ITV have started the long

awaited 2009 filming of the first of eight new Agatha Christie films for television, four are to be Miss Marple, and four are to be Poirot. Rumour has it that the ITV Drama staring David Suchet as Hercule Poirot, set during the 1930’s, is being filmed on the Orient Express, and at a various number of different locations.

One poor Papparzzi photographer spent the day in Dover trying to find the set, and only arrived back in London to catch the final 20 minutes of the final scene, I laughed quietly on set.

One of theses locations is also where the BBC drama Fanny Hill was filmed in 2007, and that’s right here in Dukes Road & Woburn Walk, with a one day shoot.

The Locations and Sets teams have been busy for the last few days dressing the set, taking our Dickensian shopping street back to how it would have looked in the 1930’s.

They have done a sterling job, not just on the outside streets and facades, but also on the interior of many of the shops changing Camden’s empty ‘To-Let shop’ into a fantastic early photographic camera emporium.

A nice 1940’s red phone box has also arrived on set – not knowing the years of trouble we local residents have had to put up with the phone boxes in Kings Cross, this one has no ‘ladies calling cards’ or ‘drug paraphernalia’  in it (as of yet) just two buttons A & B, and it smells very fresh & clean!

Local residents, most of who live in either Dukes road & Woburn Walk, spent a lot of the morning watching from ‘behind the camera’ enjoying the excitement of being on a TV drama film set, on hot and Sunny Sunday in June.

There is little else to do when the TV machine takes over your neighbourhood, so you would think that they wouldn’t have a problem with local residents (and a few passing tourists) taking pictures?

Apparently not, the production crew instructed their set security to tell local residents, that they had had their picture and now to stop and go away, leave us alone.  Too where do we go, I might ask?

We live here, this is our street, it doesn’t  take a Belgium detective to work that one out. Surely actors are used to being in front of a lens, and being photographed by the people who watch their programme.

I’m a member of the  Broadcast Union BECTU who have a code conduct for all members, and am a freelance photographer, so I have a good undertanding of my rights when taking images, it’s what I do.  I  aways do my best to behave as if I’m working it’s the professional in me, even when I’m just taking snaps for the TA website, but I felt that the brusk treatment of my fellow neighbours was a little rich to say the least, certainly not called for.

Everyone has a right to take photographs in a public place, not just ITV Drama or Poirot.

The day turned out to be a real treat for us locals, everyone had fun even some of the actors and crew cracked the odd smile, I’m now lookin forward to seeing the finished film on TV.

Simon Lamrock
Chair
Somerton House TA

Four brand new Poirot films on an independent television station near you soon (TV licence  required).

A Food Market is to open this summer at St Pancras International Station.

After much anticipation, St Pancras International’s daily market will arrive this summer. The market will be operated by Sourced Markets and will feature traders from Borough Market, offering a mouth-watering range of fresh produce on our door step.

As well as a fruit and veg stall, the market will have an exciting assortment of organic wines and beers, a bakery, a deli with a wide choice of meat and seafood plus a tempting variety of cheeses from Neal’s Yard Dairy. St Pancras Sourced aims to provide an outlet for the UK’s best small producers, sourcing locally where possible and with an emphasis on seasonal and organic produce.

All  meat will be free-range and produced to high standards of animal welfare, fish and seafood will be sustainably sourced with a dedicated website so you can pre-order your food from the office and pick it up as you pass you the station on your way home.

You will be able to find the market opposite the UK ticket office (main entrance) at the street level of the station.

Opening hours
7.30am – 9.30pm Monday to Friday
8.00am – 8.00pm Saturday
9.00am – 7.00pm Sunday

For more information visit www.stpancras.com

Sourced Food Markets www.sourcedmarket.com

Foyle’s War, the British detective ITV TV drama series from the creative talent of Anthony Horowitz of the deserved & acclaimed  ‘Midsomer Murders’ & ‘Hercule Poirot’ series,  has been shooting the London scenes for the first of the last ever, three new episodes of Foyle’s War 2009 Series 7 here in London, on our doorstep.

Set in June 1945, VE Day is being celebrated in London and Europe, whilst the war continues on further shores…

SHTA Chair,  Simon caught up with lead star cast member Michael Kitchen  who plays Superintendant Christopher Foyle and Honeysuckle Weeks (Samantha “Sam” Stuart) on a tight filming schedule in Cartwright Gardens and Burton street in WC1, transforming the Avalon Hotel back to its ‘hay day’, and the area  back to the 1940’s.

The crew, actors/actresses and support staff were fantastic, conciderate and patient given that their set was slap bang in the middle of a busy Bloomsbury street (Kings Cross ward), of people going about their very ordinary and routine daily business.

Carrying a camera in my bag 24/7, I have a ‘thing’ about catching the social and changing history of London in images, it’s one of my hobbies I rather enjoy and a legacy to leave for later generations to come.

I took my camera out and snapped a few pictures, how could you not?

Asked by one of the senior managers, very politely if I was Paparazzi, after my embarrassment I was slightly flattered at being given the credibility of being a professional photographer but declined, and admitted the fact that I was only merely a local resident with an enthusiastic interest in photography who happened to be in the right place at the right time (shopping for cat food for a very fussy cat) and would be posting the photographs on our residents website for the wider community.

All on the way to Waitrose, one of the very many reasons,  I love London.

Foyle’s War 2009 Series 7 – the last – no more – the end – showing on ITV on a television set, PC, laptop  or mobile device in your area soon.

Simon Lamrock

Chair SHTA