Hope and Glory -‘Rosehill Ave’ set

Michael Bradley has kindly sent us an extract from the Hope and Glory book (Faber and Faber – 1987) by John Boorman concerning the detail of the Wisley Airfield set. It makes interesting reading.

“On each side of the road were built the facades of six pairs of semis on a framework of scaffolding. At one end a cut-out was placed across the street with houses that appeared to recede into perspective, giving a child’s view of a street that reached into infinity. In the far, far distance were further cut-outs of the skyline of London including a movable St. Paul’s Cathedral, which could be shunted from one side to the other to suit the angle of each particular shot. The other end of the street was a crescent with a cut-out of a gasometer. The Rohan house was actually built of brick and wood since it had to be burned, which of course would reveal what lay underneath the facade. A range of back gardens extended on one side, leading to allotments and an abandoned building site. The backs of the houses on the other side were used as a backdrop for an area of bombed ruins. All in all, the multiple set covered more than fifty acres, which was probably one of the biggest sets built in Britain since the war.”