Hello Harry,
I just want to say a quick hi to you. I checked out your site, brought back some good memories. Humour in them days was...well different I guess, a lot of fun, clean sort of humour, saucy perhps ( CARRY ON FILMS ) but never dull, and I think those greats really were popular to the general public as a whole ( I think everyone liked the carry on films ), not like now, where people, don't like him, he's not funny, or too contraversial,...but he is ok...if you get my drift.
Wow a comedy legend on the forum... you could be the resident..."Sir, how do we do this sir?!"
Welcome aboard... I remember you in star wars!
hallo how do and welcome we usually have Hula dancers for the introductions but they appear to be missing mmm well any way Welcome!!
Quote: Gavin @ April 17, 2007, 6:01 PMhallo how do and welcome we usually have Hula dancers for the introductions but they appear to be missing mmm well any way Welcome!!
Talking of Hula Dancers.....
THE PHOENIX AND THE CARPET…BBCTV…
An agent sent me to Ealing film studios to start work on a seven day contract.
Well that’s good news to me. Better a seven day contract than a day here and there.
It’s 7:30 in the morning and the 2nd A.D. says ‘’ Go to dressing room five, get into your costume and come back down to make/up’’
In dressing room five there’s no costume. (has he got the number wrong?)
I’m back down again. ‘’Excuse me, there’s nothing in room five for me to wear’’
‘’It’s hanging on the rail, I put it there myself’’ ‘’Ok’’ (I’ll have another look)
As I start to go upstairs, I bump into Terry Greenham a prop man for the BBC.
Terry used to get up and sing a good song in some of the pubs I was compering in.
A Tony Bennett style songster…‘’What are you doing here Aitch?’’
‘’I’m here for seven days on The Phoenix’’ ‘’Oh you’re one of them’’ ‘’Them?’’
‘’Yea, a South Sea Islander. You’re on your own today but tomorrow there’s a dozen of you. Plenty of Hula dancing and frightening kids.(Wait till I get hold of the agent that sent me here. (Alf Costa)
I find the costume (Grass skirt) and head for the make/up room.
Two nice young ladies are covering my face and body with dark brown make/up.
Then the hairdresser finds me a big black wig and some earrings and there’s talk of putting a bone through my nose. (Art for art’s sake etc).
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v422/harryfielder/12December20025.jpg
AITCH AND TERRY GREENHAM NOT ON HAWAII FIVE O…
Now it seems the director wanted a tribe of blue eyed South Sea Islanders.
On the first take that I’m involved in a small white child is crawling through the jungle undergrowth and lands at my feet.
The director pans the camera over my feet and up the length of my body to my face. This is the child’s eye line. ‘’Now say something and frighten her’’ He barks.
(Now I’m not to up on South Sea talk. We don’t get many Islanders in Islington)
I’m lost for a second then it comes to me…TARZAN…
‘’UMM GOW AHH’’ I roar. (It works as she bursts into tears)
It took Terry Greenham and co ten minutes to stop laughing. It was a good week.
Aitch
Brilliant story! 
oh yeah inspired a story get in 
was a good un
Great to work with this man.....
1972
FRENZY…Director…Alfred Hitchcock…
I am now working with the Master of filming.
Where I was born in Islington London, there was a huge warehouse type building on the corner of the Grand Union Canal in New North Road. (Very near the North Pole Pub)
It was in fact a film studio. As a kid in the forties I used to swim in the canal as it cost nothing entrance fee. (You had to watch out for the large Mocking birds floating on top of the water)
I think the studio was called Gainsborough and as a kid I remember strangely dressed people popping into the pub on the corner of New North Road and Elizabeth Avenue. (Supporting Artists of the past)
Anyway, that’s where Alfred Hitchcock made many of his films.
(I could have bumped into him while I was going swimming and he was popping in for a swift half. It’s a small world)
ONTO THE FILM…
I was now the not so proud owner of an old Bedford van and was booked by the 2nd A.D. on Frenzy to report to Covent Garden fruit market for the start of a weeks work...
There must have been fifty supporting artists working that week as market porters.
