Film legend whose career was shaped in Down

Film legend whose career was shaped in Down

27 August 2014

AS the entertainment industry mourns the death of Lord Richard Attenborough this week, few will realise he honed his skills with a camera in the skies above Lecale.

Lord Attenborough, who passed away on Sunday afternoon at the age of 90, was posted to the RAF’s Bishopscourt air base, near Ballyhornan, during World War Two where he trained as an aerial cameraman.

Attenborough, who won two Oscars for his film Gandhi after a career as an actor, revealed his links to east Down when he travelled to Belfast in 2007 for the premier of his film Closing the Ring, a movie based around the crashing on Cave Hill of an American plane during the war.

“It’s great to be back in a place where I did such vital training in the RAF as a very young man and where my future as a cameraman was shaped,” he said.

“I was based at the old Bishopscourt station, and my real job was going to be as a cameraman, but I had to train as a gunner first of all.

“Cameramen were looked on as spies by the enemy so I had to have another occupation in case my plane got shot down and I was taken prisoner.

“I had a splendid time training at Bishopscourt — and I can reveal now that my pals and I did our share of smuggling food across the Irish border. We always had someone keeping watch while the rest of us brought in supplies of ham and eggs.

“We were not being greedy, food on the base was just so bad.

“However, I never forgot the serious business of being a cameraman in the RAF Film Unit which was an essential job in wartime aboard a Lancaster bomber.”

Amongst Lord Attenborough’s recollections of his RAF days were “a wonderfully brave Pole called Zani who gave his life in the fight to preserve our freedom”.

“Zani came to the UK as a member of the Polish Free Air Force and was my pilot, but one day he was killed on a flight and paid the supreme sacrifice,” he said. “I’ll never forget him.”