Soldier, Soldier - Robson Green (1992) - St Stephen's Beach, Stanley

To get to the wargame site in the final HK episode (The Last Post) with the Royal Marines, the Battalion is taken there by a large landing craft that is able to ride up the beach at St Stephen's.

It looks as though this was a genuine military vessel that entered service in 1984 before retiring as recently as 2011. Someone took a more recent picture of it here.

Soldier, Soldier - Robson Green (1992) - Lai Chi Kok Amusement Park, Kowloon

Time to tackle the remaining episode of the HK-based Soldier, Soldier series. The last episode was called, fittingly, The Last Post and details the last few remaining days and weeks for the battalion in HK. Whilst the boys are off playing wargames with the Royal Marines, the wives head off to the Sung Dynasty Village that used to be part of the Lai Chi Kok Amusement Park.

Interestingly, this is almost the exact same view captured by Andrew Suddaby in his 1980's era pictures of HK that can be found over on Gwulo.com. Having missed out on visiting this place when I had the chance (it was demolished in the late 90's to make way for several residential developments) I couldn't identify where it was until Andrew uploaded his pictures, so many thanks Andrew! Here is the direct link: http://gwulo.com/atom/22789.

Soldier, Soldier - Robson Green (1992) - Central Waterfront, Central

At the end of the Lost and Found episode we are shown a  section of the waterfront between what was then Blake Pier and the Vehicular Ferry Pier.

Blake Pier in the background

This whole area has since been reclaimed and redeveloped into the IFC and this short waterfront pathway area was turned into Harbour View Street sitting between Exchange Square and the IFC. In fact, earlier in the year I posted some screen grabs from Yellowthread Street that showed this whole area from a higher angle.

Here's the reminder: http://hongkongandmacaufilmstuff.blogspot.hk/2015/01/yellowthread-street-tv-series-central.html

In case you are curious as to how much this area has changed, I've taken a Streetview image of the place from around the same place as the lower screen grab.I think you'll agree it's quite a change! At least the street's name makes some sort of sense even though there is no longer a view.

Soldier, Soldier - Robson Green (1992) - Queen's Pier, Central

Here's a blast from the more recent past - Queen's Pier in Central, like the neighbouring Central Star Ferry Pier, it recently became victim to the Central to Wanchai reclamation. The whole area of harbour in the background of these two screen shots is now - almost unbelievably - reclaimed, and has the Lung Wo Road running along it.

Soldier, Soldier - Robson Green (1992) - Stanley Fort, Stanley

I think much of Soldier, Soldier centres around Stanley Fort and a quick google search throws up a lot of images from this blog, so it doesn't look as though there is too much in the public domain. So to make up for it here are a few more, plus a nice little coincidence from a couple of weeks back. These images are from the fourth HK-based episode: Lost and Found.

A cricket game on the cricket ground

View of the parade ground

The guardhouse

More parade ground

Building 10 at the back?

Conway House

One of the images I did find during my Google search was the following one of the building in picture 3 which was used as the guardhouse in the TV series. In reality though it appears to have been a contractor's building, as can be seen from this rather excellent picture taken during one of the P.L.A open days: https://flic.kr/p/5HMZcs. Note the 1937 date mark above the door.

The coincidence I am talking about was that during a recent Gwulo.com get together, I found out that one of the regular contributors is actually the cousin of Jerome Flynn - who played Corporal Paddy Garvey in the series. I asked him if he had seen much of him when they were over filming in 1992 and he told me that yes, they had gone over to Stanley Fort for one of the scenes involving  a cricket game and were used as extras in the crowd. So I guess it must have been this episode. Anyway, it turns out that Jerome Flynn's dad (my friend's uncle), Eric, was a child internee during the war in one of the family internment camps in Shanghai and went on to become an actor. You can see his IMDB entry here.

Soldier, Soldier - Robson Green (1992) - St Stephen's Beach, Stanley

Another trip down to St Stephen's beach for the dragon boat races featured in the Saving Face episode. It's the portion of the water that's in front of the St Stephen's Beach Water Sports Centre.

