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Post by Gene Hunt on Apr 13, 2024 23:15:39 GMT
Post your Meet reports here.
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Cartman
Producer
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Post by Cartman on Apr 14, 2024 9:44:55 GMT
Hope you have a great time and look forward to seeing reports and pics😀
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The Saint
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Swinging London - 1967
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Post by The Saint on Apr 15, 2024 14:10:11 GMT
What a great weekend we have just had! I met up with most of the squad on Saturday afternoon for a catch up consisting of visiting several pubs on the manor, including a visit to St Elmo’s fish bar as seen in The Sweeney episode In From The Cold. We rounded off the day with a curry - lots of laughs and great company. Thanks to Del for putting together the plan for the Saturday The main event arrived on Sunday - the Villain meet, and we were joined by the rest of the squad. Gene put together another first class itinerary of locations including Dakin’s house, Matthew’s house, Edgar’s house, the footbridge escape plus a run out to Bracknell to see the location of the blag itself plus a wonderful lunchtime stop in the large Peacock’s farm pub - formerly a working farm that featured in the background of the blag getaway scene. Thanks Gene, for another amazing day, all of your planning and hard work ensures the day runs like clockwork and is so enjoyable for all Thanks also to Carter for being our wheels man for the day and to Gene, Sam and Carter for being great company in the motor. Looking forward to the next 4:3tv meet whatever it may be. The Saint
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Del Boy
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Post by Del Boy on Apr 15, 2024 14:48:07 GMT
Meet 016 - Villain Saturday- As per usual whilst frequenting London we kicked things off in The Dove - Hammersmith. A tasty pint of Guinness signalled the start of another cracking meet weekend This time we decided to do a four pub crawl and grab a bag of chips from St Elmo's chippy as seen in The Sweeney episode In From The Cold. I can confirm the chip's were top drawer and I didn't chuck em at any Flying Squad officers and leg it Gis a chip, Billy ! Sunday- The Villain tour was superbly drafted by Gene. First stop of the day saw us head over to Wandsworth to look at the Dakin gaff. A very nice wide road and lovely house that only seemed to gain a new front wall. Back in the cars and we nipped over to North Sheen to have a butchers at Bob Matthews House The Squad hit the road to Bracknell and Gene had sorted a nice location for luncheon, Peacock Farm. This location is seen in the background as Vic and co swap motors in the blag scenes. Fully refreshed, we headed on foot to take in the blag scene locations. This allowed us to take in all the various points of the blag. The large office block being built in the background of the film is now occupied by Fujitsu. No phone box was in the road and I do wonder if that was a prop. Always thought it was an odd place to have a phone box. It looks lonely in the middle of a road with nowt around it. After checking several blag scene angles it was back to the Batmobiles to head back into town to have a butchers at Edgar's House, Belmont Villa. This place still had a lot of the features from the film outside after all these years. We rounded off another superb meet with by looking at both sides of the footbridge where Vic's P5B Coupe is waiting for his escape. http://instagram.com/p/C5yRnJgIKdx It was a fantastic weekend and thanks to those that came along on the Saturday and Sunday. It was a great laugh over several pints on both days. Cheers all and see you on the next one. Wherever that may take us.
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Post by Steve Austin on Apr 15, 2024 19:37:44 GMT
After 4 months, the wait was over and I found myself heading down to Chiswick on a bright, sunny and (as is usually the case on such occaisions) dry morning. Once parked, I made my way to the meeting point via a detour to Chiswick Gardens to take in the locations used by The Beatles to film promos for "Paperback Writer" & "Rain" in 1966. Thankfully not much if anything had changed and I was able to locate the various spots with ease. For a fan like myself, it was a real bonus to be able to visit these iconic locations. That done, I headed off to the Premier Inn for a hearty breakfast before meeting the squad at the George & Devonshire where I was met with the familiar sights, sounds and (unfortunately ) smells of 4:3tv's finest. After a catch up, we were off to the first couple of locations (Vic Dakin's House & Bob Matthews House) before heading off to Bracknell for the robbery location. After the drive, a rest was most welcome and the pub was a perfect place for that, it even had the good grace of being in the film, glad to see it still there since the area around it had been built up, so was lucky not to have been razed to the ground. After a pint (thanks BG ) it was a short walk to the scene of the crime. The location was still recognisable but Gene's screen grabs helped to pinpoint certain spots perfectly. After some time re-re-watching the robbery, it was back to the smoke. Once back, we visited Edgar's house and then the location where Vic left a rather bloody Frank Fletcher. Having been there now, I can only imagine how many attempts it took for Joss Ackland to turn that Zodiac around! Before you could say "who you looking at!", it was back to The George & Devonshire to reflect on another superbly put together location tour. I bade my goodbye's and made my way back along the M4. Today I watched "Villain" again with a renewed interest and must admit, I had a better appreciation of it. Joss Ackland's acting is still poor and Burton is still a little ropey here and there but having been to a few of the locations now, it does give a better connection to it. The same can be said of all the other meets we've done on many various TV shows/films and is one of the reasons why I enjoy them. Thanks, appreciation & gratitude must be given as ever to Gene for continuing to put these top quality meets together. When you consider the work that goes into them and the fact that he's nicking the local poof and 'aving 'oops, I'm grateful you have the time and appetite for doing this, thanks Thank you to DC Burtonshaw for being the wheelsman for the day, we covered a lot of miles effortlessly and to our oppo Peter Picard, thanks for your insightful conversation throughout the day. Thanks also to the whole squad for helping to make this meets one of the most relaxed and good humoured I've attended, look forward to seeing you all on the next one
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Mickyosan
