On The Beat Location

[CC1]

Found a great part of the Windsor website dedicated to the locations used in the Norman Wisdom film "On the Beat" (loved it as a kid and my children love it now).



Someone has gone to a lot of trouble to research and take photos comparing then and now (with what is left as there has been a lot of development)



There is also a section on this site deicated to "Carry on Cabby" which was filmed in Windsor.



Hope this link works:



On The Beat. 1962. Norman Wisdom Classic Filmed in Windsor. Location photographs - 47k -

[Steve Crook]

Found a great part of the Windsor website dedicated to the locations used in the Norman Wisdom film "On the Beat" (loved it as a kid and my children love it now).



Someone has gone to a lot of trouble to research and take photos comparing then and now (with what is left as there has been a lot of development)



There is also a section on this site deicated to "Carry on Cabby" which was filmed in Windsor.



Hope this link works:



On The Beat. 1962. Norman Wisdom Classic Filmed in Windsor. Location photographs - 47k -

Great stuff. I always like sites like that.



Steve

[Wee Sonny MacGregor]

A good bit of social history as well. Excellent stuff.



One question - why is Norman wearing a 19th/early 20th century uniform!

[CC1]

A good bit of social history as well. Excellent stuff.



One question - why is Norman wearing a 19th/early 20th century uniform!

Those uniforms were still worn by the Met Police up until the 50's and were then phased out in favour of ones without the high collar. They still retained them for ceremonial purposes but finsihed with them some time in the 1980s. The City of London Police still have a similar uniform for ceremonial occasions.

[David Brent]

A good bit of social history as well. Excellent stuff.



One question - why is Norman wearing a 19th/early 20th century uniform!

In the film Norman wears the uniform that once belonged to his father.

This is at the time when Norman is dreaming of becoming a real copper.



Dave.

[spinalman]

What an excellent site...I always wondered about the finale of the chase scene with that enigmatic high shot of the coppers converging on the wasteland..the whistles echoing around the railway arches.

[Wee Sonny MacGregor]

Thanks, chaps. Why did I think Norman was a real copper!

[Steve Crook]

Thanks, chaps. Why did I think Norman was a real copper!

He was by the end of the film



Steve

[Automotivehistorian]

My mother used to live in Alacross Road/Coningsbury Road (the two roads met on a bend and ran into each other) South Ealing, and she knew Charles Hawtry's mother and the actor. I always thought that OTB was filmed in Ealing and near the Brentford Dock Good Branch (viaduct scene) but was amazed to find it was Windsor! The "American" car that the villians use is amazing. It is in fact a 1960 Model Canadian Pontiac Parisienne 6-cylinder 4-door Hardtop, and has right hand drive. An official photo of one was used in the motoring press around Motor Show time, probably October 1959. They were imported by US Concessionaires Limited in Chelsea, and the car must have been lent for the filming. The car features in a street scene where Pitkin lives and also in the studio. A very rare car, and no doubt rusted away many years ago!



The exterior shots in the opening "dream sequence" with Alfred Burke (later of PUBLIC EYE fame) as Trigger O'Flynn was of course filmed in one of the roads on the Slough Trading Estate. The Slough Estates Railway lines can be seen, as well as the hot water system pipes from the power station.

[philip hindley]

When Norman Pitkin gets chased by all those coppers he runs down a back street this is Goswell hill, Windsor. The same street that Brian Donlevy/Jack Warner observe the viaduct wall where the thing climbed up the wall in THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT !!!

[smudge]

He runs round various Windsor streets, a lot fo which disappeared under a new housing development in the 1960s. This link



On The Beat. 1962. Norman Wisdom Classic Filmed in Windsor. Location photographs



gives you the full story on an excellent Windsor website.



Incidentally, when Carroon breaks into the chemists shop in THE QUATERMASS EXPERIMENT this is Woods Of Windsor on Queen Charlotte St., the smallest street in the land...



Smudge

[Chris B]

superb article very interesting you can see a lot of hard work went into this

Regards Chris B

[Automotivehistorian]

There is a very rare and interesting car that the gangsters use...it's a 1960 Pontiac Parisienne 4-door Sport Sedan, with the 6-cyliner 261 cu in engine I think, and Powerglide auto transmission. It was right-hand drive with the left hand drive 1959 Chevrolet dash transposed. It was used in the street scene outside Pitkin's house and then in the studio. I would imagine that it was either owned by a movie mogul or was hired from US Concessionaires Limited, part of the LEX Garages group in London.



However the original opening "dream sequence" with Alfred Burke was clearly filmed on the Slough Trading Estate, not far of course from Windsor, and very near the Citroen Cars Ltd assembly depot in Buckingham Avenue. The Estate's steam railway tracks can clearly be seen in the roads.

[cletus awreetus]

Considering the streets are so empty in the film On The Beat, and the apparent lack (or need) of any real police prescence, it's amazing how many coppers there are in whistle-blowing range!

[Jackdaw]

If memory serves, there were scenes of Norman delivering milk in Bexley Street, also in Windsor, in THE EARLY BIRD.

[CC1]

Found a great part of the Windsor website dedicated to the locations used in the Norman Wisdom film "On the Beat" (loved it as a kid and my children love it now).



Someone has gone to a lot of trouble to research and take photos comparing then and now (with what is left as there has been a lot of development)



There is also a section on this site deicated to "Carry on Cabby" which was filmed in Windsor.



Hope this link works:



On The Beat. 1962. Norman Wisdom Classic Filmed in Windsor. Location photographs - 47k -

This site is still up and running and excellent! There is also a link to a similar site for "Carry on CabbY"

[Expat]

Just joined & seen this-I was 3rd asst director on both Carry on Cabby & On the Beat-& seeing these photos took me back 50yrs to my youth at Pinewood-THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!