INTERVIEW BY ROBERT FAIRCLOUGH
Early in 1968, Michael Pickwoad had his first taste of the entertainment business in which his father, the actor William Mervyn, made his living. He joined Shepperton Studios as a draughtsman, working on the Boulting Brothers thriller Twisted Nerve.
Afterwards, Michael moved on to the children’s film Guns in the Heather (1969) and Michael Winner’s The Games (1970). While engaged on the latter, he received a call from 20th Century-Fox. “I was pulled out to go and measure up an area of Knutsford for a film about the American general, George S Patton, who’d been stationed there,’’ he recalls today. “I went, did the measurements, and Fox said, ‘If anything happens, we’ll let you know.’ Shortly afterwards, they rang up and asked if I would go up to Knutsford again with a line producer and provide a breakdown of what was needed for the sets.