Cameras rolling in the Black Country for festive film anthology
Filming is under way in the Black Country for a festive movie anthology featuring 'Allo 'Allo! star Arthur Bostrom.
Advent, which will be released next December, is comprised of three different Christmas stories.
It is being produced by Walsall College technician Kaush Patel of Pat The Bull Films, in association with lecturer Dave Hastings of Lightbeam Productions.
The opening segment story Ho-Ho-Hostage features Bostrom, who is best known for his role of Officer Crabtree from Allo' Allo', as the town mayor merrily helping to start the countdown to the annual Christmas tree light switch on. It is a festive comedy that follows Karen and David along with their son Dylan.
After visiting the local soup kitchen, they suddenly find themselves accidentally stumbling upon a robbery by the world's not-so-clever burglars. While the family and their friends are held hostage, they suddenly find help in the form of Christmas’ original visitor, a man in a red suit and hat, who keeps saying Ho-Ho-Ho.
Continuing with the spirit of the season, Kaushy Patel presents the second segment, Three Ghosts, chronicling the Wilkinson family, whose continual fighting and arguing tips the balance on Christmas Eve. However, this continual emotional struggle has finally taken its toll on all of them both mentally and physically.
Fearing that all hope is lost, they decide to proceed with a devastating course of action. Their only hope? Three Christmas ghosts, who are determined to show each of them how their consequences would have emotional repercussions and that their presence in the world is a blessing and not a hindrance, as they believe.
Mr Hastings’s third segment, Dominik, tells the true story of a quiet and gentle stranger, who begins to appear at Midnight Mass every Christmas Eve at a local nearby church. As Susan Wormbourne and her husband, Colin, the vicar, attempt to find out who the young man is, they discover a heart-breaking and tragic past, one that finds him now lost in a country he does not originally come from.
"As Advent concludes, the characters and events help reaffirm that Christmas is not just a time for gift-giving, mince pies and office parties, but also a time when we need to watch out for those in society more vulnerable than ourselves, and to reach out and lend a helping hand in a more complex contemporary time," says Mr Hastings.
The anthology is written and directed by Charlie Duckerin, Mr Patel and Mr Hastings.
"It was a wonderful experience to have Arthur want to come on board and support us independent filmmakers in the Midlands. His performance within the Christmas Tree light switch on scenes are funny, charming and full of festive spirit, and he was in the amazing capable hands of segment director Charlie Duckerin and a stunning cast and crew," said Mr Hastings.
To find out more about the project see www.facebook.com/AdventMovie
