Perfidious Albion

Edinburgh University Medieval Society

Filming "Ivanhoe"

Over the summer, AJ was contacted by a film company who wanted reenactors as extras for a BBC film of the 13th Century story, "Ivanhoe". Could he get 50 early medieval peasants with their own kit in three days? After spending the whole three days on the phone, he got 36 people, including several members of PA. Unfortunately they discovered that the film company had a very strange idea of what medieval peasants ought to look like...

Ecce: "They can take our authentic kit, they can take our weapons, they can cover us in mud, but they'll never take our paychecks!"

Mike: "When I tell people that I'm a reenactor they always ask me if I've been in any films. Now I can tell them that I have. Unfortunately, noone will recognise me in the long blonde wig."

AJ: "People who arrived dressed as Saxons were sent to be Normans, and people dressed as Normans were sent to be Saxons."
"They wanted us to be covered in mud, but it's impossible to be that muddy naturally so the makeup women kept having to reapply the mud. Also, it rained in the morning, so in the afternoon they were spraying us with water to keep us wet for the continuity"

All: "The best bit was when we did a charge at the camera and ran over the director!"