Violence
Location: Farnborough, Hampshire
Bodies present: David Randell, Mark Flitter, Rebecca Croxson, Ian Lindsay, Sue Element, Mike Varty, Mark Stalker, Henry Burrows

Tuesday night was the filming of some more scenes at the top of the stairs. I (Mark Flitter) arrived late. After my house move, I had misplaced the orange top of Steve's costume (and hadn't found it). Worse still, I wouldn't be able to make next weeks' filming.

With his usual aplomb, Henry brushed the problem aside and started issuing instructions for people to get ready. Mike found an orange T-shirt that wasn't too dissimilar to the original, so continuity wouldn't be too badly damaged......

Foil Man inspects a stunned Steve

The preparations began with what seemed to be a ritual and customary throwing of abuse between Dave and anyone helping him get into the Foil Man costume. Meanwhile Henry's mind was feverishly planning where things were going to be filmed from.

Because I couldn't make the filming for next week, Henry rescheduled tonight's work so that all of my scenes could be filmed tonight. Essentially this involved Foil Man climbing the stairs and kicking seven shades out of Steve. Although the script called for Foil Man to do this silently, Dave had other ideas (well at least the foil suit did).

One of the many problems encountered was that Dave had awful trouble hitting the same spot twice with his stun weapon. This was more of a problem for Rebecca, as the prop left a fairly grim red mark on her arm. At this point we should have realised that Dave was really getting into the role of Foil Man and taken time out for him to re-discover his humanity, but no. We pressed on and marched inexorably towards the discovery that Foil Man was a complete monster.

Jimmy's Knife

Helen tries to help Steve after his first encounter with Foil Man, but she is stunned. This posed some interesting problems, with both Rebecca and myself taking up valuable floor space after being stunned, Ian and Dave began rehearsing the next sequence, that was to be filmed with a real knife.....

After this was filmed without incident, the next sequence involves Foil Man kicking Steve squarely in the head. Let me repeat that part. THE HEAD! Well this was good and well, but some doubts were raised as to the exact techniques required to film it. Dave and I rehearsed the sequence, and three times got the shot absolutely perfect, so we went for a take. As the foot connected (as planned) with my hands, I threw my head back and fell backwards as if kicked. Dave forgot to stop his foot. He had got this right three times already, and come the take he didn't pull the foot back.

Henry called cut while I continued to writhe in pain at the top of the stairs. Some laughter ensued as it became evident something wasn't right, and gasps of shock followed when (in between gasping for air and wiping tears from my eyes) I declared;

"Dave just kicked me in the balls"

We took a small break at this point and waited until I recovered. As soon as we were able, we continued, and wrapped up the rest of the night's violence fairly rapidly.

Foil Man reaches for Steve again...