Jane Jackson

Jane claims to be a body double for Britt. Others say she never made it into the film. We don't know.

### Some tidbits

Ekland’s contract permitted only topless nudity… Hardy would scream if the camera went near her stomach.

She lived in Castle Douglas at the time, “My friend ran a hairdressing salon in a hotel used by the film crew.” (Cally Palace) She was working locally (Gatehouse of Fleet? Cally Palace?), A man in a sheepskin jacket (both Robin and Peter Snell wore them) asked her is she had been told if she looked like Britt Ekland?

She met Britt who inspected her, saying hmm, ok. (She thinks scenes were filmed upstairs at Cally Estate Office…) She did walk through naked. “I was handed pounds 25 in an envelope.” after it was over.

They had to use two body doubles as one of them had to go back to school?

“as soon as she left the set for the day, a body-double was sneaked in to film the writhing scenes…”

Note: Helen Wallace is noted as a stand-in for Willow’s dance scene (and other Willow scenes.) She appears on Call Sheets for 11/3 and 11/15. I don’t have any other info on her.

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In 1998 lived in Kirkcudbright.

### Brown’s book

“Jane Jackson (extra): I was helping a friend who was working at a hotel in Gatehouse of Fleet and one day I was standing watching the filming when a gentleman in a big sheepskin jacket came over, I think he may have been the producer, and asked if I’d ever been told I looked like Britt Ekland. He said, ‘We’d like you to come and meet the rest of the cast and maybe think about doing some stand-in work.’ My friend insisted I go so we’d be invited to the party at the end of shooting, which was to be in the Cally Hotel. So I went, they asked me a few questions, and I agreed to stand in for Britt. When I met her, she inspected me, walked round me and sort of said, Hmm, so that was OK. Whatever they wanted me to do after that, I went along with them. There were one or two scenes in the Cally Estate Office which were filmed upstairs. I could never bear to watch it.”

Excerpt From: Allan Brown. “Inside the Wicker Man.” Apple Books.

“Robin Hardy: I explained this scene to Britt and so she knew exactly what was involved. I put a stand-in, naked, in the place Britt would be. I let Britt look through the camera, showed her exactly what we’d shoot, the angle we’d do it from and so on. She was happy, up to a point, but she refused to have her arse seen on camera. She was a few months pregnant at the time, I believe; she said her arse looked like a ski slope and we couldn’t shoot it.

She was perfectly prepared to show her tits, but we had to get a nightclub go-go dancer very quickly to play her backside. ”

Which is practically the same as how he describes it to Stephen:

### Stephen Applebaum's book

(The Wicker Man: Conversations with Robin Hardy, Anthony Shaffer & Edward Woodward - see the Book section here for more info on it.)

Here’s an interesting tidibt in the book, Hardy talking about Willow’s dance:

“We rehearsed it with Britt to playback. I've always felt that if you want actors to do something like that you've got show them through the lens more or less what you're doing. So her double took all the various positions so she could see what we were going to see of her. She then said, 'Well, I don't think you can shoot my bottom because I have a very bad bottom. I don't want you to see that.' Whether that's true or not I don't know, but that was her view. And since she was highly cooperative throughout the whole project one had to believe her. So we then had to go and get somebody else to do the back.”

Then he talks about going to Glasgow to get the stripper who we know turns out to be Lorraine Peters. So does this give credence to Jane Jackson’s claim that she was the double? She showed Britt what the dance was going to show and then they got Lorraine? It seems the first person's back didn't look like Britt's. Maybe the double he is talking about was fully clothed though. Gary? (I know you've addressed this before. Just curious if you remember the part about a double walking through Willow's part before they got Lorraine?)

Chat with Stephen, 9/26:

Stephen doesn’t remember more about where or when this quote happened:

Stephen Applebaum The nude woman was a Glasgow stripper. Another double (Janet Jackson) was used to block the scene. It was then that Ekland realised what the audience would see of her and Hardy was forced to quickly find a nude body double.

Sally Steele Errr she wasn't a stripper, she was a local girl who worked near Gatehouse of Fleet at the Cally Palace. She was watching the filming and the director spotted her striking resemblance to Britt. She still lives locally and anything else said about her like that is plain misinformation. She married a local business man, and has two lovely grown up kids. And she's still as gorgeous as she was back then

Stephen Applebaum Sally, they searched the strip clubs of Glasgow and found her. If it is "misinformation", then it is misinformation being spread by the film's director. It is worth noting that Ekland appears to have had another body double who, when they were blocking the seduction scene, stood in various positions so that Ekland understood what the camera would be seeing of her. It was at this point that Ekland realised that they would be filming her rear, and she baulked. The hunt then started for a naked body double. So perhaps the woman you both know was her other double, not the one who actually performed the naked dance. It is all in here (cue more shameless self-promotion

A second double??

