Unseen Beatles photos and film scripts including The Eagle Has Landed at auction in Lichfield

Sale date Monday 3rd November

UNSEEN photographs of The Beatles taken by a member of the film crew shooting A Hard Day’s Night and Help! are set to prove a hit at auction.

The snaps feature in an archive compiled by Edward Tucker during his decades working in the movie industry.

Known as Ted or Teddy, Mr Tucker had a ringside seat to some iconic cinematic moments thanks to his role as grip – a technician responsible for building and maintaining equipment supporting cameras and other production gear on a film set.

His collection came to light during a ‘Dealer Day’ in Coventry last Sunday (October 19) for a new series of the hit ITV antiques programme Dickinson’s Real Deal and will go under the hammer with Richard Winterton Auctioneers at The Lichfield Auction Centre on Monday, November 3.

It includes eight never-before-seen behind the scenes Beatles photos, six from A Hard Day’s Night and two from Help!, scripts including one for the 1976 blockbuster The Eagle Has Landed – which writer Tom Mankiewicz reportedly thought to be his best work – and signed photos by stars such as Sir Michael Caine and Kate Bush.

The collection is being brought to auction by Ted’s daughter and son Leigh-Anne and Owen following their dad’s death eight years ago aged 83.

“Dad lived next door to Twickenham Studios,” said Leigh-Anne, 58, an activities assistant at a care home from Soham, Cambridgeshire.

“One day he was digging a hole for the council and someone said ‘hey mate, you want to come and do that for us.’

“So he started as a set builder and went on to become a much-loved, accredited grip who travelled the world and was highly valued in the film industry.”

Ted met future wife Sheila in the 1960s at the famous Eel Pie Island nightclub.

It was a love match which led to two children and incorporated a glamourous social life which included wrap parties and first night screenings.

A keen photographer, Ted kept his camera close to hand and Shelia was an enthusiastic autograph hunter.

The collection includes a signed photo to Sheila from Michael Caine alongside a ticket to the gala world premiere of Alfie at the Plaza Theatre in Piccadilly Circus on March 24 1966.

The spirit of the swinging sixties lives on in countless pictures throughout the collection.

Six of Ted’s black and white photos from the set of A Hard Day's Night include ones of Ringo filming on April 24 1964 in Edgehill Road, West Ealing.

Director Richard Lester can also be seen in one of the shots, taken whilst working out the comedic scene where the hapless drummer is arrested after a woman falls down a hole in the road he covered with his coat.

Other photos show Paul McCartney and George Harrison.

Two colour photos are from filming for Help! at Cliveden House – which doubled as Buckingham Palace in the film – and were likely taken on either May 10 or 11 1965.

Paul McCartney appears in both snaps, one on his own and in the other talking to John Lennon, who is partly obscured by a crew member, with Ringo seated and probably having make-up applied.

Ted would cross paths with Paul McCartney more than a decade later, shooting the video for Wings’ 1977 number one Mull Of Kintyre – the grip was reportedly remembered by Macca, who greeted him enthusiastically: “Teddy! You’re back! How are you doing?”

Other 1960s icons in the collection include a photo of Terrence Stamp in 1967’s Far From The Madding Crowd plus two tickets to a special preview of the film at the Odeon Theatre in Marble Arch on September 19 that year.

There is a photo of Gerry and the Pacemakers in front of Liverpool’s Lime Street Station signed on the back to Sheila, a signed photo of Lonnie Donegan, several photos of Peter Cushing on set and pictures from the Oliver Reed films The System (1964) and The Party’s Over (1965).

The archive also features a cache of Ted’s photos from 1968’s The Charge Of The Light Brigade plus an invitation to a supper party celebrating the end of shooting, signed by stars Trevor Howard and Alan Dobie.

Another stack of pictures relates to 1969’s The Adventurers; there is also a script for the film in a hardback folder and a separate breakdown script.

