The Fugitive and The Man from Aunt

During the years 1964 to 1969 I attended the Christian Brothers Brow of the Hill school on the Lecky Rd. My art and technical drawing teacher at the Christian Brothers was a man called Terence McDonald. Terence McDonald was not only an excellent teacher but he was also an amateur film maker of some repute.I think he made some twenty short films.
In the year 1966 he made a film called" The Man from Aunt" and as any one of a certain age will know, this name was a play on the title "The Man from Uncle", a hugely successful TV series that ran for years and was also a box office smash hit film. "The Man from Aunt" had local actors starring in it .Two boys also appeared in this film one of which was a young boy called Damien Mc Hugh[I wonder were Damien is now]and the other was myself. I am the smaller of the two boys sitting on the canon on Derry's Walls.

I remember seeing the film first in Our Lady of Lourdes Hall in the Brandywell and I also remember myself and Damien Mc Hugh went to Saint Columb's Hall to see it. I walked from Springtown Camp to St Columb's Hall and Damien walked from the Waterside.We went up to the door of the hall and went to walk in but were stopped by the woman on the cash desk. She told us we had to pay to get in.We told her that we were "stars" in the film but this made no difference to her. Myself and Damien did not have any money so we sat on the steps outside the hall with a depressed look on our faces. Then suddenly out of the crowd appeared Terence McDonald. He asked us why we were sitting there .We explained to him our predicament, where upon he told us to follow him.He led us in to the hall and as we passed the woman on the cash desk she had a look on her face that would sour milk.He gave us the VIP treatment,great seats plus two wee bottles of lemonade and a wee bag of hard sweets each.

The Search

As the years rolled by I had often wondered what had become of the film and I often thought about trying to track the film down.I made enquiries on a number occasions about the film and it's possible were abouts only to be told that all Terence O"Donnell's work had been bought by a Dublin film company years previous at which time I gave up the search.

The Find

This all changed however about a month ago when I was rehearsing for the play ,"One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest",in the Playhouse in Derry.During rehearsals one night I struck up a conversation with a gentleman who was responsible for the lighting in the show .I had never met this man before and during conversation he asked me what School had I gone to.I told him that I went to the Christian Brothers.He then asked me was i ever taught by a man named Terence McDonald to which I replied "Yes." He then went on to tell me that Terence McDonald was his father and that he was Martin McDonald, I had stumbled across the missing link.I asked him about the film and described to him what I could remember about it to see if he had ever seen it and lo and behold he told me that he had a copy of the film in his house on cd and that he would make me a copy.I could not believe my luck and Martin' being true to his word gave me a copy of the "Man from Aunt" plus a copy of a short film called "The Fugitive" as well as permission to use the films on www.springtowncamp.com
Fairview Films
Once again I would like to thank Martin and Fairview Films for allowing us to use the films.As I have said already Terence McDonald made over twenty short films of which "The Man from Aunt" and "The Fugitive" are just two.Perhaps Martin and Fair View Films will allow us to use some more of his fathers work so as these little gems can be seen once again.
So get the popcorn, settle down and take a look back through time through the lens of Terence McDonald.

Click to view:

Starring Hugo McConnell and Damien McHugh
as the two boys

If anybody has any information
on who the other actors are starring in both films please let us know