Last time I posted, I didn’t get around to mentioning Ghostbusters night, which was the Friday before last. The Courtyard claimed to have got hold of an original 1984 print to screen, though on the day they ended up showing it digitally for whatever reason. Although this was mildly disappointing, it could not detract from the joy of seeing this classic on the big screen again. In true Hereford-is-tiny style, the film was introduced by Mike Jackson, an old colleague from my Rural Media days. His link to Ghostbusters was his direction of a nineties behind-the-scenes documentary on the second movie and animated series for ITV and Columbia Pictures.
After the film, Ian and Col came back to our place, where Katie had made an angel food cake with “slime” icing and I’d bodged together a marshmallow man out of actual marshmallows. In fact, this is a good opportunity for a shameless advertisement of Katie’s new website, a must for any allergy-suffering cooks.
But we weren’t the only people who had been busy. Col seemed very keen that we all play a “special” board game. He proceeded to unveil a heavily customised Monopoly set: Soul Searcher Monopoly. Each square on the board had become a location from the shoot – everywhere from the romney huts (Dante’s lair) through James’s house (Heather’s house) to The Crystal Rooms, each with its own property card, perfectly mimicking the Monopoly card designs. The traditional top hat, motorcar and so on were usurped by the Mustang, Vic’s car, the Hades Express, the hire van and the generator. Dante’s Chest replaced Community Chest, and all the cards in this and the Chance pack were themed around the shoot. “The police are called while you are filming a swordfight at the multistorey. Lose UKP20.” / “Screen West Midlands turn down your funding application. Lose UKP10.” / “Go directly to Castle Cliff [jail]. Do not pass go. Do not collect your travel expenses.” So authentic was this painstaking creation of Col’s that the game even ended with me being heavily in debt.
Ah, memories. Misty, water-coloured memories. Today, of course, is Soul Searcher day – the seventh anniversary of the start of principal photography. Traditional celebrations include cursing malfunctioning cameras, worshipping leaf blowers and burning effigies of David Dukes.