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Jane Jackson interviewed in the Ellangowan Hotel bar\*

### Country tracks 2009

- Ellangowan exterior and interior

- Jane Jackson interview

- “Britt Ekland’s body double” - as if she was what ended up in film.

- They told me what they wanted…

### Ex-S BBC Scotland

- lots of locals used, to do things they’d regret later.

- for years, people always remembered me as the girl who stood in for Britt Ekland, Stewart Hopps, Jake Wright, Jane,

- Jane Jackson, one of the Britt Ekland stand-ins for the dance, or was she? (14:30) …producer came up to her in sheepskin jacket… Britt Ekland inspected her. She’s never seen it, She could never bear to watch it.

- narrator: Jane was not the only body double. Stewart Hopps: they booked Lorraine Peters, a stripper from London,

### Scotland On Screen, w/ Alan Cumming, 2009

- Jane Jackson short interview, it was fun

- 2 segments with her in them.

### You know you're from Kirkcudbright when you remember...........what?

- As for the Willow’s dance, that was filmed at 59 George St, Whithorn. Yes, there was a body double but it was Lorraine Peters. Jane Jackson may have done a nude dance for someone’s camera but it wasn’t the official filming, maybe someone who tricked her.

### Film Comment vol.13 no.6 (November 1977) pp.29-31 (USA)? (not sure where this quote came from)

Jane Jackson says her nude scenes were shot upstairs at the Cally Estate offices…

### (BluRay featurette) interview with Robin Hardy (Declan’s copy)

He let her see what the camera was seeing for nude scene. You do a rehearsal with someone else (this could be where Jane Jackson came in) and this coincides with what Britt has said (she ok’d her and Jane confirms this), hammering on the cupboard door (so he’s not pretending it was a door to Howie’s room). Had to find someone so we got a young woman from a nightclub in Glasgow who was a wonderful dancer,

### Gary Carpenter website

“As to Jane Jackson, who has it on record that she was filmed by a man in a sheepskin coat as the body double, I would venture to guess that her footage now resides safely in someone's private collection!”

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Jane Jackson lived in Castle Douglas at the time.

Hardy went to Glasgow to get stripper

https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12767429.Ekland\_reopens\_controversy\_of\_the\_mystery\_rear/

### Sunday Mail (Glasgow), Dec 13, 1998 I was Britt’s body double

“A SCOTS mum is to reveal the secrets of her one and only film part...

Playing a "bottom double" for Swedish sexpot Britt Ekland.

Jane Jackson stood in for Britt during the filming of The Wicker Man, 26 years ago.

Jane, from Kirkcudbright, says she got the part purely by chance.

"My friend ran a hairdressing salon in a hotel used by the film crew.

"I met the producer, who remarked on how much I looked like Britt.

"I didn't think much about it at the time and I was surprised when I was asked to be a body double.

"I was told Britt was pregnant at the time and that was one of the reasons she needed a stand-in."

"The producer actually told me he preferred my bum to Britt's because he said Britt's was like a ski-slope."

In one scene, Britt's character, publican's daughter Willow, tries to entice a policeman into her bedroom.

"People often ask me, if I'm in these shots," says Jane.

"Well, I was in part of the sequence but I'm not saying if my bare bottom was seen!"

She was interviewed for the 25th anniversary of the cult horror for the BBC's Ex- S show.

The movie starred Edward Woodward as a copper lured to a Scottish island, only to be burned in a giant wicker effigy.

Jane, now 52, met Britt quite a lot during the filming, but says: "She did not like it here and she made a lot of insulting remarks."

The mum of two also reveals that she was paid a pittance for the part. "I was handed pounds 25 in an envelope," she says.

Scottish Daily Record, 1998

copyrighted

### https://www.scotsman.com/news/masons-get-in-the-swing-1-709998 (page not found anymore)

The organisers tell us Edward and Britt would be most welcome, but maybe local girls Jane Jackson and Lorraine Peters will make up for it with their presence. They were Britt’s "botty" doubles in the infamous dance scene. They had to use two as one of them had to go back to school.

Read more at: https://www.scotsman.com/news/masons-get-in-the-swing-1-709998

### Compulsion Online page which has some info on her.

When I stood in for Britt Ekland," says Jackson, "I had to make sure my parents didn't find out. Now I like to keep it quiet in case my daughter gets ribbed at a school."

https://books.google.com/books?id=Ys5CDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT1260&lpg=PT1260&dq=jane+jackson+britt+ekland&source=bl&ots=gLGF\_4STS6&sig=cYgPQ73EYDoJTqxaIlQ9OqU\_1To&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj36oTwyd7dAhXFt1MKHQCsDpg4ChDoATAIegQIARAB#v=onepage&q=jane%20jackson%20britt%20ekland&f=false

She was 18 at the time.

