I didn't get pictures of the other players, but will add them when the episode comes on screen.
"This all took place on a very hot and sunny Monday 6th September 2004. The food at lunchtime was excellent."
Barnaby
Pictures and paragraph copyright to Len Jones