The movie Young Victoria - memories for me

I’m so pleased to see the success of the British film, Young Victoria that won a costume design Oscar for Sandy Powell. I well remember being inspected by her before we went on set. It was one of the last films I was in as an extra and be seen by the camera for miniscule seconds. Emily Blunt was excellent and deserves success with her name above the title – building on her work after The Devil Wears Prada with Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway.

 Here I'm centre stage complete with whiskers and a concerned air.

Emily Blunt played opposite my wife’s favorite actor Paul Bettany as Lord Melbourne and various British stalwarts including Jim Broadbent. Julian Glover was hiding behind the Duke of Wellington’s famously prominent nose and Michael Maloney played Sir Robert Peel. Both were in this scene and there being only three of us extras included, entitled us to an extra £25 ($40). It all adds up...

About the same time I was in Sherlock Holmes that featured Robert Downey Jnr and Jude Law. No close up this time just strolling up and down Baker Street which incidentally was on the back lot of the Harry Potter set at Leavesden. Now, whenever I see these films I'm naturally looking out for all my co-SAs (supporting artists). They had been regulars for many years before me but I was surprised when I counted up over 150 jobs in the dozen or so years I spent traveling to Pinewood and Shepperton film studios extremely early in the mornings.

Talking of Sherlock and Watson, my interpretation of the once-considered 'best joke of all time' is below.  Anyway, it was good to see how successful the new approach to Sherlock Holmes proved to be.  I understand that Downey Jnr will be happy to continue just making the Holmes and the Iron Man franchises. Can't be a bad life when it's that successful. Good luck to him.