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Post by Mickyosan on Apr 15, 2024 22:18:30 GMT
Following on from Del’s double-day summary, my early Sunday morning alarm jolted me from some deep 1970 slumber and it was soon time to head west to Hogarth roundabout via Hammersmith, where some breakfast nosebag was consumed before I made my way to the George & Devonshire. I’d arrived far too early but at least this gave me time to marvel at the volume of traffic on the A4 at 08:45 on a Sunday morning. Besides which, an impromptu sole separation on my left Adidas Adispeed, whilst walking down to the pub, gave me time to contemplate how I was going to walk for the next eight hours. The Villian himself was the first to arrive in his newly acquired 500 Abarth, for which I took up navigation duties for the day. Soon, the usual suspects started arriving and the meet was underway. It was great to see everyone again and time had really flown since Newcastle last October. As usual, the sun had accepted the invite and all the locations were easily reached, thanks to the usual meticulous draftsmanship by Gene. What was interesting for just about all of the locations, was how little they’d changed in the intervening fifty-four years. The Bracknell blag locations were my favourite as even with the march of time, the main roads and buildings were still there as geographical markers. The stills from the film were very useful to compare back to, when the site had just been developed from fields and the distinctive Fujitsu building was still being built. It was then the drive back to the smoke via the M4 and the traffic was again very obliging, in spite of the volumes. The final two locations, or three if you include the footbridge, again hadn’t really changed and provided the end to another great day. I finished at Chiswick Park station, designed by Charles Holden, which is also in the film and, being grade II listed, also hasn’t really changed since 1970. www.modernistbritain.co.uk/post/building/Chiswick+Park+Station/Many thanks again to Gene for his planning and organisation, which is always appreciated for the time and effort he puts into these meets, plus the location searching and investigation. They really are step-backs in time and always make you appreciate the then and now changes.
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Post by Peter Picard on Apr 16, 2024 8:07:33 GMT
43Tv meet 016- Villain- was a unique meet in terms of the locations, a mix of urban, suburban, semi rural and industrial locations all of which had either changed very little or not at all, so were all immediately recognisable.
Yet again the weather was perfect, dry, bright and by the afternoon pleasantly warm so all in all a really enjoyable day.
Thanks Gene for organising another top notch meet, sorry i couldn't make Saturday Del, from what i heard it was a gerat afternoon/evening of West London watering holes. Cheers to Gerry Burtonshaw for being my wheelman and Steve Austin for assisting with navigation, it was great to sit back and enjoy the sights of South London and Bracknel.
Finally, thanks to all the squad members for their company throughout the day it was great catching up again and i'm already looking forward to the next one.
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Post by Windy Miller on Apr 16, 2024 18:59:44 GMT
Super huge thanks to Gene for bringing together another epic Meet The day was faultless in every way. The screen grabs as usual provided a point of reference and the route for the locations expertly drafted. Many thanks for all your efforts Gene which go such a long way in making the day so relaxed, friendly and stress free for us all. Sadly, I got waylaid on the Saturday between Islington and Chiswick, and I missed Del’s pub crawl. I’ve always wanted to try the St Elmo’s chippy, and that gastronomic delight once again eludes me. From what everyone was saying, it sounded like all the pubs were top notch and everyone had a great Saturday. Sunday was a top quality day from start to finish. Great locations and great banter along the way with Dirty Epic in Del Boy’s ultra fast accelerating VW. Thanks for doing the driving Del , and for negotiating us through some quite tricky junctions and narrow roads. So once again, the classic combination of great organisation and management, locations from long ago revisited in the 21st century, amicable company, and an appropriately convenient pub providing a lunch time refreshment stop proved once again to be a winner. It was great meeting up with everyone again for what was a really enjoyable, friendly and good humoured day out Already looking forward to the next Meet
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Post by John Steed on Apr 16, 2024 19:52:01 GMT
What a fantastic weekend from start to finish! Saturday started with an early breakfast in Gene Hunt's neck of the woods before Gene, Vienna and myself made the trip down to London. The motorways were kind to us and we arrived in good time to park up and take a leisurely stroll to The Dove at Hammersmith where we bagged a table and some seats outside by the river to take advantage of the lovely weather and we were soon joined by a few more squad members. A couple more pubs followed before we sampled the chips at the St Elmo's chippy ... very nice they were too! (I couldn't have cooked them much better myself) A couple more beers and a curry in the evening completed a very enjoyable Saturday. Sunday morning was a pleasant start again with the weather and once all squad members were present, myself, Vienna (navigator), and our wheels man Brown Granada headed off with the rest of the squad on the drive about locations tour which as always was planned by Gene Hunt with military precision. A very enjoyable lunch break in the sunshine and then some more locations made for a most enjoyable afternoon. It was over all too quickly but a great time was had by all and we rounded Sunday off with a meal and a couple of beers. Thanks to Gene Hunt for driving myself and Vienna down from the Midlands and back again with some great banter in the car. Thanks Del Boy for planning Saturday's pub tour with chippy stop off. Thanks Brown Granada for driving us about on Sunday. Thanks Vienna for navigating on Sunday. Massive thanks to Gene Hunt for all of the hard work that goes into planning these events ... nobody could plan them better Finally, thanks to everyone who attended and collectively made it the fantastic weekend that it was. Cheers Guys! Steed
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Post by Dirty Epic on Apr 17, 2024 11:12:14 GMT
I'm going to do a proper report later this week as I usually do, but just wanted to say a brilliant weekend all round. Thanks to everyone for having a nice and relaxed time with some good laughs and catch up's and big thanks to Gene for sorting everything out and making it all work well as usual. All the best.
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