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(5) is 'The Construction Hall' at FBM Babcock (Lairdside) Ltd.

In its time the yard built over a 1,000 vessels, ranging from chemical tankers to passenger liners, frigates to aircraft carriers and both diesel and nuclear powered submarines. To say that the 'Construction Hall' which we used is massive is an understatement... The total floor space is 14,988 Square Metres, it has 2 x 130 Ton cranes with a combined tandem lift of 240 Tonnes, Office space located on a raised section in the middle hall and enough juice available to light New York...

But for me the icing on the cake is that everyone at FBM Babcock was just so amazingly helpful... Nothing was a problem... We were short on Props, so they let us look around and borrow what we needed for our sets... The when we needed to get the tank scene ready, on some derelict land they had, we were able to use their forklift and a driver... After the shoot had finished on Monday, their lads helped Chris Darwin and I clean up... I don't know what it is about Liverpool, the people are just so different than down South... Is was all beginning to feel like when I had my first film Dark Summer, also shot in Liverpool.

Exerts from my 'Online Diary' Finding Liverpool Locations:

...Finally a shimmer of light appears, as I was checking out Birkenhead for the opening tank scene... I pulled up a the security gate of the former massive Cammell Laird ship building site, now owned by FBM BABCOCK [LAIRDSIDE] LIMITED, off the Campbeltown Road. It was pretty weird, I had only pulled in to find out who was running the site, but they greeted me like they knew I was coming and started to show me around... I later found out they were expecting another London based production company... But I got the full guided tour and the amazing history of shipbuilding in Liverpool... At one time there were 30,000 people employed on the site...

When I saw the huge Construction Hall, my mind began to kick in, its massive... bigger than the 007 Stage at Pinewood... I thanked security and went back to John's flat, THANKS FOR THE LOVELY WINE, During the night I started thinking that the only way left to shoot the interior scenes was to build them... The next day I arranged to go back and take a second look... I had missed a small area behind two of the smaller construct halls... The outbuilding are very rusting and there is a derelict area which is about to be cleared, nearly ideal for the opening massive tank scene, with a little bit of set dressing... Again everything was seeming possible again... I just hoped the owners would be able to help us... After a long talk explaining our problems we managed to reach a very great arrangement for both of us...

You can follow our adventures in my 'Online Diary' by clicking the following links: Finding Liverpool Locations, Liverpool Part 1 and Liverpool Part 2. The story is also covered with 154 photos and my commentary.

Thanks to all the new cast & crew, everyone at FBM Babcock (Lairdside) Limited including Paul Carver, Director at Granby Martin Chartered Surveyors & Joyce Owens. Plant: Len Boniface, Eddie O’Connor, Dave Jobber, John Breen (Big John) Security: Robin French, Ken Coghlan, Marshall Proudlove, Brian Lynch, Paul White, Alan Taylor, Ray Taylor, Mick Maher. Fork Lift Truck by Enhance Logistics thanks to Ann Moore, Director and Fork Lift Truck Drivers Barrie Moore & Neal ‘Swampy’ Griffiths. And everyone in Liverpool who helped whose kindness and help made everything possible.

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