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Salkind says Shepperton has no major shortcomings itself. The inefficiencies here, he said to Clive, were like a splinter in the toe – a source of irritation, not enough to stop you walking. He (Salkind) doesn’t seem angry at Shepperton, or want to make any big publicity point about moving. Clive reckons £190,000 is owed to us by Superman. Brando and Hackman have to be filmed here, because of their limited availability, so we appear at the moment to be in quite a strong position.

Wednesday, April 6th

Five past twelve – settling in bed with Siegfried Sassoon and the Somme Offensive, when the phone rings. It’s John Goldstone. Rugoff wants to open Jabberwocky at Cinema One in New York on Friday, April 15th – a week earlier than he had planned. I tell him that I can’t really go until Wednesday of next week – Easter, with trips to Abbotsley and Southwold, being almost upon us, and a day looking at locations on Salisbury Plain planned for next Tuesday. John will transmit this news to Rugoff.

Back to the Somme.

Tuesday, April 12th

Wig fitting with Jean Speak at ten. Then along to Jim F’s office. The buyer, John Stevens, is there, with a catalogue of cars for the ‘Olthwaite’ episode. We have blithely written in police cars for a chase (dated 1934), but find that they didn’t have police cars until 1938. This does seem to have given robbers an unfair advantage, but Jim says robbers couldn’t afford cars either.

Drive down to Salisbury Plain to look at the locations they’ve chosen for ‘Escape from Stalag Luft 112B’.

Spend an afternoon in huts, built during the First War, which are still used during training exercises. They are Spartan and the attempts to brighten them up are very tacky, and only emphasise the gloomy temporariness of the camps themselves, which cling unconvincingly to the Plain in the teeth of vicious winds. It’s so remote and exposed up there that one could almost be in Labrador rather than one and a half hour’s drive from London.

Drive back along the M4, arriving at the Centre about 7.30. Taxi home, where I arrive, feeling well and truly flattened, to a volley of phone calls and phone messages which have accumulated over the weekend and in anticipation of my departure for New York tomorrow.

A little clump of unkind press cuttings about Jabberwocky don’t raise my spirits. John Goldstone sounds cheerful over the phone. After a poor weekend, Jabberwocky attendances are up again, and it’s doing remarkable business in Bromley!

Wednesday, April 13th, New York

The New York Times has a total Python-style ad. ‘Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam will be giving away 1,000 potatoes at Cinema One on Friday.’ The motif for the ad is a cowering Dennis figure with a sword and Don is using, to my distress, slogans such as ‘Makes King Kong Look Like an Ape’, which came up at the Connaught meeting in February and was, I had hoped, firmly rejected.

Terry G has a bagful of books of illustrations by Doré and others, and he is going to redesign the poster yet again.

Biggest problem of the day is the rating. After viewing the film the authorities have given it an R (Restricted) rating – which means anyone under 18 has to be accompanied. Python was PG – a wider certificate and the one we really want. They say that we can have a PG if we trim the shots of the steaming three-quarters-eaten bodies of the two Terrys and cut the shot of Dennis being peed on as he wakes up.

Terry refuses to make the cuts.

Friday, April 15th, New York

The afternoon audiences have been depressing, but the 700-seat cinema builds up to over half full for the evening shows.

At ten o’clock the next morning’s papers arrive. Don and his producers pounce eagerly on the New York Times, searching for the word of Vincent Canby. Exactly the same feeling as on the Grail opening in this same cinema two years ago.

Except that the review is better. It’s longer than the Grail, it’s headlined ‘Jabberwocky: Monster With Heart’, it’s the top film previewed, and there’s a photo too. The review is