Since July 2001, staff from across the Council have been working hard on a not-so-secret project that promises to put several beautifully photographed Hastings & St Leonards locations on over fifty million television screens around the world.
As we've reported in previous editions of About, 'Foyle's War' is ITV's multimillion pound replacement for the hugely popular 'Inspector Morse' sales that concluded in late 2000. Scripted by the veteran writer Anthony Horowitz (the man behind the John Nettles hit 'Midsomer Murders' and the upcoming Christina Ricci horror movie 'The Gathering'), the drama series is set in Hastings & St Leonards during the Second World War and features enough intrigue, mystery and murder to keep its eponymous hero DCI Foyle (played by 'A&E' star Michael Kitchen) in business for many years to come.
Currently scheduled for the 8pm-10pm slot on Sunday nights in November (although, as with all schedules, this is subject to change), the first series consists of four featurelength episodes which showcase many recognisable names from film and television including Edward Fox and Charles Dance.
Readers of About should look out for the episode entitled 'The White Feather' which used several local fishermen and a Hastings boat in its recreation of the Dunkirk evacuation. A production like 'Foyle's War' needs a great deal of commitment and organisation from its hundreds of cast and crew to be successful but it also needs the help of a smaller but no less significant army who work behind the scenes of behind the scenes to make sure everything runs smoothly.
For the four episodes in the first series, the Council helped arrange everything from car chases and stunts in the Old Town High Street to a funeral scene, a recreation of the Dunkirk evacuation and, most controversially, temporary closure of the A259.
A production of this size draws upon the resources of several Council departments and requires a tremendous amount of effort from everybody.
It all starts with the Marketing & Communications department which coordinates the efforts of the entire Council and acts as a one stop shop for the production company. They handle the issue of press releases and public notices to ensure residents affected by filming are kept as fully informed as possible. They even, wherever they can, arrange for local media students to gain priceless work experience on the production!
With 'Foyle's War', two off duty Parking Wardens were made available to the production company and quickly became an integral part of the film crew. The wardens patrolled the roads to ensure that traffic disruption was kept to a minimum during the car chases and stunts. They were, in the words of the Production Manager Donald Cameron, 'invaluable'.
Parking Services also organised permits for the fleet of vehicles that the production company brought into the town and removed the height bars in a couple of Council car parks to ensure that the huge Generator Trucks and technical vehicles could get in and out.
The Highways Department removed various modern road signs from the locations to help the production company's Art Department recreate the ambience of the early 1940s. They also worked with the Art Department on concealing the double yellow lines in the Old Town with a special grey latex solution that restored the original 1940s character of the road. Perhaps their biggest undertaking was the removal of an entire streetlamp outside the Royal Victoria Hotel!
Staff from the Old Town Museum and the Hastings Museum & Art Gallery were involved in providing props for the Art Department while the Seafront Services team had to deal with rubber barbed wire, fires and making the beach accessible for several period vehicles including an original red cross ambulance.
Fiona Elrington, Location Manager, said
"Everybody at the Council worked so hard to make sure that we had everything we needed. There's no doubt that Foyle's War has the potential to become one of those landmark shows that runs for years and years and claims a special place in the hearts of viewers across the world. ITV has invested a lot of money in this production and expects it to do very well in the Winter schedule. Hopefully that means that we'll be back next year and in bigger numbers!"
Councillor Mike Bigg, Cabinet Member responsible for Regeneration and Tourism, said:
"It's a testament to the strong sense of teamwork within the Council that we can respond so quickly to the various logistical problems that a major film and television production like this throws at us. Our staff recognise that Foyle's War can only be good for the image of the town and the tourism economy and we will continue to do everything we can to encourage film and television productions to make use of our terrific locations."
There will be a special exhibition at the Hastings Museum & Art Gallery which will explore the story of Hastings & St Leonards during the Second World War and coincide with the transmission of the programme.
For more information, contact the Museum on 781155 or email museum@hastings.gov.uk
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This page last updated: 12/11/2003