Soldier, Soldier - Robson Green (1992) - Pak Sha O Ha Yeung, Sai Kung

I've experienced a couple of strange coincidences over the past few weeks regarding locations for which I had no clue, only to have a photo pop up somewhere on social media that gave me the answer. This one comes from the first HK-based episode of Soldier, Soldier called A Touch of the Sun.

The episode involves the company being put through their paces on a speedmarch and sees them going through various areas of the New Territories including the place below.

I'll be honest, I was stumped until just today when a nice person on Facebook posted some pictures of the place today. It's called Pak Sha O Ha Yeung and is in Sai Kung near to Hoi Ha Wan. It seems that a nice chappy called Toby took over the place some time in the early 80's when it was almost falling apart and has lovingly restored it to its former glory.

I'll try and get some of my own snaps the next time I am out that way.

Soldier, Soldier - Robson Green (1992) - Stanley Bay, Stanley

Although I can't quite nail the exact location - I suspect because it has been redeveloped already - I thought this quick scene in Stanley is worth putting because in one of the two shots we can see what used to be Ma Hang squatter village in the background.

The whole area was cleared down sometime in the 90's and the space was used to reconstruct the Murray Building in its place. The HK Govt like to tell you they recreated the building brick by brick when in actual fact a concrete centre was poured and the outer parts of the buildings such as the verandas and columns were bolted on to the new structure - hence why there are some spare columns left over and on display out front...

But anyway, I digress as usual. Here are the grabs.

 The angle of the camera suggests this was a building along Stanley Main Street near to the current roundabout. I don't think it's The Boathouse but perhaps the building next door that has since been replaced by the Stanley Beach Villa building (built 1999). If anyone has any recollections as to where this balcony was, please feel free to add a comment.

Soldier, Soldier - Robson Green (1992) - Mount Austin Road, The Peak

Once again we find ourselves at the small junction where Mt Austin Road meets a small names road that connects to Lugard Road in front of the so-called 'Umbrella Seat'. It's a popular spot on this blog, though that's not surprising given the open view it offers of the harbour and beyond (assuming there's no smog of course).

The house in the background is #25 Lugard Road (aka Bishop's Lodge). It must be one of the most photographed private buildings in HK by default. There's also a nice panning shot taking in the view, but I've merged it into the panorama below rather than chuck up several separate screen grabs. It's hard to tell if the yellow colour is from the quality of the film print or whether it's pollution. But, in all honesty, the view is a lot clearer than most days during the winter time.

Soldier, Soldier - Robson Green (1992) - Stubbs Road Lookout, Wanchai

Only a few shorts posts ago did we see the very same place in the final scenes of Codename:Wildgeese. Here we are a few years later for a brief scene between Pereira and Butler.

Soldier, Soldier - Robson Green (1992) - 8 Mount Cameron Road, The Peak

This is the residence of the influential businessman (played by famous local actor, Kenneth Tsang) whose daughter was dating the battalion Major.

Potentially a tricky one to find but, actually, the view from the rear terrace (see below) - towards Aberdeen and Ap Lei Chau - was quite useful in pinpointing the general area.

Luckily the Streetview car has been by here which means I don't have to go (...and get arrested for taking photos of someone's house!). According to the Centamap map, the house has been given the name 'Yapp'.

Soldier, Soldier - Robson Green (1992) - Satellite Earth Station, Stanley Fort

Back to Soldier, Soldier for a while and a screen cap from an episode called Saving Face. It starts with some exercises on a seemingly barren rocky hillside that is soon revealed to be the satellite dish area behind Stanley Fort - now Chek Chue Barracks (Chek Chue, 赤柱, is the Cantonese name for Stanley).

Soldier, Soldier - Robson Green (1992) - Lok Ma Chau Loop, Lok Ma Chau

Okay I'm being a bit cheeky here because it's not the location we see on screen but rather the area that can be seen on the board at the back of the room. Here's the grab.

The board at the back lists the area as somewhere called "Stony Spur". I have no idea if the local British Army parlance described the area as such - and I hope someone who actually served on border duty will be able to enlighten us all - but it seems to me that the big bit sticking down is in fact the area that is known as the Lok Ma Chau Loop.

