THE AMAZING MR BLUNDEN

THE AMAZING MR BLUNDEN

(and the discovery of said film...)

A VERY STRANGE, OBSESSIVE TALE!

I have very vivid memories of my childhood, and one of the most memorable is sitting at my new desk watching a film on television with my father. It was somewhere between Christmas and New Year and it was afternoon, as I can remember the curtains being open and it gradually getting darker, such is the shortness of the days at this time of year. I was pretty certain it was 1977, as I'm sure that's the year I received my little red desk as a present. I would have been six.

Me at Christmas, age 6, sitting at my little red desk.

I remember snitches of the film:- there was a Victorian street scene with children dancing around a street maypole, and I had it in my head that this was taking place in London.

There was a Victorian room, and in the room was a big blue and white vase (how I knew that the vase was blue I do not know- instinct, perhaps? You have to understand that we only had a black-and-white television at the time, the kind my father had to hit with his slipper, on occasion, to get a decent picture!). (An update- after watching the film again, I've realised that the blue vase gets a mention towards the end...)

Later on you see this very same room on fire, with a man riding from the scene on horseback (although I have since realized that he's riding towards the burning house, not away from- it's amazing what information the mind stores).

You see the fire and horse scene replayed later in the film, in a flashback.

As a little girl, I loved my colouring-in, and had received a colouring book that Christmas. On one of the pages was a patterned vase that was similar in shape to the one in the film, so I duly crayoned it blue.

My memory didn't store the name of the film, nor any of its principal actors, so I didn't know how to find out more about it, and it bugged me BIG time, right through into adulthood.

This is one of the scenes that ABSOLUTELY HAUNTED me!

I questioned my parents about films with fire scenes in them.

'Jane Eyre?' said my mother. No, I know Jane Eyre, and there was no indication of a mad woman living in the attic.

'Great Expectations?' said my father, but no. There was only a fire, not a person being set on fire.

'Gone With The Wind?' said my mother. Although I was sure the street scene was set in London, I saw no reason to suspect that they didn't have street maypoles in the USA.  I duly watched the film, and it was definitely not it.

God bless the internet!

A few years back I googled in “Christmas programmes shown on television” for 1977, 1978 and 1979 ( I wasn't 100% sure about the year). I wrote down some of the names that appeared. Although I was sure it wasn't correct, I duly sat through three hours of War And Peace, in my quest for recognition. No, It definitely wasn't that film.

I recently discovered a Radio Times website dedicated to every programme the BBC had shown, EVER! Although my memory vaguely recalled advert breaks, I had a look through.

Maybe it was Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy? I watched the 1970s version, thinking that I'd struck lucky, but no.  This film was set in modern London, and people certainly didn't dance around street maypoles then. I thought it might have been an episode of The Old Curiosity Shop, as the London scenes definitely had a Dickensian feel about them, but there was no footage of the 1970s version available online and anyway, the programme had been televised too late in the afternoon to coincide with my memory clock.

As it was now Christmas, I googled the 100 best Christmas films ever, and gave It's A Wonderful Life a go, thinking that could be it. But no, this wasn't it and I found this film, sadly, very disappointing.

Only days ago I found a TV Times website which listed Christmas programmes, and duly wrote down a few names. I googled images for a few of the films I'd listed, with no joy.

I then typed in The Amazing Mr. Blunden, and immediately my heart began to race- images showed Victorian children and a fire! And Wikipedia mentioned that the film began in Camden Town, and was filmed in flashback sequence! The whole film was available via YouTube, and within the first five minutes I knew that I'd hit the jackpot. I have since ordered the film on DVD.

Described as a much-loved classic, the film stars the late, great Diana Dors (dressed down to look rancid) as the reprehensible Mrs. Wickens, and also a young Lynne Frederick (she later married Peter Sellers and, incidentally, shared the same birthday as me).  Those of you that like real ghost/ mystery stories with a twist of humour will love this, and I couldn't recommend this film more, for adults as well as kids.

But this was most odd- I'd never heard of The Amazing Mr. Blunden, or even seen it advertised, either as a trailer or listed in a TV guide, even though it's apparently one of those films that gets wheeled out over Christmas and Easter.

It is now up there with my list of favourites/ life-changing-movies, whatever you want to call it. And a thirty-seven year old mystery has finally been solved!

And that concludes this strange, obsessive tale!