Extra, Extra, Read All About It! , livre ebook

Title Page
EXTRA, EXTRA, READ ALL ABOUT IT!
My Life as a Film and TV Extra
By Harry ‘Aitch’ Fielder
With Clive Saunders





Publisher Information
First published by the authors as a hardback in 2012
This version published in 2015 by Apex Publishing Ltd
12A St. John’s Road, Clacton on Sea,
Essex, CO15 4BP, United Kingdom
www.apexpublishing.co.uk

Digital edition converted and distributed in 2015 by
Andrews UK Limited
www.andrewsuk.com
Please email any queries to Chris Cowlin:
mail@apexpublishing.co.uk
Copyright © 2015 Harry ‘Aitch’ Fielder
The author has asserted his moral rights
Cover photo: Supplied by the author
Production assistant: Mark Goddard
All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that no part of this book is to be reproduced, in any shape or form. Or by way of trade, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition, including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser, without prior permission of the copyright holder.



Dedication
This book is dedicated to Mary, my beloved wife for forty-seven wonderful years and mother to our children, Connie, Tony, Stewart, and grandmother to Marc, Jamie, Savannah, Emma and Luke, who passed away on 15 th April 2010.


Mary Fielder (nee Turner) 1944-2010


Aitch 1941


Mary 1945

Destined to be with and be together for nearly 50 years. We will meet again...



The year is 1963 and Mary said “YES”



Mary with daughter Connie and son Tony, late 60s, Islington, London.



Aitch with son Stewart, early 70s, Islington, London.



Aitch with Mary at his 30 th birthday party, Island Queen Pub, Islington, London, 26 th April 1970
Mary did do some film and television work, but partly because she was very camera shy and mainly because she preferred to be at home with her family, she eventually decided that this was not the life for her.
During her time in the biz, she did get to work on some big-budget productions like An American Werewolf in London, Oliver!, and Trail of The Pink Panther and here is a list of a number of her appearances:
1967: Two A Penny, Living In Harmony (Prisoner episode), Man in a Suitcase, Z Cars
1968: Mrs Brown You’ve Got A Lovely Daughter, Star!, Oliver! The Bliss of Miss Blossom, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Nobody Runs Forever, Salt and Pepper, Prudence and the Pill, Year of the Sex Olympics, Champion House, The Avengers
1969: The Adding Machine, The Best House in London, All Neat in Black Stockings, The Ugliest Girl in Town
1974: The Tamarind Seed
1980: Walcot
1981: The History of the World Part 1, An American Werewolf in London, Minder
1982: Minder, Oliver Twist, Who Dares Wins, The Missionary, Trail of the Pink Panther
1983: Party, Party
1984: Where is Parsifal?, Morons From Outer Space
1985: 13 at Dinner
1987: Duet For One
Now the hard part:
Mary had been ill for some time and on April 15 th 2010, she died in hospital.
I was called from the hospital and rushed there at 12 noon to find her bed had curtains around it and she was wearing an oxygen mask and was in a bad way. The doctor was there and motioned for me sit next to her, saying:
‘’Won’t be long’’
LONG?? I thought...
I held Mary’s hand and kept talking to her but she didn’t respond. My mind was all over the place and I was at a complete loss for words. After only a very short time the doctor said gently:
‘She’s gone...’’
He took the mask off her face and I kissed her as the doctor left the bedside leaving me alone with Mary. I just sat and stared at her and could not believe what had just happened - after forty-seven years together she was no longer with me. I kissed her many times and then horror struck me - I’ve got to tell my two sons and my daughter and five grandkids the sad news.
I won’t go into details of this part but it was far from easy. At least I was there when she passed away and that will always be a comfort to me.
Mary is still with me every day... God bless... xxxxx



