Here’s a story from last weeks Wells Journal that while very true, misses out a vital and crucial fact!

As you may or may not know, the beautiful countryside of Wells, Somerset in the West of England is where I grew up.

I was contacted before Christmas by my parents saying that Jason Bryant, the photographer from the Wells Journal had saved the ‘S’ from the Somerfield supermarket sign and would like me to autograph it to give to charity.

The Wells branch of Somerfield was heavily featured as a location in ‘Hot Fuzz’. It has since changed hands and become a Co-Op superstore. One can only imagine that Simon Skinner would not be pleased.

So I agreed to the charity proposal, but when I was sent the ‘S’ to sign, I had a change of heart. I wanted to keep it all for myself.

The ‘S’ meant something to me. You could say it had sentimental value. So I opted to buy it myself and donate what someone would have bid to a charity, Somerset Film and the Engine Room who nurtures Somerset’s emerging film-making talents.

But the following story misses out a vital part of my long history with Somerfield!

Read on and then I will fill in the missing piece of the saga!

Somerset director Edgar gets his bid in early for Hot Fuzz film sign

Originally posted Thursday, February 10th 2011 at ThisIsSomerset.co.uk

It was the film that confirmed Simon Pegg’s place in Hollywood, and became one the most-loved comedies of the 21st century.

But Hot Fuzz, the tale of a London policeman who moves to a West Country town, would have been nothing without the beautiful city of Wells providing the backdrop to the laughs.

And now, the film’s director Edgar Wright, who started his career as a projectionist at Wells’ now closed Regal Cinema, has bought an unlikely piece of the film’s cinematic history.

Central to Hot Fuzz was Wells’ Somerfield supermarket – a regular venue in the film and the site of the legendary shoot-out scene.

But the supermarket has recently been rebranded as a Co-operative store, after Somerfield was bought out. The Somerfield sign was torn down, and was to be auctioned to raise money for a local charity for young film makers.

Which is when Mr Wright, now an in-demand Hollywood filmmaker, stepped in and snapped up the ‘S’ for £500.

It took a while to contact him – he is currently working on the script of the new Tintin movie for Stephen Spielberg, which is being shot in New Zealand – but when he heard the letters were being sold off, he declared that he wanted the letter S.

He found out about the auction when our sister newspaper the Wells Journal, contacted him about the sale.

“It means more to me than it could ever do to any movie geek,” he said. The sign was presented to him on a recent homecoming by his parents, who still live locally.

The Somerfield store was run by the villainous Simon Skinner in the film, played by Timothy Dalton. When Co-operative shop-fitters went to work, they agreed not to put the sign in a skip, and saved the unique piece of movie memorabilia. It was originally intended to sell the sign on eBay until Mr Wright’s bid. The money will go to Somerset Film at the Engine Room in Bridgwater, which nurtures Somerset’s emerging film-making talents.

The charity’s Phil Shepherd said: “We are delighted by this generous gesture from a great Somerset talent.” The rest of the salvaged sign will be auctioned on eBay with a £20 reserve from February 20.

Originally posted Thursday, February 10th 2011 at ThisIsSomerset.co.uk

A nice piece, but what it fails to mention is that my relationship with Somerfield predates ‘Hot Fuzz’ by nearly twenty years.

For I worked at the store as a shelf stacker from 1989 right up until early 1994.

It was my Saturday job at first and I then went on to work there in school holidays too. Indeed I worked there when it was still called ‘Gateway’ and rocked a deeply unsexy grey uniform when I did so.*

(*This was deeply embarrassing as a 15 year old as many girls from school would walk through the store on the way to the high street. It was impossible to look cool wearing a Gateway or Somerfield uniform.)

Not only that, my 1993 cop movie ‘Dead Right’ (which can be found on the ‘Hot Fuzz’ Blu Ray / DVD) also had a climax that took place in the store; the same location that we would shoot 13 years later in Hot Fuzz.

‘Dead Right’ featured my old boss Mike Stockwell, who is sadly no longer with us and even sadder died before ‘Hot Fuzz’ was released. I would have loved to have known what he made of the movie. He was a big support to me when I was a teenage film-maker and would frequently let me take time off to shoot scenes for my amateur films. He also let me shoot ‘Dead Right’ in the store, sometimes when it was still open. Mike, or Mr. Stockwell as I called him, can be seen in ‘Dead Right’ clip above as the supermarket manager shouting ‘You’re fired!’

I stopped working at Somerfield around the Easter holidays in 1994. By the summer I had somehow lucked into making my first no-budget feature film ‘A Fistful Of Fingers’. I then left to move to London in September and edit the movie.

I’d never forgotten working in the store and indeed elements of it crop up in ‘Shaun Of The Dead’ with Noel (Rafe Spall) becoming a trolley pushing zombie in the final moments. I had collected shopping trolleys as part of my duties there.

I had fun times while working at the store and met some friend who I still occasionally see or e-mail with.

I also have fond memories of twirling my price gun on my hand like Murphy in ‘Robocop’. If someone could find me a Somerfield price gun too, I would be most happy.

Somewhere I still have my Somerfield nametag with ‘Edgar’ written on it.

So I hope now you can see why the store sign had a resonance for me beyond just ‘Hot Fuzz’.

Also worth pointing out about the story above, I don’t think it was difficult to contact me because of writing on ‘Tintin’. My work on that ended in the summer of 2008 and the film is currently in post production.

I hope that the other letters of the sign will be auctioned off to the same charity in Somerset and I am very happy to sign those if that would end up raising more money.

Somerfield on Wells High Street, you will be missed. By me and many others.

I am glad I got to make two films within your sliding doors.