In a much happier frame of mind, I prepared to leave for Holyhead. Jack Cardiff, Technicolor's cameraman, and Pennington Richards had already gone ahead with Kay Ash and Charlie Gould, the two American sound chaps with their Western Electric system, hopefully to get some of the inevitable problems sorted out. Penny went to learn from Jack the mysteries of Technicolor's three-film strip camera, each strip sensitive to its own primary colour and each passing across its allotted facet of the prism set in the camera. In the studio, when the camera is reloaded, the prism is taken out with reverential awe. Rubber gloves are donned. A deathly hush descends as a dust sheet is thrown over the camera and the operator enters this almost antiseptic area, not to carry out a heart transplant, but to remove the prism and make sure that each of its three facets is clean, clear and free of any dust particles. I couldn't quite see these clinical conditions being carried out as we bounced about in a lifeboat. However, that was their problem—or was it?

With a hefty expanding suitcase strapped to the pillion of my 500cc Royal Enfield, I roared up to Euston to catch the 9.00 a.m. to Holyhead and joined the rest of the unit on platform one. Charlie Squires was there, the finest ‘prop man’ in the business, all five foot of him: a cockney through and through and the most gifted of the ‘cheekie chappies’. He said to us: ‘When we gets to Crewe, I don't want none of you coming out of the buffet without you have a cup in your pocket. We're going to need them.’ Then there was Harry Tupper, master carpenter, our ‘stand-by’ chippie and a tower of strength. And Roland Stafford, ‘boom boy’, who would be holding Kay's ‘mike’, squatting on the deck of the lifeboat: rocking about, it would be hard to keep a boom or pole out of shot. Two grips and a van driver made up the rest, not forgetting Phil Ross, continuity girl.

The flag was raised: the whistle blew. The 4–6–0 locomotive gave its first grunting puff, wheel-slipped, spurted steam on to the track, gained purchase and inch by inch we drew away towards Holyhead.