Extras! Extras! Read all about it!

Monday 5th May

- a day's filming as extras in an Indian period TV series!

the appointed hour arrived for our day's filming, as did the ungodly alarm at 5:30am. we'd barely been up when a soft knock on the door heralded an insistent voice telling us that we were required in reception at 6am, not the 6:30am we'd been led to believe. we were both tired and stumbled downstairs to where the usual Indian scene was taking place; with the staff sleeping on mats on the floor. we appeared first, followed by Jamie, an independent and self-starting Singapore-Scots engineer in his early 20s and also someone we'd met briefly in Jaisalmer. following on after Jamie was Will, fresh faced and pleasant on his gap year and, also travelling with him, Charlie and Laura, an attractive and outgoing couple. the last three had already spent several months in India, including 10 weeks working on a charitable project in the South of the country. it was to this fact only that we attributed their marvellous tans, which we in no way envied or desired for ourselves, of course.

there was a car to pick us all up and take us to the set, but we still knew nothing about the film or much else. it was not too much of a journey out of town before we arrived at an impressive-looking building that might perhaps have once been a former palace. we were swiftly ushered into an upstairs room for costuming.

within a few minutes, several things became apparent. the set was not the Bal Samand Lake Palace five star hotel, as Yogi's had said it was to be, but an either unused or abandoned school, lacking the lakeside view - or, indeed, a lake - as well as the monkey-filled garden and croquet lawn of our expected destination. Philippa's worst fears were confirmed when one look at wardrobe indicated that it was period drama, fine clothes to be wandering around in the Jodhpur heat. in addition, the hotel was supposed to have got us up at 4:30am so as to be on set at 6:30am. we were all pleased that they had got that part wrong.

not quite the palatial hotel with lake and monkeys that we had been promised...

costume changing took a while, as they had very little in Edd's size or close to it, no doubt one of the consequences of not specifying what they needed from the extras. the ladies in charge of wardrobe were curt in the morning and short and brusque by the afternoon. the clothes were all heavy material reproductions. Edd's outfit was side-buttoned leather and suede shoes that, by the end of the day, had made all of his toes point inwards; green striped trousers; a white, wing-collared shirt, the only item he was wearing that truly fit; a short ready-made tie; black patterned cream waistcoat with detailed metal buttons and matching jacket; brown leather gloves that, thankfully, he did not have to wear during the day; a cane and a dark brown homburg hat. all of which was not exactly what one would choose to wear in the 40C heat, but which was fairly accurate for the British in India in empire days, where the TV series (as we had discovered it was to be) was set. what was wrong with shorts and a pair of sandals?

Edd as St. John Smythe

Edd also had to wear a spirit-gummed thick false moustache. all day. but, in many ways, Philippa fared worse, with lace up boots; pop socks; white lace gloves; a petticoat and dress made from what appeared to be thick old curtains; plus a wide-brimmed flowery hat and about three different false hairpieces.

Philippa as Millicent Featherstonehaugh

she had to be sewn into the dress at the back, while her short hair proved a day long nightmare for the guy in charge of same, who had nothing to attach the wigs to, making us wonder why they had not specified any precise particulars for the people they wanted to use. then again, they were using people from hotels and guest houses, so it was hardly Merchant Ivory.

Philippa looks forward to a day wearing this in 40C

the hairdresser has a 7th go at getting Philippa's wigs to stay on

Philippa can only laugh at the results

we tried to stay in the shade for most of the day, as everyone was decked out in the same manner. each of us was only to be used in two scenes all day as it turned out, all of which were filmed in the morning, resulting in a whole afternoon and much of the early period spent enjoying the perennial main activity of film-making; namely, twiddling thumbs and waiting.

lights, camera, action!

