In the past few months, two ladies I know have said to me that, as they've got older, they feel like they've become invisible. I think that's awful. Why should growing older mean that we can't still be an active participant in life and make a significant contribution? After all, with age we gain experience. Not just in how to do things, but also how not to. The sad thing is, one of them was only in her forties.
I'm not sure what makes them think this way. Perhaps they were just having a bad day, that day. Certainly the older one of the two, didn't strike me as being invisible, in fact quite the opposite.
Well, I know one thing for sure. I'm not prepared to drift into my dotage unseen or unheard. Although I think my family sometimes wish I was less visible.
Of course I have my bad days, when I just want to hide away from the world, I think we all do. But the rest of the time I want to grab any opportunities that come my way to have an adventure, and recently, I was given such an opportunity..
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| Aurore Chiroix |
The director of
Cogges Manor Farm, where I volunteer, was contacted by a French journalist,
Aurore Chiroix, from the French television programme,
Arte, Invitation au Voyage, Le magazine de L'evasion culturelle, a travel documentary programme. She was planning to do a documentary about locations used in the filming of
Downton Abbey, and she wanted permission to come and film at
Cogges, which was used as the location of
Yew Tree Farm, in the series. She'd heard that the volunteers at
Cogges were, 'very passionate', and she asked if he could, 'advise her' of a volunteer who was passionate about both,
Cogges and
Downton, who'd be willing to be interviewed on film for the documentary. Now I wonder who that reminds me of? As one of my colleagues said, "
it had my name written all over it". They were interested in the history of the site, along with it's role in
Downton.
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| Cogges as Yew Tree farm |
Aurore contacted me by email to arrange a time when we could speak on the phone. When she responded to the email I sent in return suggesting a couple of options, she said that while doing her research on line, she'd come across my blog and that she, "
was very glad to be speaking to me". I was chuffed to bits by this. She also sent me a list of the questions that she would be asking me on the day. Some I could have answered there and then, but others I had to do a bit of research on. Not only did she want to ask about the actual filming, she also wanted to know about the history of
Cogges and how what we saw in the programme about life of
Farmer Drewe at
Yew Tree Farm, compared to the reality of life at
Cogges in the 1920's. I also had to find out about the
Tax laws introduced by
David Lloyd George and how they affected the large estates, something I had no idea about. I do now.
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| Ann, me and Aurore |
So, one Friday morning in October, I met
Aurore and her camera woman,
Ann, in the
old ox byre, which now serves as our reception and shop. I thought that I would be very nervous. But for some reason I wasn't. After all, I was at
Cogges, talking about two of my passions, and as a tour guide, it was something I was used to doing.
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| Aylesbury ducks, with Call duck in middle. |
After showing them the house and the areas of the site where filming took place, the interview began. But first we had to remove some items in the kitchen out of shot. The house had been decorated for our half term
Halloween events, and
Aurore didn't really want bats, pumpkins and spiders in the film. We started the interview on the
Dairy lawn, with the house in the background, then we went back into the kitchen.
Aurore, who was a few months pregnant, stood off camera and asked me the questions. Most of the time it was fine, as I'd prepared my answers. But a couple of times she went off script and asked me a question that wasn't in her original email. So we had to stop filming while I had a think about how to answer it. Fortunately, it was mainly my opinion she was after, so I can be forgiven if my answers weren't exactly 100% accurate.
Once the interview was over,
Ann, asked me to do some shots, where she filmed me walking and looking around, pretending that there was no camera there. At last my chance to act had arrived. Outside, she then walked around the site taking footage of the buildings and the animals. I won't be in the least surprised if there's more footage of the animals than me in the final cut, especially the ducks and,
Bonnie, the cat.
Aurore had a cat back home, and she was delighted that both.
Bonnie and
Patsy, the
Cogges' cats, kept following me around.
Ann managed to capture a fantastic shot of
Bonnie running towards me as I stood beside
Ann, with the
Aylesbury ducks, plus the little
Call duck, which they thought was a duckling, running in a perfect straight line behind her.
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| Farmer Drewe, Lady Mary and Tom |
Finally, we were done. I had such a great time. I asked her where else they were filming, and who else were they interviewing. They'd been to
Highclere Castle, where they'd interviewed the
Countess, and
Bampton, where they spoke with the head of the archives there and then there was me. It made me laugh.
It's going to be aired in
January or
February. As it's a
French television channel, I won't be able to watch it live. But Aurore is going to send ma a link, which she said I should be able to download and keep, and naturally I'll be sharing it in a blog. I'll probably spend my time cringing when I watch it. But who knows? Maybe this could be the start of a whole new career for me?
One thing's for sure, I can't say that I've become visible as I've got older, can I?
Isabel Johnstone 2019 ©
Photos, Isabel's own, or courtesy of Aurore Chiroix.
Arte Invitation au Voyage website.
https://tinyurl.com/y48omgml
Blog on Downton Abbey.
https://tinyurl.com/y5lp9xj6
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