The grapevine worketh, and an unexpected email from Rex Lawson reminds
me that the player piano was indeed a very fine Schiedmayer Simplex
which is still in existence and lovingly cared for.

Caird Hall in Dundee's City Square was chosen especially because it is
such a strange design, looking rather like a Soviet-style blockhouse.
They also wanted snow, and Scotland seemed like a good idea.  As it
happened, despite much of the rest of Britain being covered in snow,
Dundee was about the only place in the UK which didn't have any when
they needed it, so they had to get in tons of salt.  Yet I remember
driving off to Aberdeen later that night and having to return to Dundee
after a white-out at Broughty Ferry in which another car rear-ended
mine, fortunately without damage.

Rex says that Alan Bates was the most conscientious actor he'd come
across with regard to wanting to look right as he pedalled, and seemed
to take particular care with every aspect of Guy Burgess' character.

I recall hearing somewhere that Burgess had rolls sent from Harrods.
But Rex is not so sure that Burgess actually had a Pianola, and Coral
Browne is no longer around to say.  He thinks it possible that it
was simply a dramatic idea from [screenplay author] Alan Bennett,
emphasizing the strange Englishness of Burgess' exile.  Funnily enough,
Rex emailed Bennett's literary agent recently, asking about this,
but so far has had no information.

Rex deliberately put a modern QRS roll and an Artona amongst the rolls
on top of the player, knowing that they were wrong for the period.
He's sure no-one noticed, but recalls he did it to amuse Ramsi Tick,
if he ever saw it.

Patrick Handscombe
Wivenhoe, Essex, UK

 [ A nice review of the TV film is at
 [ http://alanbates.com/abarchive/tv/abroad.html
 [ -- Robbie