6 AUGUST Oxford. Today is cool and grey (‘Shakespeare in the park weather,’ someone says), which is perhaps fortunate as we have to get through eighteen or so set-ups in the day (the normal quota for a feature film some five or six). Still, everybody is greatly encouraged from having seen last night a rough assembly of what has been shot so far, the snow scenes at Thame looking particularly good, with no hint that these were filmed on the hottest day of the year. Nor had I anticipated the change-over to much more muted colours as the King’s madness takes hold, Kew (Thame Park) almost in black and white, with the bearded King in his black cloak looking especially dramatic. Though at the moment we don’t have enough money to finish the shooting at Thame, where we needed an extra day, just as we really need an extra half-day in Oxford.
   The Unit Base is in the grounds of the Dragon School and after lunch I walk across the playing fields to look at the war memorial, a cross by the cricket pavilion on the bank of the river. Names of boys virtually cover the cross, and not listed in an impersonal fashion with surname and initials but with the boy’s first name (and sometimes his nickname) written out in full, with no indication of the rank he attained or the service in which he died. After the rain there are mushrooms dotted about the field and two of the ground staff are marking out the football pitch for next season. I have a pee behind the sight-screen as the school lavatories have no locks on the doors (though at least they have doors), the bleak dressing rooms and showers making me thankful it’s not a childhood I had to go through.