It was thirty years ago but some people still come to mind, like Big Mo Dunster who was stand/in on films for Donald Sutherland. Jimmy (the crow) Hammilton, Eddie Dillon And Bill (the body) Hemmings.
I remember the day that Donald Sutherland came down to speak to Mo about a private matter and got into one of the shots.(Everyone wants to be in a Hitchcock movie)
Mo has done well for himself and now lives in the U.S.A. looking after the Sutherland clan. Best wishes Mo, love Boysie.
Mr. Hitchcock was not very well while he was directing this film and would line up all the shots he wanted and leave the running around to his 1st A.D. (Colin Brewer, I think)
We filmed all around the market for the next week or so loading vans and unloading vans (Including my old Bedford) but I was more interested in watching the Master at work. Then near the end of the shoot in the market it happened.
The Master looked at me then at the 1st A.D. and said…
‘’Tell that man to climb up on that lorry and start unloading it’’
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v422/harryfielder/PDVD_0440.jpg
(‘’That man’’) he said my name, I was being directed by the great man himself.
We shot a lot of the inside of the film at Pinewood. Then some stuff with the Bedford Following a potato lorry up and down major roads and that was it.
I was sorry to see the end of the filming but it’s one film I will never forget.
If you’re looking down from that great studio in the sky Mr. Hitchcock ‘’That Man’’ will say hello when he gets there.
Aitch,
Great story. And oh, how Covent Garden has changed!
Hi harry,
wow... a real star! What a life so far... just wonderful stories... got any more?
:-)
Quote: Darren Goldsmith @ May 3, 2007, 11:31 AMHi harry,
wow... a real star! What a life so far... just wonderful stories... got any more?
:-)
1982
GREAT EXPECTATIONS…BBCTV…
I’m off down to the mud flats of the West Country on another version of this Dickens story.
Again I’m playing an old time copper and there are another dozen of us Supporting Artists to help out with the filming for a few days.
On the first early morning start we all sit down to breakfast in the hotel.
The Wardrobe dept insist that the coppers all have large napkins placed on their laps and fronts to keep the pure white and red uniforms in pristeen condition for the filming.. (It’s a bit like we don’t know how to eat breakfast without making a mess down ourselves)..
After breakfast it’s onto the coach for the two mile drive to the mud flats and the dialogue goes ‘’Sit straight boys, don’t crease those trousers, don’t smoke on the coach in case you get ash over yourselves, hang your jackets up etc’’
(Now here’s the rub)
John (The Grunter) Cannon and I are to be in the first shot which consists of getting Magwitch (Stratford Johns) out of the water and mud in the tidal river… (I’ve sure I’ve done this before)
Terry Plumber is stunt double for Mr Johns and weighs in at about eighteen stone (dry).
On the word ‘’ACTION’’ Aitch and the Grunter are into the mud and water and wade out to get Magwitch and help him to shore..
When we reach Terry and try to lift him we start to sink into the mud.(napkins and creased trousers come to mind)
My large police top hat falls off and is heading for the coast as we struggle to get Terry to the bank..
When we are near to the bank Terry gets substituted for Stratford Johns for the close ups. He has to be muddied up.
Because it takes a couple of hours to do the dialogue scenes (although on screen it’s two minutes) the Grunter and I keep drying out and are asked before every take ‘’if you wouldn’t mind getting back into the mud for continuity sake’’.
We finish off all the scenes by the river bank, then the three of us are whisked back to the hotel to get some clean dry clothes.
The coach driver doesn’t stop tut tutting all the way back about the mud we’re spreading in his nice clean coach. (He should have put us on the roof rack)
The Grunter and I were cold and wet and the first thing the jobs worth assistant wardrobe person said was (flapping) ‘’Where’s your hat, where’s your hat’’?
I looked at the clock on the wall, turned to him and said… ‘’In the English f***ing Channel by now…
The rest of the shoot went to plan and I can laugh about it now.
(I still think David Lean’s 1946 version of this story can’t be topped)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v422/harryfielder/pic54.jpg
What happened to the "Don’t get your uniform dirty rule"
Another fun story....
