Danny Lane revisited

And so to Danny's studio once again. As predicted Charles just loved it, especially the 'junk yard' out the back! And Danny is just such a wonderfully easy-going guy with a great sense of humour and hugely inventive. John and Patrick arrived and we got set up - Danny working on some glass on a large table, Patrick wanders in, Danny takes his coat, puts it on a large hook, pushes a knob and the jacket miraculously disappears to the ceiling. With Danny you're never quite sure what's going to happen next! The pair of them started working together on the table whilst Danny recalled Burghlefield days. Patrick paint's Graham's 'window'
It was then that a young stereotyped Australian (only he was named Graham and not Bruce which was a shame) walked in from the road and asked if anyone knew anything about glass. Well there we were surrounded by the stuff, so it sounded a pretty dumb question. We all had a bit of a laugh with him and Patrick painted on the little sample double glazed window he was clutching. He wanted to know why and what we were filming so we explained that Patrick was a VERY FAMOUS man, had he heard of Coventry Cathedral, Paddy's Tent etc etc. Of course he hadn't. I was convinced that this was another of Danny's games and he'd set the whole thing up - but Graham was 'for real' amazingly enough. Off Graham went.
Back Graham came 3 minutes later - 'Oi've rung moy mate and he hasn't heard of you!' Great, thanks Graham. Off he went.
5 minutes later he was back again. 'Oi've rung moy woif Sheilah and she's looked you up on the web and you did a picture of Dame Edna!' He was WELL impressed!
Somehow we managed to get back into the mood of the interrupted interview and brought it to a successful and picturesque conclusion with Danny flame throwing.
And then a miracle of sorts happened - Danny's wife Fiona had set up tables on the pavement and said tables were laden with BBQd chicken, loads of salads, dips, crisps, bread, wine - an absolute feast! So all of us, including Danny's staff, sat in the sunshine in the middle of an industrial estate in north London enjoying a Mediterranean type feast. I though it was just glorious. Forget about Heston Blooming whatsit or precious Raymond Blanc - this was living! In the afternoon we interviewed Danny alone - which worked very well. Somehow joint interviews involving Patrick don't work particularly well, he either goes mute (as with deMarco) or the other person is inhibited. Danny the Magician

Central

Sarah left, above Willow, Phillippa, Amal, Sarah

After various last minute hitches and worries that I would either have too many students or too few, it all worked wonderfully and once again I was impressed by their loyalty to Patrick and the effort they'd all put into contributing to the film. For example Sarah Wenden had travelled from Oxford, Nicola Clark from Gloucestershire, Philippa Clayden had cancelled all her afternoon appointments just to be there, and Willow Winston was also ultra busy. They were joined by Amal Ghosh who used to be in charge of the stained glass department at Central so provided an added dimension to the discussion - an absolutely charming man.
Amal

The more I learn about Patrick the more it occurs to me that there are three main facets which need to be highlighted - his art obviously, his intellect and his 'teaching' through Central and Burghlefield. The Central session backed up by interviews with Ray King and Danny Lane (both ex Burghlefield) should illustrate this dimension of Patrick pretty well.
Jay and Jeremy put us up for the night again - champagne and a lovely meal, the doors open, the warmth of a summer's day engulfing us - couldn't have been better. Nicola

Danny Lane

WOW! What a treat today - after a quick trip to advise on a possible Brangwyn at Christie's I whisked off to Willesden Junction (as one does) to do a recce on Danny Lane's studio prior to filming there with Patrick. I was just blown over by the beauty, size, scale, colour, inventiveness, imagination of the work - and not just in glass but also metal and wood - this man is A-MAZING! Filming the two of them in the studio promises to be a visual extravaganza - watch this space (24 June).
The images don't do Danny justice but I was taking them primarily to show Charles what he had to work with rather than producing art-shots! Anyway, top is Danny seen through a glass screen (weird!) and below a glass pillar and chair. For more (and better) images go to http://www.dannylane.co.uk/
Followed this up with a trip to Central St Martins to meet the wonderfully enthusiastic Peter Cleak, Events Manager, and other members of staff. Following on from my 'cunning plan' wheeze of 16 April, I have been trying to organise a group of ex students for a discussion forum and Central have kindly allowed us to take over the Head's Parlour for the afternoon of 23 June - and they aren't even charging us, which is brilliant news. They couldn't have been more helpful.

