Death Is a Number

“We first met at Cambridge.” Trinity College Great Gate

Half in sun not half not. SJ

The narrator, Alan Robert (Terence Alexander), right, first met John Bridgeman (Denis Webb), left. St Alban's Cathedral, Hertfordshire. (SD)

St Alban's Cathedral entrance, as seen in this Google image. (SD)

A shot confirming the Cambridge location. The Bridge of Sighs, St. John’s College.

Rather splendid. SJ

A further location establishment. St.John’s College.

A presumed stock shot of Brooklands racing circuit to enforce Bridgeman’s devotion to fast cars. The motor circuit can also be seen in 'Ask a Policeman', 'The Rake's Progress', 'A Fire Has Been Arranged', 'The Dam Busters', 'Death Drives Through' and 'Q Planes'.

John Harwood thanks his pal Rod, a volunteer at Brooklands, for guidance. (SJ)

Alan visits John whilst he was recovering from burns received during the first World War. Unknown location.

War over and having recovered from the burns John follows his love of motor racing. Brooklands as viewed from the clubhouse looking across to the Vickers building.

Upon the death of his father John gave up racing and “retired” to the family home, part of which has been burnt out with a fire. Cowdray House, Cowdray Park, Midhurst, Sussex that did indeed suffer a serious fire in 1793.

Ewan provides his own shot of the East face of the ruins to match the screen capture.

John became a recluse “prowling about alone in strange parts of the castle”.

Bridgeman’s butler James Gregson (Peter Gawthorne) calls on Alan to say that he is concerned about his master who is acting strangely and relays the event of him leaving the “East Wing”. Ewan advises that this is the 'west gate room' door inside the Gateway of the Monastery/St. Albans Abbey Gatehouse, adjacent to St Albans Cathedral, which is seen in Capture 2.

Ewan provides us with this Google Earth View to support his identification.

James looks on with concern. See following capture.

And is at a complete loss as to what to do. Ewan locates this as the Gateway of the Monastery/St. Albans Abbey Gatehouse, adjacent to St Albans Cathedral, Hertfordshire.

A further Google Earth View from Ewan supporting his identification.

Alan eventually decides to respond to the butlers concerns to visit “the castle” and following “the turmoil of an old watermill” down river….. North Mill, North Street, Midhurst. The grade II listed mill was converted into a residential property in the 1960s. (SD)

.....he came across it, “in all its sinister magnificence”. Cowdray House.

Ewan sends us this shot of the ruins as they are now, adding that the stone entrance was added after 1951 but he has not been able to find when.

A detailed close-up. This is Herstmonceux Castle near Hailsham, East Sussex. (SD)

Photographed in 2018 when I was here for 'Spring in Park Lane' and 'The Statue'. (SD)

He was to find that it was “no happier hunting ground in all England for lovers of the gruesome and macabre”. Ewan locates this as the Gateway of the Monastery/St. Albans Abbey Gatehouse, adjacent to St Albans Cathedral, Hertfordshire, similarly seen in Capture 12.

The Google Earth View from Ewan supporting his identification.

There before him were the burnt out wings.

Ewan provides the comparative shot.

On his third day there he felt an impulse to examine the burnt out wing.

He was drawn towards the dim entrance.

Despite the difficulties of access Ewan was similarly drawn to the entrance to provide this image for us.

There above the door the decayed crest of the proud Norman barons.

Amongst the broken walls John thinks that he hears a girls voice singing softly. An idle fancy.

Then again, this time no mistake.

A plaintive tune unknown to him that seemed to belong to another age.

The sound led him up the broken stairs.

Now with those railings Ewan would not have been able to follow any sound or ghost.

The suddenly he looked as if he had seen a ghost. No a Gipsy Girl (Ingeborg von Kusserow).

The ghost of Lady Beatrice passes through the courtyard. It looks like some superimposed footage here.

Having heard the story of the curse from the gipsy girl she suddenly disappears….she too was a ghost.

John had noticed the East Wing whilst walking in the grounds and particularly “a tall window of the most curious construction”. More curious superimposition too it would seem. Horham Hall, Thaxted, Essex. (SD)

After an absence abroad John arrives back in the UK and starts motor racing again and by the time that Alan arrives at Brooklands, the race had started.

If only for the record, excellent footage of racing at Brooklands. Looking down the finishing straight, with the clubhouse out of shot to the right.

Members Bridge….Top left hand corner.

John H. again with Rod's guidance. (SJ)