Child’s Play (1954)

Told by Horatio Flynn to a group of Journalists, the story of how he and his pals caused an explosion in the village unfolds as P.C. Parker (Peter Martyn) tells Ernest Chappel (Ernest Scott) scientist to move along. The still extant pump in the village of Hambleden, Buckinghamshire.

Di Davies provides this shot of the location that she took in May 2019 not knowing that her angle would be almost exactly correct for our capture the following year. (RL)

Outside the general store Miss Emily Goslett (Mona Washbourne) comments to Dr. Nightingale (Ballard Berkeley) that Parker can't abide children.

Certainly not a store any more. SJ

Constable Parker enjoys a cup of tea from his flask, which has been dosed with salts by gang leader Tom Chizzler.

Ernest pushes his contraption through the village. Hambleden with St. Mary the Virgin church to the right.

Antony Blair returned to the scene and found that Ernest's contraption has turned into a nice 4x4 motor!

After meddling with the contraption, Horatio Flynn (Christopher Beeny) waits for Ernest to come out of his Father's study where his Mother is cleaning. Hambleden again.

The house next door to the store seen in capture 2. This was also Fontaine's cottage in The Withces (1966). SJ

The two boys carry drawers full of fossils and rocks to Ernest's museum and laboratory.

Climbing a wall, Horatio and Ernest reach the shed used as a laboratory by their gang where they examine the rocks before Tom arrives with sulphur and saltpeter.

Sergeant Butler (John Sharp) asks what's going on as Constable Parker writes down a Morse Code message being sent to Ernest from his friend Han "Einstein" Blotz.

The village is left almost deserted while everyone goes to watch the cricket.

When an atomic blast rings out around the village, Miss Goslett and P.C. Parker run to investigate. Hambleden in Buckinghamshire.

Now. SJ

Bob Crouch (Jack May) and other Villagers join the shopkeeper and the policeman. Hambleden appears in many other films including 'Dance with a Stranger', 'A Month in the Country', 'Nanny McPhee Returns', 'Into the Woods', 'Murder is Easy', 'Rollin' with the Nines', ‘The Avengers’, ‘Mr. Quilp', ‘The Legacy’, ‘Death on the Nile’, 'The Christmas Tree', ‘A Bunch of Amateurs’, ‘Another Country’, ‘The Blue Geranium’, 'The Captive Heart', 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang' and ‘Hampstead’.

Panning left from the above. SJ

Constable Parker runs ahead of the older residents as Ernest examines the wreckage of the gang's shed. Looking east along the main street running through Hambleden.

There was no shifting the Mercedes. SJ

Seeing the mushroom from the explosion whilst having tea together, Margery Chappel (Dorothy Alison) arrives in the village with Mr. and Mrs. Blotz. Steve Randall identifies the background building as The Rectory in Hambleden.

This is the closest that Steve could get.

Wanting to carry on their experiments, the children move the equipment to a new hideout near to a quarry in order to disguise the sound of their explosions.

Mrs. Chappel walks to her car as P.C. Parker rides past on his way to investigate why the children are apparently keeping out of mischief. The location also features in 'The Black Cat' and 'The Witches'.

The footbridge over the stream has changed but the charm remains. SJ

After the Ernest and his pals invent "bang-corn" as a product of their atomic detonations, Tom Chizzler (Ian Smith) offers Constable Parker a taste. In front of St. Mary's church in Hambleden.

The church also retains its charm. SJ

When the gang begin to mass produce their rival to popcorn they approach Miss Goslett to help them with marketing. Looking across the road from the front of St, Mary’s church.

The shot would have been taken from the front garden of a cottage, so Malcolm Tinnelly backed up as close as possible to the fence for this view.

The butcher shuts up shop at the end of the day as Horatio slips a note under the door of the general store. The Butcher’s Shop in Hambleden.

Different sign but everything intact. SJ

After reading the note, Miss Goslett sets off for the quarry on her bicycle to learn "something to her advantage."

Customers flock to buy "bang-corn" and the new product becomes a hit.

Taking the plans for Ernest's atomic machine, Constable Parker leaves the children at the Police Station before running to the Atomic Research Station. The bridge over Hambleden Brook looking towards Skirmett Road.

Malcolm Tinnelly waited, but the black 'pick up' was parked for the whole time he was wandering around the village.

With Miss Goslett and the gang refusing to speak back in the village, P.C. Parker arrives at the Atomic Research Station with his evidence.

The plans are taken from Parker at the gates of the establishment.

Atomic Scientists discover that Ernest's plans match their own and the Police are alerted to a possible security breach.

There follows a montage of patrol cars speeding through the streets. Christopher Matheson identified this as Silvertown By-Pass in E16 and the same sequence featuring the road also appears in 'Pool of London'.

Taken from a Docklands Light Railway train, this is the location now captured by Phil Evans.

The Bramley Arms at the junction of Latimer Road, since renamed Freston Road, and Bramley Road in footage taken from 'The Lavender Hill Mob'. Tris points out that the pub can also be seen in 'Steptoe and Son', 'Quadrophenia', 'The Blue Lamp', 'Betrayal' and 'The Squeeze'.

Converted but at least the exterior is true. SJ

Looking north along Ladbroke Grove W11 from the junction with Lansdowne Crescent in a borrowed scene from 'The Blue Lamp' which is also reused in 'The Big Job'.

Tris returned to the recycled location.

A police car draws up outside the village Police Station. Outside Hambleden Institute, now the Sports & Social Club, with the Post Office to the centre.

And now in colour, by Steve Randall.

Another reused scene, this time of soldiers being mobilised from 'Seven Days to Noon' outside St. John’s church on St. John's Gardens in W11.

A tad off angle as the vehicle and bushes were simply in the way. SJ

With the children not saying a word about their atomic machine, their parents are brought to the police station starting with Carl (Carl Jaffe) and Lea Blotz (Ingeborg von Kusserow).

The camera pans with Han's mother and father as they are led to a waiting police car.

Professor Chappel (Robert Lankesheer) and his wife Margery are apprehended at the station. Marlow station on Station Road in Marlow, Buckinghamshire. The station is also seen in ‘Four Sided Triangle’, ‘Death of an Angel’ and ‘Nearly a Nasty Accident’.

Standing on what is now Fieldhouse Way, Malcolm Tinnelly captured housing on Station Approach that replaced the station when it was moved to its current site in 1967.