A casting appeared on StarNow - open casting at a studio in Central London from 4pm - 8pm. Off I went and as usual being too early I went off to have a coffee in Covent Garden. When I got back to the studio I couldn't believe how many people there were! At 3.45 the place was literally heaving. Everyone clutching forms, requesting pens, being measured, photographed...well, to be honest I didn't think I stood much of a chance with so many others.
A week later I received a call to be a restaurant diner - the place was Soho and the call time 5am.
This presented me with a slight problem - how to get there? Trains didn't start until 5.15 I don't do night buses but in the end managed to grab a lift from someone who was happy enough to drive into Central London Phew!
As I waited outside a shop front for the crew to get the place opened, I realised that Ann from the Bollywood filming was here - Brilliant! Then a beaming smile through the crowd - it was David (Britvic & Bollywood)! We were ushered inside to find rails upon rails of 1960s - 1990s clothing. To begin filming we would all be in 1970s clothes and to be honest, I was a bit doubtful about how it would look. However, once I had the boots on and the coat I loved it! Wardrobe had a terrible time separating me and that coat when the time came...
Once dressed we headed for the pub - I kid you not and waited in all our finery for our instructions. Pots of hot porridge arrived with dried fruit - not to everyones taste but warming all the same. One of the younger people was a dancer and it wasn't long before he had Saturday Night Fever blaring out and teaching everyone how to do the dance.
Next we were off down the road to a very posh restaurant which Ann recognised as she had been there for her birthday meal some time previously. We all lined up, a bit like soldiers on parade when David and I were told to step forward and were guided to a table. It turned out to be the table next to the main actors - Steve Coogan. For the next couple of hours David and I "rubarbed" through a meal of steak (me) and chicken (David) who really suffered for his art as he's a vegetarian! No veggie meals available presumably in the 1970s! We tried to avoid the nodding dog syndrome that many people do in filming - in reality people don't actually nod that often. More grape juice to wash it down with... and then we started all over again - more steak, more chicken, more grape juice! We started with the silly games - what other fruit could be used to make a conversation with? Pineapple, apples, pears, passion fruit....Seriously, if you're stuck in a restaurant and not allowed to talk then miming fruit words can be quite entertaining! Finally filming was done for that part and we were back off to base to have our lunch - noodles in a box which was very tasty even though we had to eat standing up.
1990s next - what awful clothes they wore (I wore!). I had skinny cropped jeans, baggy shirt and my hair was given a spiky fringe - not a good look... We went out into Soho and Ann and I walked round and round in circles for what seemed like hours. Everybody had sore feet as they were all wearing costume shoes. My shoes had been taped up with parcel tape as the insides had fallen apart and Ouch! did they hurt! More food arrived - a mango salad which was very welcomed by then. I was given three children to stand with opposite a patisserie - all very cute and one very shy and very tired. This was their first foray into acting and I'm not sure they would do it again - the "starry eyes" had worn off and the "exciting" bit had definitely taken a nose dive.
Finally the words we were all waiting to here "It's a wrap!" We all hobbled back to base and very gratefully returned our shoes to costume. As I hobbled over to the tube, I paused to think, and not for the first time, what a strange job I do and I wouldn't change it for the world :)
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