Extras playing British POW's in Colin Firth movie leave set after being pushed around by 'Japanese guards' for 13 hours (for £2.80 an hour) by Andrew Drummond (MAIL ON LINE)

By ANDREW DRUMMOND

The prisoners of war were at breaking point. All day long they had been kept at a Thai railway marshalling yard in the tropical heat, covered in grime, drenched in sweat, prodded and pushed by  Japanese guards shouting from the tops of cattle trucks that the prisoners were expected to board.

The wagons were there to transport them to the infamous Death Railway running from Thailand to Burma – but the prisoners couldn’t take any more.

The Mail on Sunday has been told that, ignoring shouts of ‘Wait’ and ‘Hold on’, they walked off... the film set.

It was the last day of shooting on The Railway Man, a film starring Oscar-winners Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman.

Based on the book of the same name by British war veteran Eric Lomax, it is an account of how he came to terms with his treatment by Japanese torturers in Thailand 70 years ago.

Colin was happy to pose for pictures on set with some of the extras, who refused to do overtime because of the poor pay

Both Firth and Kidman were happy to pose with fans and Australian tourist Gary Gibbs and his wife couldn't believe their luck when they bumped into the pair while on holiday in Thailand

The Railway Man is the story of Lomax, a Scottish officer in the Royal Signals who was tortured by the Japanese Kempeitai military police after being taken prisoner in Singapore in 1941 and sent to work on the Death Railway.

The trauma affected him for most of his life and he was treated by a foundation for victims of torture.

Eventually he found peace after tracking down the Kempeitai interpreter, Nagase Takashi, who was at all his interrogations and beatings.

Firth plays Lomax the returning veteran, with Jeremy Irvine taking the role of younger Lomax. Kidman is his wife Patti.

The so-called mutiny in Bangkok is unlikely to affect the way the industry treats extras in Thailand. Film companies come to Thailand for its cheap labour and pick up extras to play foreigners in films by word of mouth, or through leafleting bars.


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