'Endeavour' episode of interest to cinema and Hammer films buffs

[Gary Sayers]

Just watched an episode of 'Endeavour' that I recorded last week off ITV 4 (UK TV channel). It's set mainly in a cinema in the 1960s and has lots of nods to Hammer style films of the time. Fans of the Hammer horror films will get a kick out of it as will anyone interested in cinemas before the age of the multiplex.

The episode should be available on ITV hub and also on Amazon prime. It's from season 5, episode 2 and is called 'Cartouche'.

[Ed Gordon]

Thanks for the tip Gary. The cinema scenes prompted me to look up filming locations, and I found an interview with the Production Designer, Paul Cripps. Here are some excerpts:

DAMIAN: Where were the Roxy cinema interior and exterior scenes filmed in CARTOUCHE?

PAUL: The exterior, foyer, bar, owner’s flat and roof were all the former Carlton cinema in Essex Road Islington currently a church. The auditorium was the Broadway Theatre Catford with additions by me including an orchestra pit and the rising organ (a hydraulic lift!) Interestingly the auditorium was an almost exact match of a cinema I location scouted in Germany for The Missing 2 for BBC. That cinema was built around the same time in a Nazi training camp called Vogelsang and when I went to Catford for the first time I was astounded by the similarity. We saw a lot of abandoned cinemas for CARTOUCHE it was heartrending seeing the dilapidation of the State cinema in Grays.

DAMIAN: As regular readers will know, CARTOUCHE was a particular delight for me as a huge fan of the Universal and Hammer Horrors. To what extent were these a direct influence on your designs and did you research specific films or the work of production designers for Universal such as Charles D. Hall or Bernard Robinson at Hammer?

PAUL: Yes I was very influenced by the 60’s Hammer output. I watched quite a few and the location at an old abandoned school near Wallingford worked really well for the film within a film. I remember watching a lot of those films when I first went to film school at the Prince Charles Cinema late night screenings.

I also sought out some behind the scenes photos at the BFI library. The book, Hammer Films – The Unsung Heroes The Team Behind the Films was a really useful reference for the filmmaking scenes. My favourite note was that Peter Cushing wore a single white glove when smoking off camera so as not to stain his fingers!

Source: http://dmbarcroft.com/the-endeavour-...tion-designer/