Spearhead in Hong Kong - Stafford Gordon (1981) - Kai Tak Airport, Kowloon

All good things come to an end and Spearhead finishes with the battalion heading home to RAF Brize Norton from Kai Tak.

Spearhead in Hong Kong - Stafford Gordon (1981) - Stanley Fort, Stanley

The final episode of Spearhead (called Futures) doesn't really have much in the way of new locations other than a farewell to Stanley Fort included below for posterity. The first two shots showing areas we've seen before but I did notice that the church tower was visible in the first one (there's a nice shot of it here on FLICKR) and in the second picture you can see the edge of Block 10 which was in the previous post. I'm not too sure whereabouts the last image was taken, the building is obviously much newer (relatively speaking) but perhaps some knowledgeable peeps out there can let me know.

Spearhead in Hong Kong - Stafford Gordon (1981) - Stanley Fort, Stanley

Back to Stanley Fort once again for episode 5, Loyalties, but this time with some views from around the north side of the football field and what I believe is Block 10. I have no idea whether or not this block once had a different name like many of the others (which recall various places and buildings in the UK), but in this show it is where Sgt. Bilinski is billeted and from where he leaves the barracks after being sent back to the UK following his close call with the snakeheads. Perhaps there is someone out there who can comment as to why the entrance was painted blue.

Spearhead in Hong Kong - Stafford Gordon (1981) - Beas River, Sheung Shui

Four years before Jackie Chan and Danny Aiello visited the Beas River Country Club to confront Roy Chiao's bad guy, Martin Jacobs (playing Lieutenant Pickering) heads there for some fatherly advice from a retired Brigadier. Once again the famous - former Jardines Stables - gate is the instantly recognisable landmark that tells us we are way out in the Kwu Tung area of the New Territories, not too far from Sheung Shui.

Spearhead in Hong Kong - Stafford Gordon (1981) - Man Kam To, Sheung Shui

The drama moves back to Man Kam To for some of episode 5: Loyalties. This time we get a closer look at the long single-storey building that can be seen in the lower image of this previous post.

As far as I can tell the building is still standing and looks to be part of the Police Post further up the hill. In the show it is a billet for the soldiers carying out the border patrols.

Spearhead in Hong Kong - Stafford Gordon (1981) - Pak Nai, Yuen Long

In the second of only two locations from the fourth episode, The Macau Connection, (the first location being Lau Fau Shan) Sgt. Bilinski is kidnapped by the snakeheads because he won't overlook his soldierly duties and a big search is undertaken by the army and local police force. He turns up later in the episode unconscious and on a beach somewhere. Actually, the beach location is not that far away - it's just down the coast in Pak Nai - still within the boundaries of Yuen Long District though, despite its proximity to Tuen Mun.

Spearhead in Hong Kong - Stafford Gordon (1981) - Lau Fau Shan, Yuen Long

For the fourth episode - The Macau Connection - the soldiers are on II patrol in the far north west of the territory in Lau Fau Shan. Sgt Bilinski has been compromised in Macau by the snakeheads and use this as an opportunity the distract the team and get a whole boat load of illegal immigrants through the cordon.

I neglected to take a screen shot but one of the first sequences of the show is film of soldiers' boots stomping through the beach littered with the oyster shells that made this location so famous. But you can make some out on the beach in the first image below.

Spearhead in Hong Kong - Stafford Gordon (1981) - Magazine Gap Road, Mid-levels

To show his visiting father some sights during his visit, Private Adams takes him and the wife up to a viewing point to admire the harbour vista. Just looking at the buildings in the background I can tell this is a layby along Magazine Gap Road just in front of Magazine Heights at #17 Magazine Gap Road. Even by 1981 standards these buildings weren't new and it's nice to know that they are still around despite now being 50+ years old.

The first image shows the view looking up at Magazine Heights from the road and the following image shows the cobbled retaining wall next to the road that forms part of the podium base. I think the view was filmed from somewhere else (slightly more to the west) though as the angle with Hung Hom and the airport/Hung Hom doesn't quite match. It's interesting to see the big gap in the area that was later filled up by reclamation and the Whampoa gardens development.

Magazine Heights behind

View from Mid-levels looking towards the airport and Hung Hom area

This last photo shows the view looking back down Magazine Gap Road. The development behind is Magazine Gap Towers with it's rather impressive balcony size.

