Cowboys For Christ on Mayday, 2006

The Mayday bank holiday weekend saw The Wicker Man director Robin Hardy, along with one of the film's stars Ingrid Pitt, return to Dumfries And Galloway to participate in a series of Wickerish celebrations. The weekend formed part of the 2006 Wigtown Spring Festival. As large portions of The Wicker Man were filmed nearby, the town of Wigtown was an appropriate venue. The proceedings also doubled as the book launch for Robin Hardy's new novel 'Cowboys For Christ' which, as the publicity says, inhabits the same territory as The Wicker Man.

The following review was written by Declan McCafferty with photographs by Billy Strang.

Events kicked off on the Saturday evening in the County Buildings with an interview with Ingrid Pitt by the journalist Allan Brown. Understandably, Ingrid appeared to be very upset when the conversation turned to her childhood experiences in Nazi concentration camps. Ingrid also challenged the interviewer regarding his book 'Inside the Wicker Man', and in particular a chapter where it was claimed that Pitt had an affair with both the film's producer and distributor ( at the same time ) leading to the film's now legendary burial. Her side of the story is that this was simply untrue.

The following day's events started at the same venue with Allan Brown in the interviewee's chair this time. Allan discussed various aspects of the film including its cultism and some of the controversies regarding its ill-fated release. The alleged Ingrid Pitt love-triangle was not specifically mentioned this time around. This show had been described in the local press as including a showing of exclusive pictures from the filming, but sadly this was not the case. He did mention them however.

Allan Brown speaking at the event -

"There are scenes that have never appeared in any version and it was never known whether a number of these were actually filmed. We didn't know this until several months ago when I received a call from the on-set photographer John Brown - no relation - who had discovered a cache of stills and contact sheets that show the general progression of the film and the behind-the-scenes of the film. There was one scene of a pub in Kirkcudbright, set on the mainland with Howie who busts up a pub that stayed open late and arrests a prostitute. There's a bizarre scene in which a man in a tuxedo jumps from a bridge. Stills of that have turned up. There's a scene in which Willow gives Howie a massage, and we just didn't know about these things and now these things have turned up."

Hopefully these pictures will be published in due course for all to see. Wicker-Man.com has copies of a number of these sheets and we hope to bring you them in early course.

While there was little in the way of new material for the die-hard TWM enthusiast, the majority of the audience seemed to perhaps have merely a passing interest in the film and seemed well informed by it.

After a short break, Robin Hardy launched his aforementioned new novel 'Cowboys For Christ'. He was interviewed by film producer Gary Gillies ( no, me neither, or the imdb for that matter ) for approximately an hour.

Robin Hardy speaking at the event -

"Cowboys For Christ inherits the same territory as The Wicker Man in that its a clash between, in this case, two people who have a very strong Christian belief who find themselves in a pagan society. They come over ( from the USA ) as evangelists and they belong to a fundamentalist sect. They are very sincere and we recognize them in the book as good people, but they know nothing about outside the United States. They might as well be in Papua New Guinea! They are in danger of falling into any trap that is laid for them, but we can see what they can't. Having said that, there is a great deal of welcome for them, and from the moment they meet a figure who is not totally unlike Lord Summerisle, we start to worry for them and we start to be nervous about the wonderful welcome they are getting. They have come to re-baptise what their church has let them to believe is - and this a phrase that's being used in the united states these days - a post christian society. When they arrive over here they go to Glasgow and go door-to-door and you will not be entirely surprised to hear that they have a pretty bad time."

Gillies commended Robin on his accurate research regarding Glasgow and his references to local football teams and their connection with religion, and also his usage of Glasgow slang in the book. Hardy mentioned that he had a Scottish grandfather so research for such wasn't too difficult. He also mentioned an unrelated proposed project he is working on which is a tourist attraction based near Glasgow about Scottish history.

The interviewer also asked him as to why he chose now to write a follow-on from The Wicker Man. Robin mentioned that there is significant interest following the release of the DVD a few years ago among other factors. He also mentioned another reason.

