Trivia / Biggles: Adventures in Time

• Box Office Bomb: Budget, £7 million. Box office, $112,132.
• California Doubling: Various locations in the home counties of England stand in for war-torn Northern France during the scenes set in the past, as well as locations in London standing in for New York.
• Creator Backlash: Neil Dickson's initial feelings towards the film after attending an early test screening against director John Hough's wishes. He changed his mind a few years later and now enjoys it for what it is as opposed to what it isn't.
• Dawson Casting: The First World War sections are set in 1917. Per the books, Biggles turned 18 that year (having "lost" his birth certificate to join the Army at age 16, and flown for the first time a month after his 17th birthday); Neil Dickson was in his mid 30s at the time of filming. It's worth noting that while Biggles was unusually young, there were plenty of real-life teenagers fighting in the war, and the overwhelming majority of Royal Flying Corps pilots were in their 20s (with some even younger). If Biggles was in his 30s it would be something highly unusual in-universe, and worth commenting on.
• Follow the Leader: The original script called for an adventure film in the mould of Raiders of the Lost Ark and would have been much more faithful to the original novels. During scriptwriting, however, Back to the Future was released and became a major hit, so the script was duly altered to follow this trend, in an attempt to capitalise on Back to the Future's popularity.
• Hey, It's That Place!: The weapon testing ground scene was filmed in the now disused Beckton Gas Works in London, which was also used for the Vietnam scenes in Full Metal Jacket a year later.
• Promoted Fanboy: Neil Dickson had been a fan of the original books since childhood and was very keen to appear in the film, however when he signed on, there was no final script written.
• What Could Have Been: Jeremy Irons and Dudley Moore were touted to play Biggles.

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