Lets start with an old memory….Hemmings and me….I am happy to have found this picture, as it’s a decent picture and brings back happy thoughts of the good times spent together. David and I would never have lasted…we were both too young….he had a roving eye and I was struggling with a panic disorder, which lasted for much too long. He was kind and patient, but once his career revived after a long dry spell, after hitting it big as a child star, he wasn’t going to stand still for anything. He wanted me to join him in Hollywood when he was shooting CAMELOT, but I wouldn’t get on a airplane at the time….got over it eventually and so the ticket went to his then best friend John Daly. They went on to form Hemdale, which ended up a major indie company, its films included PLATOON and THE TERMINATOR.
British actors David Hemmings (1941-2003) and Jane Merrow pictured together on a street in London on 21st March 1966. (Photo by Reg Burkett/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Sweet times though. Week or so ago I was in Frome, Somerset…..at a Comic Com event, with another old working colleague Julian Glover (GAME OF THRONES) and David Warner (PENNY DREADFUL) David and I never worked together, but he had working with Hemmings and years ago David H and I went up to Stratford-upon-Avon, where David W was starring in the three Shakespeare plays: “Henry VI”, parts 1,2 and 3. The work and the role were exhausting and I think getting Warner down a bit. So Hemmings and I went up to “cheer” him up. Hemmings was a great practical joker and a very good magician! (He was a member of the Magic Circle!)…it worked and when David W and I met again at Frome, we reminisced about the weekend, which he remembered well…it had brought a big smile to his face. Of course that long ago visit included some jolly visits to the “Dirty Duck” the name by which the local pub was known, across the street from the theatre. Good to see David W again and meet his charming wife: Lisa Bowerman.
Lisa Bowerman, David Warner, Julian Glover, Isla Blair and me at Comic Com
Julian Glover and I have known each other from Youth Theatre days and we also appeared in a TV Production of “The Winter’s Tale”….which I remember well, although Julian claims to have no memory of it whatsoever! Still…it was good to meet up again and finally get to know his lovely wife Isla Blair a bit better!
And last week was spent in Edinburgh at the wonderful annual Festival, exhausting ……running around various shows and again catching up with friends including Marcia Carr, directing “Picasso’s Women”, who directed my recent Macbeth. Terry Frisby, well known writer…he wrote “A Girl in My Soup”, was there mainly to see his son Dominic, who has created a terrific new game show, based around finance and the financial world. Think it will do very well. We went to the Royal Military Tatoo….magnificent, visited a new links golf course being built on the East Coast, designed by a friend of Terry…wonderful…ate fresh lobster, one of my favourites and all in all had a great time!
Royal Military Tattoo Edinburgh.
Edinburgh Festival 2018 in the rain!
Blow-up (1966) with David Hemmings left quite an impression on this Aussie teenager at the time. Gosh 62 was not super old. The thin tie David is wearing in the shot with you came back into fashion in the 1980s, I still have a bag of thin leather ties from then. I know they say fashion goes through cycles but I’m doubtful thin leather ties will re-surface. If they do I have a good start on a vintage thin leather tie business.
Cheers John
Yes “Blow Up” was a great film and interesting comment on the tie. Not sure where David and I were for this picture!
I really enjoy your writing and your photographs.
Thank you…carry on visiting the site!!