Last weekend in Winchelsea saw the appearance of another film crew, hard on the heels of a repeat visit to film another episode of “The Royals” in Winchelsea church. This time, however, the production being filmed was a pilot for a possible Channel 4 TV series, described as “feel-good fun for the family” with rewards for participating residents for solving a problem. In Winchelsea, the problem was the theft of money from a van.
The production company was Shine TV, which is responsible for “The Island with Bear Grylls” and “MasterChef”. However, the limited attempt to involve the town (a few innocuous A4 posters) left one resident suggesting there was more Little Chef than MasterChef about this production. There was also irritation with the film crew for installing spy cameras in the pub and in the street, swinging a van across the pavement on the main road and fly-posting. And no one was impressed by the report of an interview at the fish and chip van on Saturday in which the interviewer asked about the difference between Winchelsea and Winchelsea Beach, making the extraordinary suggestion that “one lot was p***ing in the stream and the other was bathing in it”! To add insult to injury, the film crew bought one bag of chips between six of them.
Of course, it may just be that Winchelsea residents have become rather cynical about films shot in the town, following the cinematic disasters which were “Monuments Men” and “Mr Holmes”.
Photo: Wikipedia