Robin Hardy -

"I am particularly interested in the christian-right in America. I've spent a lot of time there. I thought it would be interesting and appropriate to put that kind of christianity up against the pagans."

With regards to the proposed film version of 'Cowboys For Christ' , Robin mentioned that it "probably will" happen. The film is due to star Christopher Lee. He also stated that current government policy regarding tax breaks and grants regarding independent film making had led to previous plans for the film being scrapped.

Songs are to be featured within 'Cowboys For Christ' and Robin did mention that plans were already under way with regards to the music for the proposed film and musicians from Glasgow have already signed up for the project. The Glaswegian singer Lesley Mackie was also mentioned as appearing in its soundtrack. Fans of The Wicker Man will already be familiar with Lesley's singing voice. Read our interview with Lesley elsewhere on this site for further info regarding her involvement with TWM.

During a brief Q and A, an audience member asked if Robin had any Scottish actors in mind for appearing in the mooted film version. He mentioned that Robbie Coltrane would be high on his list. He refrained from mentioning any other names as "no actor likes to hear that he was considered and not used, but Coltrane is big enough not to care!".

The afternoon finished in book launch fashion with Robin signing copies of the book as well as Wicker Man memorabilia brought in by fans.

In the evening, the Bladnoch Distillery played host to a showing of The Wicker Man introduced by the weekend's two guests of honour.

Mr Hardy and Ms Pitt were both in an extremely jovial mood with Robin enjoying a little of the distillery's own merchandise. The pair proved to be a welcome, if unlikely, comedy duo and went down well with the packed house.

Ingrid told her story about a very cold Edward Woodward during the filming of the The Wicker Man's famous closing scenes;

Ingrid -

"Well, poor Edward came to me with his bare little feet and his bare little legs and his little... ( pause )..nightie and he said 'can I put my feet under your skirt as it looks nice and warm'. I said 'Edward you won't need to do that because you're going to up into the wicker man and you're going to be nice and warm' ...and that was that"

Robin told a story about an incident which happened after a heavy drinking session with TWM writer Anthony Shaffer while filming the movie in the Isle of Whithorn. On their way back to base, they passed the very Bladnoch Distillery where this screening was taking place, and asked to have a behind-the-scenes look at the whiskey making process.

Robin

"..and Tony ( Anthony Shaffer ) saw that and had a kind of religious experience! And he said "thats the most beautiful thing. I have to have this place!" . So I said "Tony its time for us to be on our way" and he said "No! I have to have it" and so the foreman said "are you serious?" and ( Shaffer ) said "of course I am, I have to speak to the owner". Eventually Tony got through and after some bargaining they settled at three million pounds! And this was in the 1970s when that was quite a lot of money! Nowadays that would buy you a bijou maisonette in London. The following morning at breakfast I said "Congratulations Tony, we now have a Distillery!" and he said "WHAT!!". I said "well, you bought the distillery last night and there were about twenty five witnesses" and he had to spend the rest of the day onto his lawyers!"

This was an introduction to a DVD projection of the director's cut of the film followed by a burning of a rather large wicker man outside. Robin hardy and Ingrid Pitt joined the crowd for the burning of the 20 feet tall colossus which gave us a welcome heat during the wind and rain which accompanied it.

Sadly, we didn't all dance to the tune of 'Sumer is Icumin In'. With hindsight, this was perhaps a wise decision as the burning was being filmed by a BBC TV crew. The footage is intended to be shown as part of a new series of 'Coast' to be screened nationwide on BBC2 during September. Robin was also interviewed by the same crew earlier in the evening.

It would be nice if perhaps a regular annual Wicker Man event could be held over the Mayday period as the shows were certainly very well attended with most of them selling out. These, along with some meet-ups between keen TWM fans from various parts of the UK ensured that an interesting and enjoyable weekend was had by all concerned from wicker-man.com.