Read more stories from the south of Scotland In 1973, Britt Ekland was an international sex symbol, and her naked dance in The Wicker Man may have contributed to its appeal.īut the scene gives us one of the film's most enduring controversies because it's not just Britt up there on the screen.Ī body double was used and several women claim to have been contracted - but whose bottom made the final cut? It's still being debated.ĭespite working on her Scottish accent with Lesley Mackie, Britt Ekland's speaking voice was dubbed by the Scottish actress and singer Annie Ross and the use of all these doubles may explain why she later claimed never to have seen the film. That's the one which Britt does her sexy dance to.'īritt Ekland claimed she had never seen the film championed by her co-star Christopher Lee 'Then we went to the pub, and they discovered I could sing and that's why I ended up recording two songs in the film - The Highland Widow's Lament and Willow's Song. 'I had three lines and I was definitely the oldest 'child' in that cast,' she said. Lesley Mackie was just out of drama college when she was cast in the film as Daisy Pringle. 'If you look at us, you'll realise we were never going to be dancers so he had us sway to the music instead.' 'They brought a choreographer in on the first day and he wanted us to do dance steps in the procession,' he recalled.

He and his brothers answered an advert and were surprised to be cast as masked villagers who took part in a procession behind Lord Summerisle as the film reaches its fiery climax.

Her father Ian Sunderland, who appears masked and dancing as an 'antler man' in the film, has fond memories of making the film. 'We always asked to see the film when we were younger, and then more and more people were coming to the area asking about the film and no-one seemed to want to talk to them about it. 'My dad and two uncles were all extras in the film so I've always had a fascination,' she said. Ian Sunderland was an extra in the original film as an 'antler man'Ĭreated by artist Amanda Sunderland, it stood 15ft (5m) tall - a quarter of the one featured in the film - and met its end on the same site at Burrowhead, near Isle of Whithorn.

The Wicker Man by Robin Hardy