### Martin Crockall - Author for sale blog

Ekland’s famous nude scene, in which she sings to tempt Howie into her room (and bed) has several background elements to it. As Ekland was three months pregnant at the time, the camera had to be kept away from her stomach (with much screaming by Hardy every time it neared a critical line, as I once read). What’s more, Ekland’s contract permitted only topless nudity, and Hardy had promised not to slip in any bum-shots. Which meant that as soon as she left the set for the day, a body-double was sneaked in to film the writhing scenes that required Willow’s backside to gyrate so uninhibitedly. (According to Wikipedia, two body doubles were used, one being Lorraine Peters, who has a tiny role in the film as a naked woman straddling a grave, and the other an extra named Jane Jackson).

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Note: Helen Wallace was the stand-in for Britt on the call sheets for 11/3/72, 59 George St, Willow’s dance! and 11/15 for Anwoth and Ellangowan scenes. I’m guessing she didn’t do stand-ins nude.

Lorraine Peters contracts were for 11/13 (1, 2) and 11/3 (1, 2). Both are for work described as “naked girl.” 11/3 was the WIllow’s dance shoot. The 11/15 call sheet has her as the "weeping girl" at Anwoth.

The stand-in for 11/3 Willow’s dance is Helen. Neither Jane nor Lorraine is on that call sheet. It also says only interior for Howies’s room was shot, not her room…

I don’t see Jane’s name on any of the call sheets I have but I only have a few.

### Wayne Lawrence (Facebook post)

July 27, 2015

Has anybody ever tracked down Lorraine Peters & interviewed her?

(I post): How about this theory? They used Jane Jackson to “block” the scene. Hardy and Ekland have both talked about showing Ekland what the dance, her nude scene, would look like as Ekland was nervous about it. Ekland approved it. Jackson has confirmed that. I am guessing that Jackson wasn’t a good dancer though so that’s why they had to find someone else. Peters was used, whether or not she was the stripper from Glasgow that Hardy and others have mentioned. (Having a person to run through it would save them having to wait for “dailies" to come back the next day…) Gary, could that be?

Gary Carpenter: It’s unlikely. The thing would be ‘when’ and ‘where’? It couldn’t be on the day as the actual shoot took the whole day. Also Hardy and Waxman would have had to have been in two places at the same time if it were done earlier and the room it was shot in was not very big. Just getting the camera, lights, etc in would have taken the whole of the previous day. Also the local journalist who broke the story didn’t check it, seemingly just taking her word for it. For what it’s worth, Robin and I took part in a symposium in Dumfries some years back and the journalist was there. JJ was supposed to have been on our panel but apparently had a doctor’s appointment she’d forgotten which clashed and was so unable to make it.

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### Article in Galloway News from 2009 from Stuart Gillespie

2/18/22

Stuart Gillespie sends me the article below and the pic at the top of this page.

JANE Jackson is one of the most memorable stars of cult British horror film, The Wicker Man.

Yet, you never see her face and hardly anyone, outside of the Stewartry, knows her name.

For Jane was talked into becoming the body double for one of the stars, Britt Ekland.

And her claim to fame is a short sequence that shows her leaning against a door, gyrating, clad only in an oversized wig.

“It’s one of only two photographs people actually remember from the film,” said Jane who now lives at Police Close in Kirkcudbright. “All these years on, I don’t regret doing it.”

Jane is set to be featured in a BBC TV programme on the region which will include reminiscences of the filming of the Wicker Man, shot largely around Gatehouse, Kirkcudbright and Creetown.

When it was made, back in 1973, Jane’s friend ran a hair dressing and beauty salon at the Cally Palace Hotel near Gatehouse of Fleet where a lot of the shooting was taking place.

“I was living in Castle Douglas,” at the time Jane recalled. “My friend asked me to go along to give her a hand which I did. She suggested we should see them filming and while we were there I was approached by someone who asked if I knew I looked like Britt Ekland. I said ‘No’. He then asked if I would be interested in acting as her body double and it just went from there.”

The scene was probably shot at the Ellangowan Hotel in Creetown, although Jane is not certain.

“To be honest they filmed so many scenes at different locations I can’t really remember.

“It was the only one they actually used and it could have been at the Ellangowan.

“It basically involved me taking my clothes off, leaning against the wall and wiggling about,” Jane added.

“They stuck this ridiculous wig on my head. It was too big and nothing like Britt Ekland’s hair.

“It happened to be in October and with quite cold.

“Everyone is supposed to have their fifteen minutes of fame. That was mine.”

Pic is “2009-08-20\_Britt Ekland's body double in Cu”