Michael J Bird

Who Pays The Ferryman?

Locations

Ferryman fan Anna Pereboom has spent countless holidays in Elounda. With some pointers from Andrew Morgan who worked as Production Assistant on the series, Anna doggedly tracked down the key locations used in the series. Anna's pictures make an interesting contrast, showing, as they do, Elounda 25 years on.

Locations are marked on the map alongside.

THE FERRYMAN TAVERNA Nikos and Elena's taverna in Elounda. Nowadays it's called the "Ferryman taverna" for obvious reasons. The name, in huge blue neon letters on the roof of the building, can be seen from practically any point in Elounda.
ALAN HALDANE'S LODGINGS Babi's Spiridakis house (left), where Haldane lived during his stay in Elounda, and the narrow alleyway between the Ferryman taverna and Babi's house.
ANNIKA'S HOUSE Annika's house is on the old National Road between Neapolis and Malia on the outskirts of a village called Vrachasi. (We recognised Annika's house at once from the concrete garage under the house. It was very hard to photograph though because I was on the road and the house is very high up on the slope and the vegetation around it has grown considerably during the last odd 25 years!)
CEMETERY The cemetery in the mountains near Neapoli where Melina is buried. Andrew Morgan (Assistant Director) recalls "We used a real grave and although the family of the dead person agreed for us to take out the photograph, oil, etc. of the departed and replace it with our own, it was necessary for the Orthodox Archbishop to give his OK. Together with Petros (the Greek production manager), we were given an audience with the man in his palace. The most revolting cakes were passed round and as it is bad manners to refuse, I bit into this disgusting concoction and immediately wanted to vomit. I simply couldn't swallow it and spent the entire interview with it stuck in the back of my mouth. I shall never forget it. Thankfully we were given permission so I suppose it was worth it!!"		COURTYARD The courtyard of the Moni Keras Kardiotisas Monastery. Haldane goes here in episode one to reflect upon his past and his first meeting with Annika.
KARDIOTISAS MONASTERY CHURCH The Kardiotisas monastery church where Annika lights a candle for Haldane in the final episode
CHURCH OF ST. CONSTANTINE & HELEN The church of St. Constantine and Helen in Elounda where the confrontation takes place between the Englishman Hebden and the old man from Sfakia in episode two.		BABIS SPIRIDAKIS' OFFICE Babis Spiridakis' office in the 25th August Street in Heraklion.
THE VILLAGE OF DAFNI
Longshot of the village (in actual fact the village of Fourni, about 15 km. from Elounda)	Streets featured and the church in which Annika 'was christened and her parents were married'.
THE FUNERAL OF ANTONIS VIGLIS
The little church yard where Antonis Viglis "was buried" under the watchful eye of the Dafni villagers. Anna says it is in Fourni like the rest of the locations from that episode but a bit off the beaten track "which is probably why we missed it last time. Take a look at the DVD and you will see it has hardly changed at all, even the little gate is still exactly the same."
Locations used in the series were the subject of a short feature article " Off the Beaten Track" published in the KO-GO Khronicles (the bilingual Newspaper of the Gouves Township - Crete) in September, 2007. I am grateful to longtime MJB website visitor Renee Diependaele for sending me a copy of the article. Much to Anna Pereboom's annoyance, the piece appears to draw heavily on her research detailed above.
Anna's photographs set another Ferryfan, Rinus Kiel, thinking about the location of Annika's house in Bird's novelisation, which, surprisingly (considering he wrote it after the filming), was not necessarily the same. "We liked Anna Pereboom's pictures of the Ferryman locations very much. We also dined at the taverna (in April 2000), and found that the composer of the tunes was an uncle of the current taverna owner and lives/lived? in Aghios Nikolaos. Another relative of Yannis Markopoulos owns a record shop there where we found the original sound track on CD. We also found the house where Haldane lived in Elounda. Concerning Annika's house: Anna found the house where the filming was done, but we think that is not the house spoken about in the book of the series, because that house must be some way above Kera and probably just past the northern entrance to the Lassithi plain. When Haldane goes there for the first time he climbs the (still) very steep winding mountain road going there en passes the monastery of Kera. We were there too and asked about the war, but there was no memory about, or the monks didn't want to speak about it. (In the book Haldane had the same experience!) Another clue that Annika's house is on or near Lassithi is in the fatal ride of Nikos and Elena. They come down by that same dangerous road that still leads from Malia to Lassithi. So, Annika's house - as described in the book - must be on Lassithi, but unfortunately we could not find it. Maybe some other time." Rinus also sent me a map, saying: "On the map I encircled the Lassithi plain, and indicated two roads. The red road is the one Haldane took when he first met Annika. You then enter the plain via a mountain pass (marked encircled 1). The road passes between two mountain 'shoulders' or ridges, upon which a lot of windmills are standing. There is, however, another road, the black one, probably used by Annika when she travelled to her business, her mother in Neapoli and Elounda. It is probably this road, which was taken by Nikos, Elena and Alexis on that fatal trip. This road is slightly less exciting than the red one, but has a couple of breathtaking hairpins in it. So, opportunity enough for problems. And even then, in 2000, the curves were not secured in any way. The location, then, of Annika's house, as envisioned by Michael Bird in the book, must be on the northern half of the plain. It would take a lot of research if someone wanted to locate that house, which will be probably never done. However, if we visit Crete in the future, I hope to dedicate some time to the task." Not be outdone, Anna adds, "the taverna, as described in the book isn't at all like the one used for the film. In the book it's described as an attractive old building with a large garden on all sides with citrus trees. I'd hardly call a square concrete slab an attractive building and there's no room for a large garden, now or twenty five years ago, so that would mean Michael Bird had something very different in mind when he described the taverna." "Artistic licence" is a great thing!
English Location The English location featured in episode one, in the scene between Alan Haldane and his brother David, is often overlooked and I am grateful to Peter Holohan who recognised it. Peter says "Although, due to the rain, the background view from inside the cottage is somewhat murky, it looked pretty familiar to me right away, as being a lock and behind it the outline of lock-keepers house near to where I live. On closer inspection I saw there are some pictures of Thames barges on the wall. When it gets to the point where they leave the cottage I was then 100% certain that the scene was filmed at Heybridge Basin in Essex. The area is pretty much the same now, as it's in a conservation area. Lock Hill is where the cottage is."

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