Director's Comments
After Anglia Television's success with 'Alternative 3' Sir John Wolf rang me about a new series they were going to make based on Roald Dahl's surrealist and often witty short stories - and would I like to start them off as director?
Having started my career with short films, I always enjoyed the challenge in trying to tell a story as swiftly and succinctly as possible. Guy de Maupassant, Somerset Maugham and many other great writers tackled the short story with great success; sadly established filmmakers largely ignore the short film thinking it is only for novices.
The series was to be called 'Tales of the Unexpected" and I was offered a few to choose from, and decided on "Neck". I liked the characters, story line, country-house setting and the twist at the end, all of which I felt made good surrealist cinematic material. Anglia were keen on having major stars, so when I set to work with Robin Chapman on the scripting, we kept this very much in mind.
We were soon rewarded as not only did Joan Collins like the script, but also so did Peter Bowles; and to my delight Sir John Gielgud accepted the part of Jelks the butler - (which was three years before he played a butler in "Arthur" with Dudley Moore.)
I had never worked with any of them before, but like most talented people at the top of their profession they proved masters of comedy - the most difficult of film genres.
Also, before shooting I found myself in a railway carriage with Roald Dahl owing to a last minute crisis filming his introductions to the series; this rather bizarre event I explain in 'Carrying the Can'. It was a long journey back to London from Anglia's Studios in Norwich, and having the great writer cornered, I learned a lot about his life and storytelling, and at the same time took the opportunity to persuade him to add some new lines of his own to the script - which he did brilliantly there and then.
The country house setting gives you good control and a solid frame in which to work, especially taking into account the vagaries of the British weather, with your interiors and exteriors not far away! This I was again to find out to my benefit in much more trying circumstances, many years later, when I chose Stanway House for the setting of "The Clandestine Marriage".
Sir John Gielgud followed by the stable boy in the splendid setting of Somerleyton Hall
CM going over a script point with Roald Dahl
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