German Mystery!

A Case for Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple?

 Click image to enlarge.
L-R Ralf Buecheler (producer), Gemma (from Gloucestershire), Jo Scott, Hugh Jones.

What do  a German film producer, a mother and her two daughters from Gloucestershire, a German schoolgirl, a retired Reynoldston academic, a retired head teacher, a teacher of English in Japan, Sherlock Holmes, Dr Fu Manchu, a journalist on the Evening Post and the proprietors of an hotel have in common?

Would you believe, the NCI Look Out at Worms Head?

Let me try to explain.

A few years ago a young German student, Ralf Buecheler, completed an anthropology degree at Swansea University. When he got home he began to work for a company producing educational films for use in German schools. His current assignment is to produce a film aimed at helping in the teaching of English to teenage German students.

Remembering his own student days in Swansea he decided to film a story in which a German girl, working as an au pair in a household on the Gower peninsula, meets a lady and her two daughters, also on holiday. The four make contact with several people in the village in which they are staying.  They  visit Rhosilli where the German girl ventures out onto Worms Head and is, of course, cut off by the tide.

NCI Worms Head to the rescue. The Coastguard is informed and the Horton Inshore Lifeboat races, as always, to the rescue.

So that links a German film producer and a mother and her two daughters with the Look Out, but where does Gloucestershire come in and what of the German au pair?

When the decision was made to make this film and to locate it in the Gower peninsula the company contacted schools in Germany and asked teachers of English to nominate a good English speaking student who would be interested to play the part of the au pair. At the same time, teachers of German in English schools were asked to nominate a suitable student and a school girl, Gemma, from Gloucestershire was chosen and her mother and sister  were both willing to take part in the film.

If you are still with me you will be asking – what about the academic and the head teacher?

When Ralf descended onto the Gower peninsula to prepare for the film, he his crew and the amateur actors found accommodation in Reynoldston.

He began looking for someone with contacts in the area who might be able to help. He was introduced to Hugh Jones, a retired University Lecturer, who is not only active in promoting village life in Reynoldston but is also a well known amateur actor with the Gower Players. No time was lost in recruiting Hugh to play the part of a rather grumpy villager who is also a volunteer with NCI.

Are you still with me ?

Ralf then rang the Look Out to try to get agreement for part of the film to be shot there. Who should answer the phone but our own Jo Scott – a retired head teacher !

After a little discussion arrangements were made for the filming to take place and a part was written in for Jo Scott.

Gradually the jigsaw is being completed.
 
We are now left with the unlikely quintet of a teacher of English in Japan, Sherlock Holmes, Dr Fu Manchu, an Evening Post Journalist and an hotelier.

Cay Van Ash is an English teacher in Tokyo. He was a close friend of the late Sax Rohmer, the creator of Fu Manchu and he has collaborated with the author's widow, Elizabeth Sax Rohmer on a biography of her husband. This link helped in securing the agreement of the holders of the copyright for the Fu Manchu character, to his being included in a new novel.
Dame Jean Conan Doyle agreed to the use of  the characters created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and so, in 1984,  a new Sherlock Holmes novel “Ten Years Beyond Baker Street” was published.
In this book, Sherlock Holmes tracks down Dr Fu Manchu following him through the Gower peninsular, which is described quite accurately.  Dr Fu Manchu settles on the Outer Head of Worms Head with the apparatus to blow up the battleship “Hindustan” with the Prince of Wales on board, as it passes up the channel. Sherlock Holmes is sat in what is now the NCI Look Out planning to foil the plot. If you don't believe me, read the book!

That leaves only the journalist and the hotelier.

Among the “Acknowledgements” in Cay Van Ash's book are Sally Richards of the Evening Post and Mr & Mrs Heller, then proprietors of the “Worms Head Cottage Hotel” all of whom provided advice and encouragement to the author.

All quite straightforward really!