Ciudad Rodrigowood

Ciudad Rodrigo is in the midst of a filming frenzy. There are more film makers here than bearded Brits with sensible headwear.

A film called Pablo de Tarso (Paul of Tarsus, the misogynist Biblical, burning bush chappie*) is being filmed around the town by a local film company throughout May. To add to the fun the state TV broadcaster, RTVE, sent a team to do a report about making that film a couple of weeks ago.

So this Monday Mr Crawford and I were in town to have a coffee in the main square. We came across a film crew outside one of the local bars. The people who were being filmed were dressed up as ramblers complete with boots, sticks and rucsacks. Knowledgeably I explained that the film being shot in the town was some sort of costume drama (I didn't know it was about Paul till I checked a local website) so all I could surmise was that the film must be using flashbacks along with the historical component to tell its story. You know the sort of thing - "Down here!, here's the shoemaker where Wellington had his first pair of boots made up," shouts the man in the Helly Hanson - cut to a picture of the Iron Duke, wearing wellis and staring manfully into the distance, astride a big white horse.

But, despite a lot of Googling, there is no reference in the Pablo de Tarso schedule to anything other than Roman scenes so I have no idea why or what the film crew were doing today other than yelling "Action" and "Cut" in strong Spanish accents.

*Bob Filby made a comment to say that he thought the burning bush was Moses not Paul and, after exhaustive research, well I asked Maggie, that should read "Paul of Tarsus, the misogynist Biblical, blinding light chappie."