Will strides back after his moment of fame,
while the lead actor gets a moustache check from wardrobe

Jamie smiles after receiving a key role in the sequel

the first scene we shot involved us speaking in the background with a turbaned businessman up on the building's first floor veranda, before walking around the corner and past the quite short leading actor conversing with the huge man playing the Viceroy of India or some such similar position. i had to tip my hat and Phil had to smile at them. strenuous stuff, and with so much timing to incorporate! we seemed to do our scene very swiftly, with the energetic and outgoing first assistant director (?) giving us our signal from take two onwards, having forgotten to do so the first time. almost everything proceeded at a snail's pace and, for most of the day, we all had to keep ourselves entertained. the other scene we shot was clearly a few second scene-setter in the main courtyard at the rear of the building that required us to walk first away from and then towards the camera. we suspect that at least one, if not both, of the scenes will be cut, but since we are pretty unrecognisable in our outfits, one doesn't suppose that this will much affect our future acting careers.

Charlie, Laura and Will flash their smiles...

..while Charlie gets to grips with celebrity

the production appeared to be called 'Ecuador,' or something similar. it was a 26-part series being shot over six months in India, Brazil and Portugal. although the actors' lines were all in English, it was a Portuguese production with a mixed Indian and Portuguese crew. the lead actor claimed to be Scottish but sounded very Iberian for a Highlander, while his opposite number playing the Viceroy turned out to be Siberian. a few people constantly buzzed around and fussed, but most of the crew spent the day as we were, in a state located somewhere between preparedness and torpor.

the gang's (almost) all here - Edd, Will, Charlie, Jamie, Laura

the extras wait around for something... anything... to happen...

biscuits and water were available all day, and there was even a lunch, so we spent no money whatsoever, in fact, our day's labours garnered the princely sum of R500 each, about £6. the lunch was a traditional Indian affair, held in a large hall in another part of the school that was far hotter than the outside air, despite the lacklustre overhead fans. still in costume, we all had to somehow eat the spinach and curd, dal, gravy and other fine staining foodstuffs without getting any on our outfits, no mean feat. the casting director, who spoke with us the most, came over when we had finished and asked us with a smile, 'did you enjoy your meal?' when we responded in the affirmative, he replied, 'good, could you please leave, because we need the table for the other crew members.' ah, showbiz.

he didn't mean the leading players, of course. they had already changed out of their costume and been driven away in air-conditioned cars, not to return for two hours. we remembered our earlier scene with the Indian businessman and the conversation Edd had had with him between takes. he'd been an actor for 9 years in Indian, Tibetan and Chinese films. he'd even met the king, although which king we don't recall. it would have been nice if he'd had an AC'd car to take him to lunch. nevertheless, some of us did speak with the leading man and, apart from not sounding remotely Scottish, he was a pleasant and affable fellow.

the afternoon in particular dragged on as they endlessly re-shot a certain scene and it wasn't until after 5pm they finally knew or deigned to tell us that they would not be needing us any more that day. it was a great relief to extract ourselves from the impractical clothes and hobbling shoes. in Philippa's case, this meant someone cutting her out of her dress with a Stanley knife. Edd could finally get rid of the thick moustache, although this did not require a Stanley knife.

we had to wait a while until they had finished shooting and our lift back was available. we spent the short period taking our photos with a man with a large, fine and really rather impressive moustache, who was much egged on my his friends. then, after signing away an unexplained form, no doubt regarding the royalties for our extended scenes, we could finally go home.

Laura, Badger, Philippa

Charlie joins in

Edd and Badger at the end of a day's shooting

by this time it was gone 7, so we first made sure that we got our R500! then, finally, a shower and dinner and drinks on the roof - Edd even had a couple of beers, a real rarity for him on this trip. we spoke a lot more with our co-stars. Will, Charlie and Laura were off to Jaisalmer next, while Jamie was headed for Pushkar. it was great to speak with them some more after our arduous and strictly professional time on set (!)

we had yet another earlyish start to the morning, having bitten the expense bullet and decided to take an AC car for the first time in India in order to get to Udaipur, the lake city in the South of Rajasthan, very well known for its portrayal in the Bond film Octopussy but not so well known for its decent rail or bus links, of which it appeared to have none and few respectively. we would be paying rather a lot for the privilege, but we now had an additional guy coming with us which had reduced the overall price for us. this six days we had spent in Jodhpur have passed very quickly, even with two days of essentially doing very little, but it was time to move on again.

toodlepip

edd & philippa