Night Breed 1990,,,Clive Barker.....Pinewood..
got called down to Pinewood studios for a day from a 1st A.D. who said he wanted me to do some business..
Wardrobe dress me as a lumberjack type person and I go onto the set..
All I’ve got to do is fire a shotgun at a very small man (stuntman) who is dressed and made up as the Devil. (This is a horror film) (Easy so far!)
I fire the gun into some bushes but miss the target. The director tells me to go forward and find the little devil.
All of a sudden this little man (stuntman) has me around the neck and slings me over his shoulder and onto the floor..
(I’ll have a quick word with the 1st A.D. as soon as I get my wind back)..
1st A.D.: "Sorry Aitch, I didn’t know he was going to do that, the director said he was only going to get you on the floor so he can slit your throat" (Nice, and me with my first grandson (Marc) only a few weeks old).
I said to him "You can’t go slinging granddads about it ain’t right"..
1st: "We’re paying £150 for the job". "Sling away".. I tell him..."but don’t cut my throat too deep I wanna have a swift half at lunchtime"…(I’m back)
Aitch
very funny.
Very funy and Bizzare 
Another fun story....
MURPHY’S WAR… Peter O’Toole…Director Peter Yates…
Central Casting sent Jerry Floyd, Nick (the bubble) and myself down to Portsmouth or Southampton (cant remember which) to play German U Boat crew. We’d be there for a couple of days and stay in a local B/B over night.
When we get called onto the set we go below decks on a British submarine that is decked out like a second world war German U Boat.
Now it seems in the film the U Boat has run aground on a sand bank on an inlet river in South America and is waiting for the tide to turn so it can refloat.
Meanwhile Peter O’Toole is trying to chop a very large tree down and put it across our Sub. (Thus, causing us some discomfort.)
(Got the plot so far, he’s dropping trees, and I’m in the basement..)
A cute make up girl asks me to strip to the waist (and I think, from the shoes up, what no flowers? We’ve only just met) but she has to put make up on my face and body to make me look tanned as if I was in South America.
Bert Batt the 1st A.D. took us all to see the Director Peter Yates (of Bullitt fame) and I was chosen to be the blue eyed German working the controls of the Sub..
After a few different angles the make up girl applies sweat to my hair and face.
The camera is stuck an inch from my nose. (Now we are talking about close ups here. My face plastered sixty foot by eighty foot at the Odeon Marble Arch.
She could have saved on the sweat, I was sweating for England.)
Peter was guiding me through the shots. ‘’Imagine you can hear a noise above you.
Now imagine there’s a noise to your left, now to your right. Don’t move your head back too far, we’re close on your eyes.’’ Then it was ‘’CUT, see you in the morning eight O clock.. Thanks Harry that was good’’.
Well that was good for me too. It took me hours to come down.
Me, Jerry and Nick went out on the town and got very pissed. (Well it makes a change)?
The next day I’m back at the controls of the Sub and I’m thinking is it to be another starring role. Peter tells us today’s the day the Sub gets hit and there could be a drop of water splashing around.
First scene control room…I’m standing at the controls and Peter talks me through it.
‘’Now concentrate on the controls Harry and keep looking about. It seems the tide is coming in and you’re going to be all right. Now give a huge sigh of relief. It’s very quiet now but suddenly, !!!!! CRASH !!!!.
That’s the cue for the Prop men to sling big buckets of freezing cold water over me.
‘’You’re panicking now Harry (He’s got good eyesight) More water on him and CUT.
I spent most of the rest of the day sitting on the Sub deck enjoying the warm sun while the Stuntmen got their share of the water.
We shot some other stuff in one of the cabins drinking beers then it was time to head off back to London. Thanks Mr. Yates.
(You must remember in the film game that all the shots don’t make it to the big screen, a lot end up on the cutting room floor)
Aitch, 
I went to the bank to get some money out, trouble was I had to wait for them to close 
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v422/harryfielder/Sweeney/cb2.jpg
Aitch, 