Explosive shots as film crew ‘blow up’ Stratford Greenway bridge
“DON’T mention the war” was the message spread to the cast and crew of Second World War movie Calling the Tune ahead of its filming on the Greenway on Saturday night.
Mastermind and director behind the film Roger Harding runs production company Two Hats Films and is well known locally as a Lib Dem district and town councillor.
“I swore everyone to secrecy as we didn’t want a crowd,” Roger told the Herald.
Everyone must have kept schtum as the film went ahead without a hitch… but with a lot of flash, bang, wallops. For you see, the scenes that were being captured was the blowing up of a bridge by the French Resistance.
“We staged a French Resistance attack on the Greenway bridge on Saturday night – and blew it up,” says Roger proudly.
“We had a Citroen Traction Avant car, a German motorcycle combination and an old pedal cycle, along with various German guards, stretcher-bearers and officers.
“The pyrotechnics technician was Lee Craven, well known for spectacular pyrotechnic displays at the Victory Show in Leicestershire – and also on the most recent Bond movie.”
The message of Calling the Tune is that it’s better to make music together than fight each other. It falls firmly into what is known as the ‘anti-war’ category of cinema.
“The whole story boils down to boundaries on a map,” Roger said. “Saying people this side of the line are bad and those on the other side of the line are good – and therefore they have to kill each other.”
The film revolves around an interrogation by a daughter – who lives in England – of her mother about why the mother has been a recluse in France for 30 years. The wartime scenes are shown through flashbacks, with south Warwickshire being used to portray rural France.
Roger adds: “We now have just two days of filming left to do – but nothing as spectacular as this though!”
