Ice Cold In Elstree

Thirty years ago the BBC attempted to train me in the basic principles of multi camera directing at their Elstree studios just outside London. At the time it was the busy home of hit shows like Top of the Pops, Eastenders, and a bewilderingly successful sitcom called "You Rang My Lord".

Elstree had a past and, after lectures and between exercises, I would walk the long corridors separating the sound stages, fascinated by the black & white publicity photos from the movies made there before the BBC took it over.

One photo stopped me dead in my tracks. Sylvia Syms, all innocent passion, knowing naivety, prim and sexy, fragile and tough, mid clinch on top of John Mills, surrendering herself yet in total control. I was smitten. I would have stolen the photo but it was screwed to the wall.

The photo was from the 1958 film Ice Cold In Alex, which contains a very memorable scene of beer drinking in an Egyptian bar, after our heroes have endured a dry and hot adventure in the desert. It's an extraordinary moment.

At the end of my day of learning how to direct cameras, I'd head for the BBC bar, sit among the soap celebrities, pop stars and comic actors, stare at my own cold beer and dream about one of the most beautiful women I'd ever seen.

Sylvia Syms 1934-2023