If.... , 1968
Director
Cast
visit the film locations
Rail: Cheltenham Spa, from London Paddington
Trivia
Director Lindsay Anderson follows Mick Travis through a trilogy, with the picaresque O Lucky Man! and the bilious state-of-the-nation satire Britannia Hospital
If.... filming location: the public school: Cheltenham College, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire
Dazzling and anarchic, the first part of the trilogy that slid spectacularly downhill from the patchy but enjoyable O Lucky Man! to the dire Britannia Hospital.
The public school where Mick Travis (Malcolm McDowell in a star-making role) leads a revolt, set against a surreal background of the British class system, is Cheltenham College, on Bath Road (A46) between Sandford Road and Thirlestaine Road, south of Cheltenham town centre, Gloucestershire.
Cheltenham – the old school of the director, Lindsay Anderson – agreed to the production on the assurance that the story was “something like Tom Brown’s Schooldays”
If.... filming location: the revolutionary shoot out: Cheltenham College, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire
Some school interiors, including the Dining Room, were filmed at Aldenham School, Aldenham in Hertfordshire.
The village and area of Aldenham, conveniently close to the studios at Elstree and Borehamwood, finds itself frequently used as a backdrop, in such films as The Nanny, Dracula AD1972 and Murder at the Gallop.