Other scripts include The Blockhouse, Siddhartha, The Greek Tycoon, Entertaining Mr Sloane and The Eagle Has Landed, which starred Michael Caine and Donald Sutherland.

“Michael Caine knew dad and regarded him highly,” said Leigh-Anne.

“Dad used to let us go on set when he was working and one day we visited The Eagle Has Landed when they were filming of the scene of the church siege.

“I remember walking down through the village with mum and a friendly American – who turned out to be Larry Hagman, who played Colonel Clarence Pitts.”

Behind the scenes footage in a television documentary on the films of Michael Caine shows Ted at work on the movie.

He can also be seen steadying the film camera behind John Lennon in a shot from the set of Help! which circulated last year when the Beatle’s Framus Hootenanny 12-string guitar featured in the scene was auctioned after being lost for decades.

One photo in the collection going to auction shows Ted with a giant clapperboard for The Man Who Fell To Earth, taken while working on the 1976 David Bowie science fiction classic.

Leigh-Anne recalls meeting Bowie at Heathrow in the mid-1970s, with the Starman carrying her around the airport and giving her a £20 note as a parting gift.

Ted’s collection also features behind the scenes photos from the 1981 Disney movie Condorman, which starred Michael Crawford and Oliver Reed, a restaurant menu signed by James Mason and Harry Andrews, photos from the set of a Beach Boys advert, and an invitation to a special screening of Stardust.

Ted went freelance in the 1970s and in the following decade his busy career expanded into TV adverts and music video promos including Queen’s I Want To Break Free.

He also met The Police, Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush, and a signed promo photo of the latter inscribed ‘To lovely Teddy, lots of love Kate’ features in the auction.

Her father’s window into the pop music scene of the 1980s was manna from heaven for young Leigh-Anne, who was lucky enough to meet enough stars to start her own autograph collection.

Leigh-Anne’s book, which is also being offered in the same auction, features the signatures of Superman icon Christopher Reeve, Boy George and Culture Club, The Human League, Wham! With both George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley, the Thompson Twins, actress Rula Lenska and members of the That’s Life TV programme team – Esther Ranzen, Bill Buckley and Michael Groth.

“I remember looking up and seeing a tall man and thinking ‘wow, that’s Superman!’,” Leigh-Anne recalls of her meeting Christopher Reeve.

There is also a publicity photo of Bullseye! legend Jim Bowen signed to mum Sheila.

Having moved from Twickenham to Cambridgeshire, Ted eventually had to retire due to ill health – he caught TB in India and went on to lose half a lung from the disease.

Sadly, many of his tales from a life in movies died with him.

“Dad wasn’t a gossip and he had quite a bad memory, but if you sat him in front of a film he worked on he would come out with all these stories,” said Leigh-Anne.

“At the end of dad’s life I called him Uncle Albert because he always started a story with ‘when I was in the film industry…’!

“He was going to write his memoirs but mum got diagnosed with terminal cancer and so everything went into caring for her.”

Sheila died aged 72 and Ted passed away suddenly just three days later.

“The auction is a great way to remember dad and everything he accomplished in the film industry,” said Leigh-Anne.

“He was so much loved. It makes me emotional at how much loved he was.”

The archive goes under the hammer at The Lichfield Auction Centre, Wood End Lane, Fradley Park, as three lots in the Antique & Home Sale on Monday, November 3, starting at 9am, with viewing in person on Friday, October 31, from 10am to 4pm.

The Beatles photos are guided £500 to £700, the film scripts and movie photos are estimated at £750 and the pop music and 1980s autographs are guided £250 to £350.

Auction catalogues go live online a week before sale day and can be viewed via our Auction Calendar.

David Dickinson will be filming on the day with the Dickinson’s Real Deal camera crews and people are welcome to come along to the saleroom to watch the auction action.

For more information, to arrange a free valuation of all types of ephemera, jewellery, antiques and collectables, or to enquire about a home visit for large collections or house clearances, email office@richardwinterton.co.uk or call 01543 251081.