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) - 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.