Good and Bad at Games – my one and only film credit

Good_and_Bad_at_Games_TV OK, not entirely true, as an extra I don’t appear on the credits (I don’t think), unfortunately there is no way I have discovered to actually get hold of a copy of this Channel 4 movie from 1983 to check. The filming was taking place at some mansion nearby to my old school (Dr Challoners Grammar School), and with early scenes in the film set in an all boys boarding school they needed extras for background shots. They  approached my school, which then selected boys who were in the most recent school play to take part.

I think we were only there for two or three days, including a canteen scene (in which I managed at one point to be in camera shot serving something to one of the main cast), and running up and down the touch line of a mock-up rugby field in the gardens waving scarves and shouting. With a friend of mine we managed to swap scarves and hats at one stage between takes to break continuity, but was unfortunately not very visible in the final film. 

Was an interesting experience, got paid 20 quid or something, a few days off school, and until now assumed it was some obscure Channel 4 film (one of the first ones) with unknown actors that never amounted to much. So imagine my surprise when today I looked up the cast and discovered that the main protgonists have actually done rather well for themselves:

Notable cast:

Anton Lesser (aka Qybrun in GOT)

Rupert Graves (aka Lestrade in Sherlock)

Ewan Stewart (aka William McMaster Murdoch, first officer in Titanic)

Dominic Jephcot, Graham Seed (recognisable as British TV actors)

The top three of these all give me a Bacon Number of 3, so I now also know that I have an Erdos Bacon number of 7, the same as Colin Firth, apparently.

Edit: turns out there is a (low quality) copy of this film on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/Ry_1qL0pAYk which tells us that the filming location is Hampden House. 

Dave

Mathematician at the University of Warwick in the UK with research interests in equivariant bifurcation theory and applications, especially in modelling of insect locomotion. Teaching interests include online learning and innovative teaching methods. Also in a past life has been involved in summer school courses, and online material, for Gifted and Talented. He has been active on the Internet since 1995, initially though his UFO and Michael Schenker website, but now through a multitude of projects.

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