By Helen BurchellBBC News, Norfolk
An old RAF control tower in Norfolk features in a new short film, starring A-list actor John Travolta.
The Shepherd, based on a short ghost story by Frederick Forsyth, was filmed at West Raynham, near Fakenham.
The cast and crew descended on the airfield and the tower, which is now home to Jon and Shelly Booty.
The film, released by Disney+, tells the story of a young pilot whose plane gets into difficulty, and a mystery pilot who comes to guide him home.
The short story, written by Forsyth in 1975 as a Christmas present for his wife, is set in 1957 and follows the fortunes, or misfortunes, of the young RAF pilot Freddie Hooke, played by Ben Radcliffe.
Flying home to England from Germany, his plane suffers an electrical failure – and with navigational systems down and his radio not working, he believes he will never make it back to base.
But through the darkness and fog he spots another plane, flown by a man who offers to help guide him to safety – the eponymous “shepherd”, played by Travolta.
The airfield at West Raynham is used to portray both the German base, RAF Celle, and the fictional base, RAF Minton, in England.
It opened in 1939 and closed in 1994.
In 2016, the control tower was bought by Mr and Mrs Booty with the intention of turning it into their home, and renovations are continuing.
However, the former RAF station is no stranger to film crews, with Raynham Hangar Studios operating from there for about five years until 2022.
Filming for The Shepherd took place in the spring of last year “and it was all right on our doorstep”, said Mr Booty.
“Seeing Ben Radcliffe wandering around outside in his ’50s pilot uniform was almost like seeing a ghost,” he said.
The set was made more eerie with fake snow and fog machines brought in to transform the spring conditions into weather more fitting for a Christmas tale.
“But we had a couple of chilly nights, so the actors’ breath in the night air was real,” he said.
Travolta – himself a qualified pilot – was “very enthusiastic” about the history of the station, Mr Booty said.
“He fell in love with this Forsyth book because he’d had a Vampire [the De Havilland plane flown by Radcliffe in the film].
“He’d read the book to his family every year and it became a tradition.”
Travolta bought the rights to the book decades ago with the intention of playing the young pilot, but instead ended up in the role of the guiding shepherd.
Mr and Mrs Booty hosted both Travolta and Forsyth in their control tower home for publicity interviews recorded ahead of the film’s release, “in what will one day be our living room”, said Mr Booty.
“I photo-bombed one interview,” he admitted, sharing a photograph of himself and his wife with the author and the actor.
Some of the aircraft featured in the film were brought over by the Norwegian Air Force Historical Squadron, but the Booty’s own plane – a Hawker Hunter F1, which was based at RAF West Raynham in the mid-1950s, also played a role.
“We’re hoping for a ‘best supporting aircraft’ award – but that probably won’t happen,” Mr Booty joked.
With much interest in the history of former airfields, the Bootys open their home to the public several times a year and have created a small cafe and a heritage space, displaying items from the old base.
“It is such a great location,” said Mr Booty. “This really could be ‘RAF Minton’.”
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