The area has been the source of some controversy of late because even though it is still officially on the other side of the border, the HK Govt (no doubt salivating about all the bribes they will get for awarding contracts to various developers) agreed to take over he management of the place because it sits on our side of the Shenzhen river. It's...complicated.

Soldier, Soldier - Robson Green (1992) - Kowloon Park Chinese Garden, Tsim Sha Tsui

In a rather strange scene involving Loudon Wainwright 3rd as an obnoxious American tourist, we find ourselves at some sort of alfresco dining and dance experience. In reality it's the Chinese garden at Kowloon Park.

Other than a different roof on this pavilion, the garden hasn't really changed at all. If I manage to make it down there at some point I'll try and take a decent comparison shot seeing as Streetview has yet to venture into these kind of places.

Soldier, Soldier - Robson Green (1992) - Pak Tam Chung, Sai Kung

Whoops! When I did this earlier post featuring Fuk Hing Bridge in Pak Tam Chung, I had yet to identify another location from the same episode (Lifelines) that has turned out to be just up the road from the Fuk Hing Bridge.

The location is supposedly the border fence portion where the Illegal Immigrants break through what appears to be a large storm drain by using a car jack to bend the bars of the drain grill.

The "drain" is actually a cleverly disguised bridge that carries Tai Mong Tsai Road over the Lung Hang stream a little further north from the Fuk Hing Bridge. The props department for the show have constructed a fake concrete wall blocking the arch of the bridge and installed an authentic wire fence to make it look like the real closed border area. So I give the props department their..props! It had me fooled for a few days.

If you want to see the exact location on the map, just click on the location link at the bottom of the post.

Soldier, Soldier - Robson Green (1992) - Tsim Sha Tsui Harbourfront, Kowloon

In case anyone wondered what the TST harbourfront looked like before the Avenue of Stars came along and ruined it all, here is a quick glimpse. For your information it was just the same except with less tat and fewer people crouched on the floor.

Soldier, Soldier - Robson Green (1992) - The Jouster 2 Pub, Hart Avenue

Many thanks to Gweilo8888 for telling me the position of this next location. He mentioned in an earlier post that The Jouster 2 pub was located in the Hart Avenue Court building along Hart Avenue.

Anyway, here is the screencap for those who wish to reminisce about getting drunk in Tsim Sha Tsui.

Soldier, Soldier - Robson Green (1992) - Ching Yan Lee Chiu Chow Restaurant sign, Tsim Sha Tsui

Not really a location as such, but a quick grab of a couple of neon signs that we are led to believe are near the location where Tucker's wife goes to have her back street abortion. The back street in question turns out to be 10 Hau Fook Street in Tsim Sha Tsui because one of the neon signs (red one on the right) outside the building is advertising a Chiu Chow restaurant that was still around until just last year.

The Chinese writing on the right reads (from top to bottom): 正仁利 潮州 菜館 - with the two smaller characters referring to the Chiuchow nature of the cuisine. This place is now listed as closed on Open Rice but the most recent review of the food was posted in Feb of 2014. Judging by the low ratings I'm surprised this place lasted so long.

Soldier, Soldier - Robson Green (1992) - Haiphong Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

There's a scene where Tucker's (Robson Green's character) wife, Donna, queues up to catch the bus into Sai Kung. The bus route and sign seem to be in order - because there is a #94 bus that runs between Sai Kung and Wong Shek Pier - but the place she is catching it is way off the mark: Haiphong Road in Tsim Sha Tsui.

KMB #94 to Sai Kung?

Haiphong Road is quite easy to recognise due to the shading banyans on the north side of the road (where Rosie Rowell, who plays Donna, is standing) along with the old wall that marks the southern boundary of what was Whitfield Barracks but is now more commonly known as Kowloon Park.

Perhaps the bus sign was a spare that the local production company had lying around? Or perhaps in 1992, the bus did actually go this far? I can't comment on the latter because it is before my time but I suspect the more likely reason is the former.

Anyway, never mind. Here is the modern Streetview grabs for comparison. The white building at the background of the first picture is the Kowloon Centre over on Ashley Road.