The Laskett

Following an exhausting day's filming and interviewing in Broadway (for a film on Gordon Russell) we drove to Sir Roy Strong's beautiful home and garden near Hereford. Unfortunately it was raining so we could not film in the garden as hoped, but set up in the conservatory as the next best thing.
Reading Sir Roy's diaries made me realise how fascinated by clothes and appearance the man is - still very sprightly and slim, the dark hair has given way to a silver slightly punk look and the iconic glasses have been replaced by contact lenses but the deep dark puppy dog eyes remain. A diamond earring twinkles, a beautiful crisp white shirt, casual denims, white trainers. Very cool.
And the mercurial man was charming, produced some very thoughtful insights about the inner Patrick, whilst my regular request for a succinct one sentence description produced a fabulous image - you'll have to wait for the DVD to find out!

Dr Horner #3

Saturday 15th May saw Libby leaving Film Farm before Charles had already risen, to drive to Cambridge where her younger son, Aidan, following in the footsteps of his mother and grandfather was awarded his PhD. Good day and the sun shone!

Not one to allow a research opportunity slip away, Libby also photographed the Brangwyn memorial to Fitzgerald on Kings Parade, and the Piper/Reyntiens windows in Churchill College chapel (detail below).

A few days later, queuing at a Waitrose cafe for a reviving coffee, the lady in front of me had a plate of curry and asked for some mango chutney. 'Oh no' said the girl behind the till, absolutely straight faced, 'we can't serve that any more. Health and Safety.' Good Heavens, what is the country coming to, when even chutney is considered dangerous!

Retrospective 6 - Anstey

Today we drove to Anstey to see the 398th Memorial window, fabulous, lots of butterflies and bombers and the names of all the fallen inscribed in the window - a beautiful and unusual tribute to the American airmen who were stationed nearby (detail above). Sir Roger du Boulay, a very sprightly 88 year young gentleman, arrived and gave a me a complete history of the church, the ancient mermaid font, the old chests etc. Sir Roger had organised the appeal for funds and the installation of the window and gave us an excellent interview, explaining the symbolism. We finally packed bags at Anstey about 2pm and, following Sir Roger's tip off, drove to the Woodman pub which had been the local for the Americans and has lots of memorabilia which we were able to photograph. And then back to Film Farm, both rather shattered.

Retrospective 5 - Much Hadham

Penelope, John and Patrick meet again after 15 years

A joyful days of unexpected extras. We arrived at Sts Andrew and Thomas at the same time as a lovely lady who turned out to be our guardian angel throughout the day - Penelope Wrong who was largely responsible for the Moore Memorial window in the church. Then some churchwardens arrived to see if we needed any help, then the vicar popped in. Libby went outside for her time lapse leaving Charles to the mercies of the ministrations and working out how to climb into the organ loft to get decent film of the window. Penelope dashed off to get some rope to hoist the camera into the loft.
Patrick and John arrived with one of the studies for the window and we filmed them - this was John's first commission with his father so pretty important.
Having found some garden rope Penelope then set about tracking down the previous rector who arrived just before midday so we were able to film him. Penelope and Patrick then went off for luncheon together whilst John stayed on to help with the ladder climbing, for which we were very grateful. A practical joker, John knocked over a stool when the camera was being lowered, giving Charles a real fright! He was somewhat relieved to be on terra firma after his efforts.
Having done all our church work we stopped for a brief eat in and then drove down to Penelope's wonderful thatched house because she owns the other study for the window. We set up the camera in the delightful courtyard watched by Poppy the lurcher and interviewed Penelope about the history of the window. Penelope in her garden with a study for the window
A great day, so many kind and helpful people. I had planned a visit to the Henry Moore Museum but we didn't finish work until 5pm so returned via an amazing and slightly scary water-splash to our Lutyens B&B for another picnic.

China mid water-splash and the wonderful Lutyens house, Homewood