Sergeant Howie Day

[Erithacus]

April 30th - a day I call Sgt Howie Day.

 

Yes, it is the 50th anniversary of the mysterious disappearance of the West Highland Police sergeant! He was last seen in the capital of Summerisle but there has been no trace of  him since the May Day celebrations.

 

Tonight I shall be re-running the film in his honour. Sleep well my pretty sergeant...

[Port Said Red]

"Don't you see that killing me is not going to bring back your apples?"

[Erithacus]

The Beeb have picked up on this anniversary and it seems there is a new release coming out next month in 4K. Be interesting to see how they cope with the telecine shots salvaged from Europe. (Most of the original negs were mistakenly thrown out of the film storage unit and used to fill in a new dual-carriageway! The film somehow survived in different forms, unlike poor Sgt. Howie.)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-65470238

It's such a weirdly inextinguishable film that it has started to grow new roots in the various appreciations and recollections - perhaps creating more material than the original did. Indeed, a recreation of the Wicker Man itself was made and burned on the same spot only recently. I dare say there will special guided tours of the various locations before long.

I recall Woodward speaking about the scene in the abandoned church (in Galloway) where he fashioned a rudimentary cross from two splinters of wooden casing. Some 25 years later he revisited the old kirk and found the cross he made still lying there!