Since we are celebrating
our Centenary of being on the Mottingham site, it had seemed obvious to try to
attract as much media attention to this fact. Although the BBC say that they do
not select venues for Songs of Praise because it is 100 years since this or
that event, I had suggested that our links with Eric Liddell and the Olympics,
Missionaries and Tanzania, and the quality of our singing added to the
attraction of Eltham College being an ideal venue for Songs of Praise before
the Olympic period. The deathly silence from the Manchester BBC offices
suggested that this was a forlorn idea.
Imagine my surprise when
the producer of Songs of Praise called my office asking us to be involved in a
recording from The Old Naval Chapel Greenwich, and yes, he was interested in
the Eric Liddell connection. After some weeks of further negotiation, which
included the debate about who should tell the Eric “story” – our pupils or
Gordon Brown? – a film crew was booked to come and spend the afternoon with us
trying to capture some of the “story” from the school’s point of view.
The recording of the
hymn-singing went well, with our 30 trebles sitting in the front row, although
the producer rejected my idea that they should be in shirt sleeves claiming the
white shirts would not work in the artificial lighting! He probably saw through
my idea to make them very obvious within the Chapel. But it was a great setting
and I am sure there will be some close ups of the boys.
On the following day, Dan
Walker the presenter of Football Focus who like Eric has stated that he will
not work on a Sunday, arrived to shoot the footage that will be attached to the
hymns of the previous night – which had nothing to do with EHL as far as I
could see! We had lined up Tom Wilson and Tolu Odusanya for the story of Eric
from the pupils’ point of view; after a few nervous exchanges in the College
Chapel, the conversation began the flow with many comments meeting the approval
of the Chaplain who listened out of shot but gave plenty of thumbs up! The
various EHL memorabilia on public display (the statue, team photos and
missionary boards) were filmed before a recreation of “the race” took place on
the running track between Tolu (the sprinter) and Rob Yates (the middle
distance man). I am not sure whether the dead heat was contrived or not – but
it was filmed twice from different angles.
Finally the film crew
wanted random “vox pops” just as the pupils were going home, and three “lucky”
volunteers were found to say what Eric meant to them! The whole show will be
screened on July 15th, and we are all intrigued to see what will
actually appear in the final cut – I suspect that it will probably only last
for about 5 minutes between two hymns.
But this might not be the
end of the TV visits. Dan Walker seems to have raised some interest in the
producers of the One Show, and hopes to return when Eric’s daughter Patricia is
visiting us for Sports Day. BBC Scotland are already booked to be at EC on that
day for their programme about the EHL story, concentrating on what Eric did
after the Olympics. And finally........ ITV have also commissioned a programme
to coincide with the rerelease of Chariots of Fire: Nigel Havers is due to
visit us shortly retracing Eric’s steps!
