THE ORCHARD END MURDER

GB
1981
48mins
Dir: Christian Marnham
Starring: Tracy Hyde and Clive Mantle

A girl fleeing a dismal date with her cricket playing boyfriend finds her troubles have only just begun when she stumbles across a strange old man and his collection of garden gnomes

This short thriller marked Clive Mantle’s on-screen debut with some style. It features good shots filmed on the Kent & East Sussex Railway at Tenterden Town station with a train hauled by Hunslet ‘Austerity’ 0-6-0ST No.23 Holman F. Stephens. The locomotive is working a three coach train formed of BR Mark 1 TSO No.65, SR Maunsell Brake Open No.54, and SR Corridor Composite No.56. In addition, there is a rather random stock shot of an HST passing the camera at speed.

Tenterden Town station, Kent, as viewed from a rather more unusual angle. In the far distance can be seen a BR Mk1 carriage and a Pullman car.
Clive Mantle playing the part of a railway platelayer
Another equally unusual view of Tenterden Town at night
This wonderfully lit shot is hugely atmospheric, and shows No.23 Holman F. Stephens approaching the camera
No.23 draws into Tenterden Town station with the signal box coming into view on the right. Raymond Adamson is in the foreground, waiting to board.
As the train departs we get to see more of the station. Clive Mantle is watching the train pull away.
An HST in original livery screams past the camera in this stock shot that is probably taken from the BR publicity files. This seems at odds with what has gone before, in a story that was set in 1966. However, the final scene acts a postscript which must be at least ten years into the future as the HST’s did not enter service until 1976.