The relationship between the two girls were crystallised by the director taking them 10 pin bowling.

The film stock didn’t arrive for the first shoot. We were left on a sunny hillside in Oxfordshire with a film crew, cast & generator….but no stock. Owing to the geography we couldn’t get a mobile phone signal. The EP had to drive to another location to arrange a re-supply from London.

Filming started in the autumn of 2002. But owing to a freak storm the shoot was aborted after the allotment location was turned into a quagmire. Even the electrician slipped 20 feet in the mud. However, just as we had finished packing up & moving out – the sun came out.

The remainder of the year proved to be turbulent weather wise so filming was re-scheduled for Spring.

Meanwhile helmer, Patsy Palmer was snapped up onto London’s west end in a successful production of “Mum’s The Word” & shooting had to wait for that to finish.

Patsy had to cut off her hair for the production, thereby providing a slight continuity problem.

Shoot re scheduled 3 times, each time with a new crew, as either the old, or a previous crew became booked up.

Alas Patsy was then hit hard by a re-occurring bout of tonsillitis & had to have her tonsils removed.

Veteran actress Jackie Avery contracted cancer between shoots & the chemotherapy knocked out most of her hair, alas, her appearance altered drastically too – so two scenes had to be removed from the film.

The final filming location: an allotment in south London with majestic views across the Thames had been lovingly tended to, had to be moved when new owners had bought the plot from the council.

One roll of film was accidentally loaded in back to front, thereby creating dirty red images. The lab commented that the last time they saw this was by a Nigerian crew in 1978 !

Meanwhile child actress Freya Parsons had turned 16 by the second shoot & helped out as a runner.

Then the film lab went into receivership.

When the print was delivered, there was an audio problem, so it had to be re-edited, which fortunately pushed the film into the next festival year.

Despite all this – the film STILL got made and finished.

Shooting locations:

Stonnor Park, Oxfordshire,

East Finchley, Muswell Hill, Turnpike Lane – North London

Dothill allotments, Plumstead Common, South London