The Ex:S Wicker Man, BBC Scotland documentary

The Ex:S Wicker Man (see it on YouTube, outtakes)

Some info here. Better info here.

1998, BBC Scotland

(Shot on November 16, 1998)

Eric Boyd-Perkins

Robin Hardy

Christopher Lee

Ingrid Pitt

Barbara Rafferty

Tony Roper

Duglas T. Stewart

John Walters - Narrator (voice)

Edward Woodward

Jake Wright

Fun. Some remarks below:

quick shot of the blue manuscript… 2:42

nice pan down of a rare pic not seen elsewhere of the scaffolding of the WM by still water! 4:10

same frosted glass on May Morrison’s shop front doors as in the movie.

note the two plant urns by the house Howie goes in (by the harbour house,kkb) try to pin that on map.

Barbara Rafferty explains how she got the job of the woman feeding her baby in the ruined church. She had just had a baby and was breastfeeding it.

Some nice stills used: the Wicker Man being constructed, the crew setting up the apple blossoming trees…,  a shot of a cameraman shooting inside the Wicker Man, a dolly shot…

Most interesting to me is the interview with the man who was supposed to jump off the bridge in the mainland scene that never made it into the movie, though stills exist, interviewed right in front of the bridge at Kirkcudbright! (9:33 into it) Jimmy Kirkpatrick!

- a driver - Jim McDowell

- a nurse - Peg Cutland

- One of the men, who were 7 or 8 at the time, who found the toad used in the scene with Myrtle! = Ramsey DIck

- Elizabeth McAdam Laughland, who was an extra in various scenes.

- a man who with his father, helped bring sheep down to Burrowhead - Tommy McShane

- the owner of the bakery, Mickey Harvey (pic), who showed the baker in the movie how to get bread out of the oven

- two of the maypole dancers in the pub (Jim Lowe and William Lindsay)

- Ian Cutler playing fiddle

- Bill Christie, owner of the Ellangowan since when the film was made behind the bar

Jane Jackson, one of the Britt Ekland stand-ins for the dance, or was she?

Nice shot of Willow’s room as it appeared then with the hallway… all on one level. The door opening across from Alder’s door, not near Howies!!! (But where are the stairs and the landing???)

Nice to see Britt’s window from outside in the daylight.

Stewart Hopps as a choreographer, says they got a stripper from London, who he thinks was Miss Peters. She did a bump and grind rather than sensual dance.

(behind the scenes shot of camera being dollied panned up)

Eric Boyd-Perkins…

So, if Robin and Peter Snell were shut out of the cutting room, who were the two who cut it? THEY would know what scenes were shot… (So would Robin, etc..)

Christopher Lee reads some of the lost lines (grandfather and apple talk). Maybe record them and use them somehow…

Woodward says he has seen three different lengths of the movie as of when the documentary was made in 1998.

Fun to see Tony Roper seeing himself in the scene that was cut.

The snails are copulating “on a large leaf of rhubarb”, according to Christopher Lee.

Spare Wicker Man erected at Cannes. I’d be curious to see more pics of that though I’ve seen a few. Studio changed hands and they “forbade” the film from being shown. (See this AP archive footage (brief - from :44 tp :47) of the Wicker Man at Cannes, 5/11/73!)

Hardy says there were 3 in all.

Hardy says (hero) stood 60’ tall.

Additional research:

Nicky Coia

Neil McDonald

Maybe they know how to get pics, etc.

Simon Parsons - listed as "documentary maker" in the Galloway Gazette, 12/4/98, "25 years of myths and legends" article about this, director here.

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Outtakes:

EW in pub, the baker comes by! woman he sits with was in other room at the time of filming.

EW couldn’t find other locations.

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(From The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Film and Television)

CREW

Director: Simon Parsons

© BBC MCMXCVIII [1998]

BBC Scotland

Series Producer: Richard Downes

Series Editor: May Miller

Camera: Mike Cuthbert, Graham Banks, Vic Kusin

Rostrum Camera: Malcolm Paris

Lighting Electricians: Graham Walker, Stuart Farmer, Peter Smith

Film Editor: Phyllis Ironside

Sound: Allan Cooper, John Crossland, John Gardner

Dubbing Mixer: Derek Livesey

Additional Research: Nicky Coia, Neil McDonald

Production Assistants: Samantha Lockhart, Patricia Wink

With Thanks to: The Logan Botanical Gardens

With:

Christopher Lee

Allan Brown (journalist)

Robin Hardy (director)

Edward Woodward

Barbara Rafferty

Ingrid Pitt

Jake Wright (first assistant director)

Duglas Stewart

Jane Jackson

Stewart Hopps (choreographer)

Eric Boyd-Perkins (film editor)

Tony Roper

John Walters (narrator)