Dr Thomas - Life & Works

The Life of Dr Thomas.

This film was made in 1981 and was intended to provide an entertainment item for a Christadelphian family Camp on Whitsun Bank Holiday. I was looking for a story which would give enough scope for characters and location but also have some benefit in its content. The history of “Dr Thomas - Life and Works” by Robert Roberts, demonstrated how one man searched and found the Truth of the Scriptures when his life was in jeopardy and there after devoted himself to the work of spreading the Good News of the Kingdom of God.

I started writing a script using Robert Roberts’ book and outlined some scenes and then looked for suitable locations in Norwich and our surrounding countryside. I decided that amateur actors would be less inhibited by the camera if they didn’t have to learn dialogue so all information and content from conversations would be given by the narrator. As we filmed each scene I would write the next scene in detail and look for location and actors to fit. We started filming on a sunny Easter weekend in The Cathedral Close in Norwich. This provided suitable architecture for Hoxton Square where Dr Thomas was born. We were filming with an ordinary movie camera so no chance for re-takes. I simply asked people to walk through the scene as I directed them and then we filmed it as they walked through it a second time. We had borrowed a few top hats and frock coats and we made most of the Victorian outfits for the ladies and the children. We filmed at every opportunity over the next few weekends and everyone who was willing was pressed to appear in the cast. Local people allowed us to film in their homes and gardens. As the Victorian part of the Norfolk and Norwich hospital was currently being de-commissioned, I was able to get permission to film in its corridors so that the medical scenes could look genuine. We filmed the shipping scenes in Greenwich and at Gorleston in Norfolk and when it came to scenes on board ship we were allowed to use the interior of a Tudor building in Norwich so at least the beams were of the period. The one filming disappointment was that the one day we had use of a horse and cart for Dr Thomas and his family to "Go West"... it poured with rain. When I picked up the book that night to write the next scene I saw that Dr Thomas reported, "We arrived in Ohio in a squall of rain" What a relief!

We finished filming with only two weeks to write the script and record the narration on cassette tape, adding sound effects as we ran the film through a Super 8 projector. The narration was recorded flawlessly by Geoff Mitchell and was only finally added and synchronized with the action on a computer in 1999.

The filming was great fun and the end result has been enjoyed by many people since. Now that video cameras are so readily available we have stood ready to write and produce another if only we could come up with a suitable story line.

Watch Dr. Thomas - Life & Works