Swallows and Amazons cast meet for 50-year reunion

The cast of the popular children's film, Swallows and Amazons, will reunite to celebrate 50 years of the production.

The 1974 film was inspired by Arthur Ransome's novel from 1930, which charts the adventures of four children who set off in their sail boat in Coniston.

The actors and crew will come together for a free event at the Windermere Jetty Museum, in the Lake District, over the weekend.

Several members of the Altounyan family, who inspired Ransome's novel, will also attend the event on Saturday and Sunday.

The Altounyan family met Arthur Ransome while on holiday in the Lake District in 1928, and it was their experiences of learning to sail that gave him the idea for his story.

They were Taqui, Susan, Mavis (known to her family as Titty) and Roger Altounyan, an Anglo-Armenian family who lived in Aleppo in Syria.

Ransome then penned the story about four Walker children - John, Susan, Titty and Roger - who sail to reach an uninhabited island in the middle of Coniston water.

The film adaptation of the book was shot near the Bank Ground Farm boathouse in Coniston.

In celebration of 50 years since the production, the Arthur Ransome Society is hosting the two-day reunion at Windermere Jetty Museum.

The society said it wanted to give a "unique opportunity to meet the cast and crew and hear their stories and secrets of filming 50 years ago".

The two original boats used in the film would be there, with a chance to sail in Amazon too, the group said.

Actors Suzanna Hamilton, Sophie Neville, Simon West and Kit Seymour will join script writer David Wood and make-up artist Peter Robb-King at the event.

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