At last the morning came and I got ready for work, I made sure that I remembered to put on the necklace and that my name could be seen clearly. We had to wear a navy blue uniform, which, by the way we had to supply ourselves, and I also put on flat sensible shoes as I was going to be on my feet from nine o’clock until I finished at four o’clock. Although we did have a two hour break between 11 and 1 o’clock when we were supposed to rest in the room that was allocated to us with a couple of divans in it. There were three of us serving and, firstly when we started work, before we were to serve the dessert, we had to clean the restaurant from top to bottom. Being Pinewood Studios the restaurant was all pine wood the walls and floor and of course all the tables and chairs. They all had to be polished every day and be finished by eleven o’clock so that we could have our two hour rest then the lunches started at one o’clock and finished when the last diner left. The work was hard and the wages small but the actors, directors, producers and editors were all good tippers so we had quite a good take home wage especially considering that it was shared between us three waitresses, the two chefs and two more kitchen hands so there was seven of us that made at least the same in tips as we earned in wages so we were not complaining. We were not allowed to stand on anything to clean the walls so there was a distinct line along the entire room where we could reach to clean, which was nice and shiny and where it was too high for us to reach it had become dull. I believe that once every year or two the studios got in contract cleaners, who were insured, to reach the higher places and also to clean the huge chandeliers hanging from the ceilings.

At eleven o’clock each day I would go on the set to watch Roger filming and stay there until 5 to one then rush back to the restaurant ready to serve lunch. But I am getting ahead of myself. My first day on the job I did not realise that I could go on the set to watch all the action so I stayed in the rest room with the other girls and they told me I could go on the set and watch the filming if I wanted to so that is what I did on all the other days for the rest of my time working at the studios. Occasionally I sneaked in at going home time as well, if I knew that the children were being looked after by my husband and he was cooking dinner for us all.

That first day at one o’clock, and on every other day, we had to wait behind some screens while the diners came in. The lunch was always self-service and then we went around with the sweet trolley with various goodies and coffee and tea on it and the diners would choose the desert that they wanted. On that first day I stood behind the screen and waited, several people came in some I recognised and some I didn’t. Barbara Bach aka Major Anya Amasova the Russian spy, who was the female lead and the love interest in “The Spy Who Loved Me” the Bond film which was being made at that time, came and sat down in the centre with some friends, Curt Jurgens, who played Karl Stromberg the villain, who was such a nice man, came and sat with her, his companion had to cut up his food for him as he had on the webbed fingers which was his trademark in the film. Richard Kiel “Jaws” came in with his tiny wife who only came up to his elbows. Caroline Munro who played Naomi, what a very beautiful lady. Shane Rimmer who played Captain Carter on the American Submarine and George Baker, he was another very handsome man, who played Captain Benson on the British Submarine. Both of them captains on the submarines captured by Stromberg. Bernard Lee who played M also lunched occasionally. But I only had eyes for one man. Then I saw him, so tall and handsome striding down the centre aisle, dressed in his Commander’s naval uniform, and then suddenly, he was on the floor, almost in Barbara Bach’s lap! He had slipped on a pea that someone had dropped!! What a first impression. I just wanted to rush out and help him up and kiss him better but the other girls, who warned me that he was an “untouchable”, held me back. He jumped up and said jokingly “Who do I sue?” As it was in the days before the suing craze and compensation mania had arrived, fortunately the answer was nobody because if someone was to be sued it would probably have been us three girls waiting behind the screen! He brushed himself down gave Barbara a quick kiss on the cheek and lined up to get his lunch without further mishap.

Then the time came to take round the sweet trolleys, the other girls were so kind to me so that when I asked if I could, they let me go down the row that Roger was sitting in as, and this is hard to believe, they didn’t have Roger down as one of their favourites. The silly girls preferred another actor who was making a film on another set at the same time; his name escapes me at the moment. Roger also always sat in the bay window, which was the most important table; a huge oval one that took up all the space in the lovely bay window overlooking the wonderful gardens at Pinewood, he sat with Albert “Cubby” Broccoli the producer, the director Lewis Gilbert and the Editor John Glen, who went on to direct some of the later Bonds and any guests that were on the set on any particular day, and most of the really important people working on the film. Desmond Llewellyn who played Q sometimes joined them but very often he lunched at home, I expect that he had had enough of Roger’s outrageous tricks that he played constantly on him with regard to the gadgets he “invented”. Roger also had a reputation for changing some of Q’s lines as his dialogue was the most complicated in the whole film, Roger would alter some of the words so that they sounded quite rude.

The table that Roger sat at could seat at least ten people but most of the time there were only three or four, Roger was there most days sometimes on his own, and some times there was just Roger and one of the stunt men, Bob Simmons, who was also a very good friend of Roger’s. He was a lovely man and by coincidence my best friend at the time fell in love with him and they almost got married, but something happened between them that put a stop to it and I never found out what it was unfortunately. Anyway I made my way down the aisle and finally came to his table, I waited for him to make his choice, but he declined and left without any so I didn’t even get to say hello. But I knew there would be other days and I also knew then, that tomorrow, I would be on the set watching him in action. I would also find out that filming isn’t as glamorous as it seems, as every scene has to be filmed over and over again from all different angles, sometimes with the cameraman hanging from the roof and sometimes hidden under a pile of scenery to get all the different aspects of each shot before the film then goes into the cutting room to be edited into the final film that is presented to the public.

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