The Ponds: Still Waters Run Deep follows the swimmers of Hampstead Heath over the course of a year. It’s a joyous film that really captures the spirit of pond swimming, at a place where people having been enjoying the waters since the early 1800s.
Watch a trailer here.
The film, directed and produced by Patrick McLennan and Samuel Smith, has its cinema premiere at the Everyman Hampstead on January 10th, 2019. Previews of the film were shown at Somerset House and the Dartmouth Park Film Club – where people queued round the block hoping to get in. The Everyman showing is already sold out, but there is more information on screenings here.
I was lucky to play a small part in the film, standing in front of the Viaduct Pond – built in the 1840s as part of the Lord of the Manor’s unsuccessful plan to build a series of villas – as well as being credited as historical adviser.