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The David Bowie Community of Australia and New Zealand

Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence: FILMING AT KINGS COLLEGE & WANGANUI

 

Filming on the New Zealand mainland took place over two weeks.

It appears that two boarding schools were used - Kings College in Auckland and Wanganui Collegiate in the township of Whanganui.

The specific scenes were 'flash backs' to Cellier's childhood in which a 35 year old Bowie portrayed a 17 year old school boy. Cellier's younger brother was played by NZ actor James Malcolm.

 

Kings College, Auckland

 

 

Wanganui Collegiate

 

Wanganui - although over 5.5 hours from Auckland by road - was also considered excellent for depicting Jack Cellier's 1920s-era education.

Below is the 'big building' as it appeared back in 1912:


 

WHANGANUI TRIVIA

New Zealand's 1990 Mastermind champion Hamish McDouall (who had the expert topic - The Life and Works of David Bowie) became the Lord Mayor of Whanganui in 2016.

There are several Bowie related articles on Hamish - for example here and here and the fabulous Mastermind episode in which a 20 year old Hamish cleans up in terms of Bowie knowledge can be found here.

At the time of going on Mastermind, Hamish had to decide whether his expert topic would be David Bowie or alternatively cricketer Chris Cairns (for which Hamish wrote an authorised biography in 2002). The previous year on New Zealand television, Hamish also won Sale of The Century.



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