Filming begins on A La Perchoine musical

Written and composed by Martin Cordall back in 1990, it was first performed as an on-stage musical.

Looking to bring it back to life once again, he had planned another theatre piece, but the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns scuppered that idea.

‘We wanted to involve all of the primary schools on the island in this production and rehearsals had been under way for the stage musical, so we have decided to turn it into a film,’ he said.

‘The 20 songs have been recorded already, thanks to the help of Apocalypse Studios, and today we’re filming with Elliot Cockett from The Drone Ranger the footage for the first number, which is called It’s A Beautiful Day so we’ve been really lucky with the weather.’

The musical is similar to Les Miserables in that the whole thing is sung through, with very little dialogue.

It tells the story of school-aged children during the evacuation.

Mr Cordall said: ‘Lots has been done to tell the various stories of the Occupation, but even in the UK many people do not realise that almost all young people in Guernsey were evacuated to the UK.

‘We are almost 81 years to the day that children were put on boats, many leaving their families behind, so starting filming is really exciting.’

For director Mr Cockett, it is the first time he has taken on a project of this kind.

‘It looks like we’ll be filming clips until the end of the year, and then there’s a whole host of things to do in post-production,’ he said.

‘I’ve only done commercial projects before this, so it really is a dream come true for me.’

Alongside filming for the movie, Gaz Papworth from Element Films was gathering behind-the-scenes footage for a documentary about the making of the film.

Russell Doherty was on hand to ensure children from La Mare de Carteret Primary School, and their teachers, were dressed authentically as the movie aims to be as historically accurate as possible.

Eleven-year-old Willis Coleman was prepared to play a main role in the musical.

‘We studied World War Two in Year 6 so we know all about this,’ he said.

‘Today we are filming a happy beach day because the children don’t know the war is coming yet.’

Seven-year-old Jenny was excited to be on camera.

‘We’ve been practising a lot in assembly with the sheet music all together,’ she said.

‘I like acting and singing, my teachers call me a drama queen.’