Spearhead in Hong Kong - Stafford Gordon (1981) - St Paul's Facade, Macau

After Sgt Bilinksi awakes from his drugged night in Macau, he does a quick runner back to HK via the St Paul's ruin. It's not the end of his troubles though.

Spearhead in Hong Kong - Stafford Gordon (1981) - Casino Macau Palace, Macau

Sgt Bilinski's choice of casino was a bit more limited back in 1981. So, no surprise then that he chose the Casino Macau Palace - the wooden floating casino once moored in the Inner Harbour area. This was the go-to casino for most of the foreign film and TV productions that I have covered on this blog, so rather than repeat myself you can check out these older posts.

Spearhead in Hong Kong - Stafford Gordon (1981) - Hong Kong Macau Ferry, Sheung Wan

A return trip to Macau for Sgt Bilinski as he heads into the ferry terminal during episode 3: Another Happy Day. This time we can see the Rumsey Street car park in the background. It's about the only thing left around here.

Spearhead in Hong Kong - Stafford Gordon (1981) - Man Kam To, Sheung Shui

Following on from this earlier post showing off a bit of the terrain around Man Kam To, there is also the following couple of images from the same episode. I didn't post them earlier because I wasn't 100% sure of the location but I'm now satisfied that the first image is of the police post at Man Kam To. The image is looking in a south(ish) direction with Sandy Ridge in the background. The road going up the hill at the back leads up to a helipad. The second picture shows the road that leads to the police post (if you drive to the left) and a long building at the corner of the road where it drops down the hill towards Man Kam To. It's hard to believe that the flat area in the background (including the white lattice type building structure) is now the fully developed control area for the Man Kam To crossing. Muk Wu village can be seen in the far distance (top left).

Spearhead in Hong Kong - Stafford Gordon (1981) - Stanley Fort, Stanley

A few more images from Stanley barracks. It's a bit hard to avoid posting so many because much of the series was shot here or out in the new terrories. Besides, like the other TV shows I've done I tend to include the same locations from different episodes rather than stick them all into a single post. The first image shows the main entrance which doesn't look as though it has changed at all in the past (almost) 40 years.

Note that in the second image, the two blocks - Sandringham and Balmoral - had wire covers over the verandah/balcony openings. Can anyone explain why? These were removed by the time Bloodsport and Soldier Soldier were filmed here.

Sandringham and Balmoral Blocks

The sign says Sgts Mess. I think this is Block 46 - can anyone confirm?

Cricket pitch from near the slope by the parade ground

The gym with Pvt Mayhoe practising his karate

Spearhead in Hong Kong - Stafford Gordon (1981) - Former Sham Shui Po Barracks, Kowloon

In episode 3 (inspiringly called Another Happy Day), one of the sqaddies' fathers comes over to visit his son and family (the dad is played by Milton Johns - a famous face to anyone growing up in the UK during the 70s and 80s) and his daughter in law (played by Pik Sen-lim) takes him for a dose of reality at a Vietnamese refugee camp in Kowloon. The only Kowloon refugee camp I know about was the former Sham Shui Po barracks and from the various images below, it looks as though this is where they do visit.

By 1981, the northern section of the old camp had already been redeveloped into the Lai Kok Estate but the southern section (now Sham Shui Po Park) was still intact and converted into a refugee holding camp. In the top image below you can see the pair walking past one of the old camp buildings (you can see a good example here on Gwulo.Com) as well as the temporary corrugated iron sheds used to house the refugees.

The last picture shows the old coastline through the trees and Stonecutter Island in the far distance. This was before the coast was reclaimed and stopped abruptly where the West Kowloon Corridor flyover now sits. The buildings on the right were part of the camp that was redeveloped into the Sham Pui Po public swimming pools at the NW end of the park. Since posting this originally, I found out that this camp was most likely part of the Jubilee Transit Centre that was open for a few years at the tail end of the 70's and early 80s. 

Spearhead in Hong Kong - Stafford Gordon (1981) - Lockhart Road, Wanchai

The obligatory "squaddies out on the town" sequence takes place along LockHart Road (where else?) as a group head to Club Highway. It was a bit hard tracking down the location of this place for 1981 because it moved to the 128 Building in later years. However, this shot looks as though it was taken  at the club's previous address: 53-55 Lockhart Road. This is the current location of the Spa Centre.

The lowest image shows a view further down the road to the Neptune Club and Bar when it was still at 75-79 Lockhart Road.