A phone call from a film company to use my show Greyhound Ch. Exhurst Snow White Brown (otherwise known as Harvey) to make an advert with George Cole for the Leeds Building Society started on of my most interesting animal film assignments. Harvey was to play the role of a star track dog, but as you might imagine it was not a straight forward as that. 

The first day of filming was spent sitting around all day while the crew constructed the sets. Then at 4.30pm they decided they could use Harvey for some outside shots at Catford Stadium. This meant that I had to provide 18 extras for the race shots, which had to be fixed with Harvey winning the races by a distance. The script then had George Cole collecting his winnings and taking them ‘all the way to the Leeds’ with the help of Harvey of course. 

Unscrupulous villains then lured Harvey away from George, with the help of cooked sausages. This scene required Harvey to jump into the back of a moving van, very difficult thing for any dog to do but more so for a long tailed Greyhound. I had thoughts of his tail being shut in the door of the van as they were closed. Luckily we achieved the shot in the first take with me sitting in the back of the van calling Harvey in with the help of a fresh cream cake. I wouldn’t let the Film Company re-shoot the shot – I was too worried about Harvey’s tail and didn’t think we would be lucky a second time. 

So now the wonder dog is in the clutches of the villains and George is left worried about how to get him back. This was left to day two of filming that started with more races for Harvey to win, but this time for the baddies. This meant another 12 dogs were required for the race scenes. George managed to get Harvey back with the help of Fifi a pretty white toy poodle. Fifi’s owner had a fit when she saw Harvey she hadn’t been told that Fifi was to be chased by a greyhound, none of which was helped by the fact that Fifi was in season! She thought that Harvey might have Fifi for lunch but I assured her that Harvey had already eaten which probably didn’t help that much. Still, all ended well and Harvey was returned safely back to George.

Rita Bartlett