Ben - the reluctant hero

[topsyjane]

My son was Ben - the baby in the drawer. He also played the recorder for the rats, loved playing with the trains - and gave Brittas the knife when he was holding the building up. Filming the last was a nightmare. Johnny did not want to go down the chute that he had to appear out of. It was only 2 feet long but a toddler can be very determined. A large electrician went down; Thomas the Tank engine chugged down. Bear slid down; Johnny did not. Eventually he reached far enough up the chute from the bottom to get his beloved bear and hence looked as though he was emerging feet first. I felt like a really bad mother but fortunately Johnny didn't remember the incident and did enjoy getting residual cheques for a few years. Including one for 1p. Well done the BBC. Honest to the last!
Johnny also got the red car which you can see in the photos here www.andrewnorriss.co.uk/

[sev29]

Gosh, I'm impressed you could get a reluctant toddler to do anything they didn't want to, having had 2 particularly determined ones myself.
But, what a claim to fame in years to come - I was The Baby in the Drawer!. Was he Ben all the way through? Do you have any more Reluctant (or otherwise) Ben stories?

I voted for playing with trains, because he's not in a dark or confined space!

[topsyjane]

I remember the night we took the red car home - trying to get it into our car. We were tired. It was late. It was heavy. It was a very tight fit. It was the nearest Andrew and I ever came to having a row. But Johnny loved driving it around the garden, even when he could no longer fir into it - a bit like Carol...

After Johnny was filmed in the drawer, Mike Stevens, the director, asked if I could make him cry (Johnny not Mike). That was easy. He was asleep. I woke him up. He cried. Not very exciting, but that's show biz for you.

[sev29]

It must be lovely to have those clips of Johnny being little, because he must be all grown up now. We have mountains of home videos of our 2 (who are still quite little), but it's a whole different quality.
I always think he looked like such a sweetheart.
Does Mr Norriss have anything in the pipeline?