Thanks
With thanks to...
There are many people, without whom, this book would never have been written. Their encouragement and interest has kept me going during the long and, sometimes, laborious process of working my way through my life and committing all my memories to paper.
I am very fortunate to have many fans all around the world and I would also like to say thank you to all of you for supporting me and supplying me with many images and anecdotes, many of which I had forgotten, which have all helped to jog my memory and allowed me to include them in my book.
The book is certainly a result of the work and dedication of two people in particular:
Terry Guntrip. Terry is the driving force behind the setting-up and running of my web-site. Terry created this forum for my work has kept the site up-to-date and interesting for everyone that visits and has been of invaluable help to me. I am sure the number of fans I have accumulated over the years is in no small way down to his skill and dedication and Terry deserves every credit for all his hard work.
Many people have asked me when I was going to put all my memories down in book form and although it was always something I was interested in, the huge amount of work required had somewhat put me off.
Clive Saunders offered to do all the donkey work and formulate my work and memories into a readable form. Having seen his previous film related work on various website and other publications, I was more than happy to let him have a go and over the following weeks and months, his patience and hard work in writing, re-writing and editing the many words we have written, have enabled us to come up with the book you are holding now. We have enjoyed the ‘odd-half or three’ during the journey and have become good friends along the way.
My sincere thanks to Terry and Clive.
Additionally, there are a number of other film and television fan-based web-sites that continue to promote my work and allow their many followers to keep in touch with me on a regular basis.
The Sweeney Forum, Britmovie, On The Buses, Doctor Who, Minder Forum, The Mausoleum Club, Steptoe and Son, Roobarb’s DVD Forum, Classic British Sitcoms, Internet Movie Database (IMDb), The Champions Fan Club, Cliff Harris and everyone who has contributed photos to my Facebook page and film or television programme clips to You Tube.
Finally, many thanks to Charles and Sarah at Portland Media for their help in pulling all our words and pictures together and actually printing my book.
Thank you very much to you all.



Introduction
The Second World War was already eight months old when, right on cue, I made my very first public appearance, (next to my mother!) on April 26 th 1940, the fourth child to William and Constance Fielder, nee Jackson.
At that time, we were living in a tiny house in the St Pancras area of London, but shortly after my arrival, we were bombed-out, so me and my brothers and sister were evacuated to the comparative safety of the Hertfordshire countryside. Being just a baby, I don’t remember very much about this time, however I can clearly recall returning to London when the war had finished in 1945. Arriving by train at Kings’ Cross Station and unable to afford a bus fare, we all had to walk to our new home in Islington and I can vividly recall us all walking along the Pentonville Road, Upper Street and Essex Road, gazing up at the flags and bunting that were strung across the road and draped across all the buildings in celebration of VE Day.
Home was now to be a two-up-two-down terraced house in St Philip’s Way, Islington where the house consisted of a small kitchen and Mum and Dad’s bedroom in the basement and two small bedrooms on the ground floor and, like the majority of this type of housing at that time, the toilet was located outside in the back yard. (plus tin bath in the kitchen) We were, like many families at that time, very poor and life was extremely difficult in our small, cramped house. It’s incredible now to recall that at the time, we could have bought that house for about £400. Prices in that area now are closer to £800,000! How things change.
After my second sister, Maggie, arrived in 1948, she and my first sister, Patricia, shared one of the bedrooms leaving me and my brothers, William, David and Victor to share one bed in the other. We slept ‘topto-toe’, two at one end and two at the other end, but the trouble was we all peed the bed at night. I remember one year for a birthday treat, my father asked me which end of the bed I would like:
“The shallow end” I replied!
Life got even harder in 1950 when Dad died aged just fifty, leaving Mum to struggle to make ends meet whilst trying to bring up six young children on her own. My older sister Pat and my two older brothers left the house in the mid-50s
I managed to get a part time Saturday job when I was fourteen, working in a local butchers shop, cleaning down the greasy trays. For scrubbing these clean, my reward was two bob (10p) a day. However, on occasions, I did manage to smuggle out some sausages or maybe even some corned beef for our tea, by hiding them in my underpants! I remember my mum watching me take half a dozen sausages out when I g