The Methodist Women’s Luncheon Club met at the Comis Hotel, Mount Murray on January 16.

An entertaining talk ’My Life in films’, illustrated by slides, was given by Charles Guard to an appreciative audience.

His very first video was made in the mid-1980s on Railways of the Isle of Man. We discovered his enthusiasm as a young man honing his skills as a presenter.

He stressed recognising the necessity of his looking into the camera all the time and the great importance of fluent speech.

We saw all the workings of an early horse tram trip, the details of a lift dating from 1927 from the promenade to the Falcon Cliff Hotel and of the ten penny journey up Snaefell. For his next project, filming The Story of Mann, a crew came over from England with Anthony Quayle doing the voice over.

There was dramatic music, exciting crashing of the sea on rocks and the memorable ’white mare of the flowing mane’ galloping wildly and falling into the river, fortunately unhurt.

We learned of the installation of an innovative machine to make rain flow to suit an otherwise dry background scene. We heard of a bonfire on the top of Cronk ny Arree Laa and the team, amongst the lovely rivers and waterfalls, having their cars robbed in Ballaglass Glen, though the boy robbers were caught. The filming of horses and wagons made an enjoyable, nostalgic sight.

The neat cottages at Cregneash once had to be given an artificial dirtying to suit the historical background of one scene.

The marvellous decorative gardens of Keith Kennaugh at Fleshwick were shown where plaster gnomes, animals and birds mingle with fantasy creatures, moulded by skilled hedge cutting, and given eyes of scallop shells above great, gaping teeth.

His Apache Indian figure and those of ghost rider and sea witch and his flowers and vegetables flourishing amid the interesting old implements, donated by farmers, are known over the world.

All are fashioned over many years from his own inspiration.

After recent events in the news it was interesting to hear of Charles Guard’s use of drones and to see how they transformed our views of rocks so close to the dashing sea.

The old mines of Bradda Head were revealed by the zigzag path down into the water.

We could see where an iodine factory in the 1850s burned seaweed to make the iodine; and where copper leaked from rocks making a mystery of how the ore was carried away.

Unique views from Maughold Head, the Sugar Loaf and Peel Castle and Ramsey harbour’s open bridge could only be achieved by a drone.

The threat too of island erosion is exposed at Bride cliffs which survive since the last Ice Age and also at recent housing development at Kirk Michael, most of which, it is prophesised, will have disappeared by the next century.

Permission to launch a drone is needed wherever the done goes.

It is interesting to note, after the recent crisis at Gatwick, that the drone cuts out near the airport and software is needed to restore it. The whole of the island is filmed by drone in two hours.

Mr Guard received keen applause from his audience and a sincere vote of thanks from Pat Godby.