It was surprises all round as everybody’s favourite Geordie duo filmed an advert in the borough this afternoon.
Cheeky chappies Ant and Dec pulled up outside Barking Town Hall in a red SUV to present a “Suzuki surprise” to an unsuspecting brass band player.
Mayor of Barking and Dagenham Cllr Eileen Keller also shared a scene with the Britain’s Got Talent presenters as she inspected young band members.
The advert will run later this year during a break on hit ITV show Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway, with the Thurrock Marching Brass player being given the Japanese car as a reward for his long service.
“When they first wanted to do this I just happened to be there,” Cllr Keller, who conceded she was “a bit nervous”, said before her scene was recorded in Clockhouse Avenue.
“I thought about it for a second and then said, ‘Yeah, go on then’.”
Cllr Keller said the producers of the show offered to make a donation to her chosen charity, Richard House Children’s Hospice, and that sealed the deal.
But the new mayor also admitted this was not her first time in front of the camera – she was in an episode of Songs of Praise when she was younger.
Christian McWilliams, the location manager who chose Barking as the stage for the advert, said he never tires of filming in the borough.
“I should probably live here, the amount of times I come to film,” he said, explaining he had a “fantastic” time recording a Top Gear episode in the borough recently.
“It’s very beautiful here – it’s a wonderful old square, with just the right mix of old and new.”
He said he was extremely pleased to have Cllr Keller on board, who helped add a sense of “pomp and ceremony” alongside the Town Hall.
For Barking and Dagenham’s film manager Lisa Dee, who lived in the borough for many years, the filming brings pride.
“I think for the people here to see their streets and their buildings on the screen is a great thing,” she said.
“It makes me really proud of the borough and it also helps to promote it.
“The country is starting to get to know the borough by seeing it on film.”
Lisa said Barking and Dagenham was underused as a filming location but now the arts are fundamental to its progress.
“We hadn’t really marketed it properly,” she said.
“But now week after week we’re getting new jobs.”
Pick up a copy of Wednesday’s Post to see more pictures.
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