Page 30 - IT'S A RUM LIFE BOOK FOUR Volume 1 "Northcote 1984 to 1998"

On arriving at Belvoir Castle the public car park is right down at the bottom of the very
steep approach, we had permission to drive up to the castle.
The route begins with a sharp double turn off the road onto the private drive. It then winds
up towards the Castle and ends with a very sharp left hand bend on a hill.
The Castle Main entrance is on your right and we drove past and parked our entourage on
the terrace overlooking the Vale of Belvoir and in front of the main reception room
windows. This was where we found the snow drifts!

Dinan and Juno remained in the lorry while Dennis introduced us to the very nice Director,
Neil Eccles, and his team.
(We were told in 1995 by Pam Rhodes and her “Songs of Praise” friends, that Neil had by
then moved high up among the most senior BBC staff).

Dennis had explained that as we would be working for the BBC we would not get paid!
But they would pay our expenses for getting there.
Whether that would have included the fine if our Policeman had been better acquainted
with his traffic law, I am not sure.
However, lunch was in a formal dining room with most welcome roaring fire in the hearth,
we thought this the highlight of our day.

What followed was magical. We were made most welcome and the whole afternoon was
ours.
Neil decide that the Brougham Carriage was magnificent and just what they needed. It was
totally enclosed with a beautiful bow shaped glass front. The whole shone in elegant
maroon and black livery.

Juno was harnessed and told all about what was expected of her. She had to pass by the
cameras stationed in the front of the Castle entrance and move off down the drive as if she
was leaving the castle with her important passengers.
In fact most of the time, the passengers were Neil himself or his very able lady assistant.
We were shown inside the mobile film unit with banks of monitors and production gear.
Dinan was just so laid back with it all, just as if this happened to him every day.

Whether we actually needed to make four or even five “takes” we were never sure. What
was certain was that Neil and his friends just loved riding down the drive from the Castle in
the horse drawn carriage.

Dinan behaved impeccably he followed the carriage perfectly. Ruth was able to give him
his instructions, the only real distraction being the various camera legs which he found
intriguing!

Juno did find the pull up from the bottom of the drive hard work especially time after time.
But she did not put a foot wrong and certainly did us proud!

Neil and Dennis were delighted and we were lucky to had managed to get a good friend
Gordon, staff photographer on the local newspaper from my old “Lincolnshire Standard”
days, to take some still pictures for us at the same time.