A Personal Reminiscence of appearing in The Good Companions film in 1956

I was truly amazed reading your indepth description of "The Good Companions" as it opened up a memory corridor from so long ago. As a sixteen year old still training at a London ballet school, being given a chance to dance professionally at ABPC studios (opposite the MGM studios) in Borehamwood was such a thrill for me . Working with such talents as Paddy Stone and Irving Davies, I feel part of my luck getting this audition was the fact that Janette Scott was only seventeen - they felt that as she was not an experienced dancer and we were of a similiar age, this allowed me to help her during rehearsals. Another joy was that her mother, Thora Hird, would often pop in to see her daughter so we would have a good laugh with her. I remember the first day at the studio at Elstree. Initially there were only four girls and four boys originally working with Paddy Stone and Irving Davies at the film studios for the first few weeks of rehearsal- then we shot for four weeks during which time they added more dancers. The other seven were all principal dancers in their own right and immediately started discussing the pay rate. We were offered only 3 pounds ten shillings per day for rehearsal so we agreed to hold out for 5 pounds plus ten pounds for filming - which we got - a fortune for me at 17 in those days. We were thus paid five pounds a day for rehearsals and a whole ten pounds a day for filming - paid daily! Still a lot of money for a sixteen year old student........Ah the good old days!

I was in the main finale - "Around the World in 80 Minutes" [by the way it took six weeks to produce- rehearsal and filming!]. Ah, that's show biz! We laughed at how fast it all seemed to be on the screen. We had to use slow motion to really pick out where I was - I am in the front, left on screen as viewed, in the initial part of the bowler hat sequence and in the planet routine I am in the red costume with the large round head dress (that weighed a ton!). I also helped Janette Scott rehearse some of her steps in that routine. She was really a very nice person. I agree with you that Paddy and Irving did a great job on the choreography. The costumes were beautiful and with great detail and really good music. This was my first major job from ballet school other than as girl babe in the Tom Arnold production of "Babes in the Wood" with Jewell and Warris in Newcastle in 1952. Unfortunately I missed the premiere of "The Good Companions" as I was sick, but later managed to get to the premiere of "The Young Ones" with fellow dancer, Lindsay Dolan, who was in that film. I was also with Lionel Blair's dancers for five years of TV in shows like ''Saturday Spectacular'' and the Jo Stafford series etc. So extraordinary you also mentioning "Play it Cool" (1962) as I was with Lionel's group in that one too. I have never seen the film, but the memory of working with Michael Winner is still strong. He appeared to everyone involved on the set as a truly overbearing upstart and very young director causing such an atmosphere on the floor and always using a megaphone - just like the old style directors! We think the stage hands got their revenge - on our last day of shoot, some type of sneezing powder substance "found its way" on to the megaphone. You can imagine the results. I understand that he is now a truly respected and acknowledged director since those early days.

I must just close with, of all the great choreographers I worked with those many years ago, Lionel was the most supportive of his dancers and the most fun to work with. I was part of Lionel's group for five years and it is interesting that others in the original group were such names as Mavis Ascott (the Esso girl), Amanda Barrie (I've Gotta Horse), Judy Cahn and Una Stubbs (Three Hats For Lisa, Summer Holiday). What a team! Haven't we all done well......... Once again thank you for stimulating these memories.

Maggie Ainsworth (formally Margaret Lee)