It’s not often that a morning dog walk transports you back in time to the 1940s, but that’s what happened today when we walked onto the set of Brad Pitt’s new movie being filmed at the end of our street.
A thick layer of grit and sand obscured the painted white and yellow lines on this Hampstead road. A bicycle shop with beautifully painted old signage had been erected over night in someone’s everyday garage pull-in. A pretend wall, styled to look like beautiful old brick, hid the scaffolding of some very modern-day home improvements; an anti-aircraft gun stood alongside some lovely old cars and a rag-and-bone man complete with horse and cart.
There were several actors – boys in grey shorts with scuffed knees, women with carefully painted faces wearing nipped-in 1940s tailoring. And of course there was Brad Pitt, glowing in a conker suede bum-freezer and grey flannel trousers. He had on a lot of makeup.
Ted was not impressed. Rather than stand near’ish Mr Pitt, Ted posed in front of a carefully assembled prop stand: the vintage dustbin station. Each bin bore a label: ‘pig food’, ‘tins’, ‘paper’, ‘food’. Ted stood next to the ‘bones’ bin. The slogan above this old-fashioned recycling station: ‘Let your conscience be your guide’. Ted clearly has his priorities.
