The Script
The main alterations in this episode were driven by the complications of the locations. Tom Brown, the Production Designer, had a terrifyingly difficult task to try and piece together the fictitious Cathedral Close, with Tom Dunbar, the Locations Manager.

The place where the Death Coach arrived was a particular problem as it required a three-sided courtyard in order for the coach to attain sufficient speed before arriving, but also match the architecture of the other parts of the close.

Thus it was that the exterior of the close (where the Tower Door Entrance was) was at Eton College, the Central Courtyard at Osterley Park, the Inner Close and Crypt Door, again at Eton College, the Crypt Interior beneath a Church in Maida Vale and the Bishop's Palace, Losely House.

All of these locations had to be carefully integrated into the script, plus elements of clarification so that it all appeared to fit together. Originally it was unspecified exactly how the Death Coach arrived, but Simon Massey's clever conception of it emerging from Hell via a wall was the solution we'd been looking for.

Production
The filming of the Death Coach's actual arrival at Osterley Park was on a bitterly cold and increasingly windy night. I was wearing thermal tracksuit bottoms under my jeans, two fleeces and an arctic parka, and was still freezing. Fortunately I'd gained so much weight from the location catering by this time, everyone assumed that this was my usual size.

Richard and Sam bravely covered up their shivering and Eileen Essel, fresh from starring in Danny De Vito's latest comedy Duplex gamely stood in the freezing conditions half-blinded by the distinctive yellow contacts that Jan Sewell had chosen for both the young and old Miss Ottermans, when in her banshee role.

Tom Brown had provided a beautiful miniature which was filmed as the fourth wall of the "Central Courtyard" complete with the arch created when the Coach crashes through, but although the shots of the Coach arriving in the Courtyard were shot, the increasing wind was to cause a major problem. An enormous scaffold supporting a giant section of green cloth to be used to gain the shot of the Coach bursting through the wall was becoming unstable in the weather conditions, and had to be dropped.

Like all shots postponed, this meant it had to be slotted into another day, at another location, while the rest of the production continued. So the question "...and when are we going to do the Coach?" became a familiar phrase in the cramped caravan we used as an office.

It was some time later that the final piece of the jigsaw was completed and Alan Marques could begin his CGI magic, lacing the elements together to produce the stunning effect that is finally on the screen. I think we all agree it was worth waiting for.