Hi all

Last night I watched "The Damned" on TV, I knew that it was filmed on 
Portland but did not realize that it included scenes that included the Rotor 
station on Portland. The film was made in 1963 so it was some time after the 
station closed, but the surface buildings were used as "a Government 
Research Establishment".

Despite some of the action taking place underground, it seems that none of 
those scenes were actually filmed at the Rotor site. All of the radar 
antennas seem to have been removed by this time, and the site looked much 
the same as it does today lees the modern building.

Regards
Jeff

On Aug 28, 8:39 am, "Jeff"  wrote:
> Hi all
>
> Last night I watched "The Damned" on TV, I knew that it was filmed on
> Portland but did not realize that it included scenes that included the Rotor
> station on Portland. The film was made in 1963 so it was some time after the
> station closed, but the surface buildings were used as "a Government
> Research Establishment".
>
> Despite some of the action taking place underground, it seems that none of
> those scenes were actually filmed at the Rotor site. All of the radar
> antennas seem to have been removed by this time, and the site looked much
> the same as it does today lees the modern building.
>
> Regards
> Jeff

The film was actually shot in 1961 but wasn't released until 1963.
This release date probably caused some alarm amongst Government
scientific circles, as the subject matter of the film involved secret
military experiments being conducted on Portland; something which the
MOD planned to happen for real later that year.

Yep, October 1963 was the start date for MRE Porton Down's now
infamous Lyme Bay Trials, which involved...yes you've guessed
right...secret military scientific experiments.

Although this time, instead of confining radioactive children in a
secret underground facility, these military scientists limited
themselves to spraying massive amounts of live bacteria over populated
areas of Dorset, Hampshire, Somerset and East Devon!


Mike