1989: A warm August morning and a film crew arrives to set up for 2 days of hard work; the result would be one of the better films in the Comic Strip TV series.
The story behind the photos
Brandon Estate was well used to film crews. On this particular day I happened to be at home and my camera had film in it, so why not? I took photos from my 10th floor balcony and others on the ground. Robbie Coltrane was there. So was Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders. And quite a few others too.
Have you ever read through credits at the end of a film? A lot of people working away, many with highly specialised jobs to do; lighting, sound, white balance, refreshments, extras. The list goes on.
Below: a selection of images taken on my Canon EOS 6 in August 1989, scanned at 3200ppi using Silverfast on Epson V850 Pro. Click on an image to enlarge and view at correct aspect ratio. Images are reproduced here at reduced resolution and size; contact me for full resolution images.
They were all here for two days (or was it three? It might have been three) of work. Dressing sets, carpentry, erecting lighting stacks. The photographs I took give an idea of just how many people are needed – and this for a comedy film in the Comic Strip series for BBC. You will see the ‘battle truck’ that was one day decked in blue and white flags and bunting for the Tory candidate (Leslie Phillips as Sir Horace Cutler) and within a few hours transformed with red and yellow bunting for the Labour candidate (Robbie Coltrane, who was playing Charles Bronson playing Ken Livingstone).
This was GLC: The Carnage Continues, a Hollywood action movie on the GLC takeover by Ken Livingstone and subsequent abolition of the GLC (together with Red Ken) by Margaret Thatcher. In this movie Ken Livingstone is played by Charles Bronson, who himself is played by Robbie Coltrane. Get it?
Jennifer Saunders plays Brigitte Nielson who plays the Ice Maiden. I’ll give you one guess who the Ice Maiden is. Lee Van Cleef plays Tony Benn, who is played by Peter Richardson. Yes, it is all great fun and there is more; you might be interested in the Wikipedia article – click here.
Kate Bush wrote a song about Ken Livingstone
The show was filmed towards the end of August 1989 and first broadcast on BBC2 on 15th February 1990. It was not until I saw the finished product that I learned that Kate Bush had written the score and the theme song, and here’s a Stranger Thing – Running Up That Hill is in the soundtrack!
The tenants association benefitted from small but very helpful donations from film companies – in this case the BBC – in return for them filming on the estate and using our facilities.
Colin Anderson 
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