News
Anita lends a hand… or two… to the star
01 Nov 2006
A harpist from Teesside has a hands-on role in a new TV production of a Jane Austen classic.
ITV is currently filming Mansfield Park, to be shown on national television next year. The lavish production will star Billie Piper as Fanny Price - and the hands of Anita Aslin.
That’s because all you’ll see of the Stokesley musician is her hands as she plays her harp. Anita was asked by the production company to attend a day of filming in Newby Hall, near Ripon.
Her brief was to give a quick lesson to actress Hayley Atwell, who plays the character of Mary, so she would look convincing as she played. But as the day progressed, the plan changed.
Anita, 33, explained: At first, I played a piece from the 19th century and they made an audio recording of it. Then the director said I had to wear her costume because they wanted to do close-ups of my hands playing the harp. So in effect, I wasn’t a body double, I was a hands double!
Anita says she really enjoyed her time on the set. But she admitted: It was a bit nerve-racking when they recorded me playing because everyone was in the room.
It’s a good job I took my harp along, though, because the one they’d brought in was from a museum. It’s strings were like elastic bands and none were in tune. And when Hayley was pretending to play, they had to keep stopping filming because everyone kept cracking up laughing, even though she actually did very well.
Anita won’t be the only member of her family to be seen on screen soon. Dad Mike, of Great Ayton, should be on the silver screen next year as an extra in the movie Atonement, part of which was shot in Redcar