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This all follows BBC Radio4's broadcast of 'The Making of an Urban Myth- The Angel of Mons' on Mon. 14 Oct 2002 at 11:00am.
http://www.thisisgwent.co.uk/gwent/archive/2002/10/16/news1034764604ZM.html
http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co...layContent&sourceNode=74403&contentPK=2847256
http://www.thisisgwent.co.uk/gwent/archive/2002/10/16/news1034764604ZM.html
First published on Wednesday 16 October 2002:
`Film' was just a hoax
AN elaborate hoax involving a Monmouth shop has featured in a special radio programme on urban myths.
The spoof was started in 1999 by Stroud architect Danny Sullivan who wanted to raise the profile of a gothic house in the area and hit on the idea of simulating the filming of an angel above the mansion.
He claimed that the idea came to him after purchasing a film canister from the Agincourt antiques shop in Monmouth's Agincourt Square featuring the Angel of Mons - a ghost-like image said to have hovered above the trenches in the First World War.
The story gained creditability when Mr Sullivan later `sold the movie' to film producer Tony Kaye - also part of the hoax - who was in partnership with Marlon Brando, for £350,000.
The world's media then started to take an interest in the story and devoted pages on it. The hoax was highlighted in Radio 4s The Making of an Urban Myth this week, when Mr Sullivan confessed that it was all a spoof.
He told reporter Chris Morris there was never any film: "But when people asked to see the film I told them it was being restored.
"I chose the antique shop in Monmouth, because if the nature of it - it is a true junk shop! The story was made to stand up because the film producer Tony Kaye told the media that he brought the film from me for 0,000 and that he had secured the interest of Marlon Brando to play a leading role.
"It was fun to see how far you could go with a story like this. I'm an ordinary bloke who made it known that he made a lot of money from the discovery of a £15 reel of film from a Monmouth junk shop. It made an interesting rags to riches story."
Owner of the antique shop John Read Smith said: "I was stunned while listening to the programme to discover that it was all a hoax. We had purchased 400 films following the death of a local film producer, and among the films was a canister with a number of letters securely attached to it, and written on them was the word angel.
"So when the story broke, we weren't surprised that there was a connection with our film and an angel.
" But I'm disappointed that the whole episode was a scam, and as there has been so much publicity, I think there will still be a Hollywood film based on the Angel of Mons."
PICTURED: John Read Smith outside his antiques shop.
http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co...layContent&sourceNode=74403&contentPK=2847256
THE MYTH MAKERS
11:08 - 18 October 2002
An old-fashioned first world war ghost story has taken on a 21st century twist by turning into a modern day urban myth.
West architect Danny Sullivan who claimed he had made a film proving the Angel of Mons existed has now admitted it was all an elaborate hoax.
Mr Sullivan made his confession to BBC producer Martin Kurzik who yesterday said: "It was a great con.
"He was offered £500,000 for it but although it was based on a true concept, there was never any film of an angel."
The Angel was an apparition who saved the lives of fleeing British troops by stopping the enemy in its tracks.
And last year Mr Sullivan made headlines worldwide when he claimed he had uncovered secret film footage and letters from a West soldier which proved the legend about an angel who cared for soldiers.
At the time Mr Sullivan claimed he bought a film and a cache of documents which proved the angel's existence for £15 from the Agincourt House Antiques shop in Monmouth in 1999. Now he has told the BBC the material never existed and he didn't sell them to a film company making a Hollywood movie starring Marlon Brando for £350,000 as claimed.
He says it was all spoof to create interest in Woodchester Park, Stroud where the angel was allegedly filmed because he had written a book about the ghostly goings on there.
He said: "I'm an ordinary bloke who made it known he made a lot of money from the discovery of a £15 reel of film from a Monmouth junk shop. It made an interesting rags to riches story."
According to Sullivan's story William Doidge, a west country soldier, fell in love with a Belgian woman and became so convinced the angel would lead him back to her he launched a 40- year quest to track down the vision.
The 46-year-old of Leonard Stanley, near Stroud claimed Mr Doidge eventually captured on cine film a vision of an angel at Woodchester Park in 1952.
Mr Kurzik, who researched the Mons legend for a Radio Four programme which will be repeated today said Mr Sullivan managed to get away with it because he used true facts.
John Read Smith, who runs the Monmouth antique shop, was philosophical about the 'find' when it emerged last year. But yesterday he warned Mr Sullivan could be pulling a double bluff and there might be a new chapter to be written on the legend.
"It is in any case a story and a half. The Angel of Mons is a myth distorted continuously and we have now become part of that myth," he said.