Twenty-two years ago we made a film for Sheppy’s Cider. Tucked quietly away in their Farm Museum it was viewed by six to seven thousand visitors a year. I had completely forgotten about it. Then the phone rang. Could we update it? Well, you can’t really update old video formats so we negotiated on producing a new short film. The farm had grown and new ciders were being developed by David and Louisa Sheppy. We had got to know David’s parents (Richard and Mary) well during the original filming and I was inspired to hear Richard talk about stewardship of the land and passing the care of it onto the next generation. Well, the next generation are making a great success of it and I am sure he would be very proud of what they are achieving.

The film was launched on the 1st April to forty members of staff (past and present). James Crowden said some lovely words in praise of local cider and we projected the film onto a ten foot screen. It was followed by one of those unforgettable farmhouse suppers – home cured ham, Somerset cheeses, pickled onions, chutneys, fresh granary bread, fruit and bottles and bottles of cider. It wouldn’t have disgraced the film set of Delicatessen.

I hope this new version will run for twenty years too, by which time I may have digested the supper! A magical Somerset evening.

Somerset's liquid gold

09.00.  Filming at Sheppy’s Cider near Taunton . A crisp frosty morning.  David Sheppy inspecting two huge oak vats of Cider.  The air filled with the sweet heady scent of crushed apples – Dabinett, Kingston Black and Yarlington Mill.  Streams of apples being fed into the hopper and scrunched through the press. Gallons of un-fermented juice slowly filling the vats.  The unforgettable sound of primary fermentation – a vigorous energetic bubbling. Somerset’s liquid gold waiting to be bottled.

Sheppy's Award Winning Ciders

Twenty years ago we made a short film for Sheppy’s Cider in Bradford-on-Tone – A year in the life of a cider farmer. I rang Louisa Sheppy on the off-chance to see if they had managed to keep back an old copy. To my delight she said that they were still showing the original film in their farm museum and had worn out four VHS players and were now on their second DVD player. Filmed in the days when we hired Betacam SP cameras at £350 per day, lit the interiors with banks of Redheads (800W) and Blondes (2KW) lights, off-lined on Low Band U-Matic tape and edited on three machine edit suites in London. It looks a bit dated now, but there are a few shots I doubt I could improve on. Now I need to encourage them to put it on their website!