Hanging with retired gangsters
I guess I can’t let this week go by without telling you about Dave Courtney.

Now let me just say, Mr Courtney is a lovely chap. I spent three months in his house in the East End helping to get his film off the ground and it was, to say the least, one hell of an adventure. I could tell you a number of stories from that time but I think I shall stick with the one that finally made me realise just how dangerous the people I was associating with were and how close I came to killing someone.

I did a lot of things on set: lighting, electrics, make up and general gophering. As part of my duties, I was the on-set ‘quartermaster’, which meant that I had the job of keeping tabs on the bag of prop guns, knives and other ‘deadly’ weapons that were part of the scenery in this ‘East End Gangster Caper’. Now, I really should have asked where all the guns came from but in my naivety, I just figured that Dave knew a few prop and special effects houses (yes, I was that stupid). It was only later in the shoot did someone tell me that they had been ‘rescued’ from being destroyed by the Old Bill and were actually real working guns. However, as there was no ammunition for them on set other than a few blanks (also under my care) I wasn’t too concerned.

And then one day after filming, I am putting the guns back into the bag and ‘unloading’ their magazines safe for use the next day. There’s been no blanks needed for today’s shoot so I know that all of the magazines are empty. As I am holding a particularly nice semi-automatic, I am approached by the director, also my best mate at the time, who jokes around with me a little about some of the tension we’d had on set that day. Relieved that all is well, I point the gun at him from my hip and joke that the next time he shouts at me, I will shoot him. Funny, it’s about this point I realise that the gun is a tad heavier in my hand than it should be... that’s odd.

We both laugh, director returns to the rest of the crew and I eject the magazine to put the gun away. Except this time, I notice that the magazine is not empty. It was loaded, and not with blanks.

I can still recall the cold shiver that ran down my spine and how close I had come to jokingly pulling the trigger, safe in the false knowledge that there was no way any of these guns could have been loaded. It turned out that one of the ‘actors’ handling the gun had decided that he wanted to be truly ‘authentic’ and had brought a few clips along with him just so the weight of the gun felt right in his hands, a fact that he masterfully neglected to tell me about.

So there we go. I almost shot my best mate while filming with Dave Courtney. Length? Long enough to leave a sizeable skidmark in my pants thank you.
(Mr Evian, Tue 2 Oct 2012, 17:52, 5 replies)

This is how
Brandon Lee died.

'Oops'!
( Rotating Wobbly Hat That's not a banana. THIS is a banana., Tue 2 Oct 2012, 18:40, closed)

Having grown up around guns on farms and my father being of a military background, all I can say is that one thing drummed into me is to never ever point a gun at someone. Even a little BB gun. Even knowing that it 'can't possibly' be loaded. I don't like people even pretending to fool around with kitchen knives. It's too easy to make a mistake.
(feedingtimeatthezoo day 1 of his bikini diet started, Tue 2 Oct 2012, 21:55, closed)

Yup
Treat any gun as if it's loaded.
(tyrellsOwl, Wed 3 Oct 2012, 8:25, closed)

Best advice ever
Can't agree with you more. I was still a young idiot at that point and I learnt a terrifying lesson that day. Even though I worked with guns again later in my career, never again did I act like that with them.
(Mr Evian, Wed 3 Oct 2012, 19:46, closed)

Dave Courtney is an absolute tool.

(Ol' Ginger Bastard a role model for the children, Wed 3 Oct 2012, 3:43, closed)