An item selected by Miv Wayland Smith from his exhibit Film, TV and Music
at the Taplow Heritage Exhibition.
At a time when the Beatles are once again top of the album chart it is worth noting that almost 45 years ago on May 10th and 11th of 1965, the Beatles were on location at Cliveden House, shooting the 'Buckingham Palace' scenes for their second film,
Help!
To pass the time in between waiting around on set, the crew organised a relay race on the front lawn. The Beatles decided to join in against three other teams made up of electricians, carpenters and camera operators. The Beatles' team included the four Beatles, Neil Aspinall and chauffeur Alf Bicknell. The film crew were confident they would win - all the Beatles smoked and took little exercise. However to everyone's astonishment, the Beatles' team won - Ringo's speed was particularly commented upon. People had forgotten how adept the Beatles were at escaping from fans and how necessary that extra burst of speed was in potentially life-threatening situations. Lord and Lady Astor presented the winning team with a bottle of vintage champagne.
In a recent interview Sir Paul McCartney spoke about how he and his wife Linda would escape the pressures of the Beatles splitting up by visiting Cliveden - ’I knew Cliveden from making the film
Help! – we shot a sequence where we’d used the house, pretending it was Buckingham Palace. I’m not sure the Queen would have allowed that. I’d been out there with the Beatles and we met Lord Astor and he was on his last legs. I remember him offering us all oxygen. He was saying: “Do you want a bit?” I think we did have a quick whiff.’
John Lennon returned to Taplow with Yoko Ono in 1971 when the Rolling Stones threw a farewell party for 250 people at Skindles Hotel.
Miv Wayland Smith
