Lucy Bullen

This was the reference image I was given when designing the doll's dresses. The brief was to draw on the strong Catholic imagery in the original novel and also give a sense of luxury and flamboyance to contrast with Rose's dowdy appearance

This was the doll I was given to work with

This was my original prototype for the dress

We made some changes to this, making the headdress less prominent and more Spanish in style, and adding much more lace embelishment to the skirt and sleeves. I restyled the hair to give the dolls more of a Mod look, in keeping with the film's setting. I also painted the skin to look like porcelain, instead of plastic and to more closely match Rose's skin tone.

Once everyone was happy with the design, I then had to make 11 more repeats to fill the shooting gallery! Due to the small size, number of layers and embelishments, and amount of hand sewing, this was an incridibly fiddly and time-consuming task.

I learned a very valuable lesson on this job. When the dolls were described to me, I was told they'd be on some shelves in the shooting gallery, Pinky wins one, he gives it to Rose, end of story. As I was under a lot of time pressure to get them done and I thought they'd only be seen from the front, I put very little thought or effort into how they would look at the back. What I didn't realise was that after she's given the doll, Rose spends the entire rest of the film carrying it around and pretty much all you see is the back! The first time I saw the film I actually felt sick with shame at how bad it looked! So kids, ALWAYS ask for full details of how a prop will be used and even then NEVER assume something won't be seen! (copyright Studio Canal/BBC Films)

Another fiddly task I had was to cut out the mounts (with lovely graphics by Sarah Pasquali) and insert the photos for the candid snaps stand. We had a lovely old guillotine to make the pattern on the edge - but lining everything up so it stayed square AND kept the pattern AND had the photo dead centre was quite the challenge! (copyright Studio Canal/BBC Films)

Probably my favourite job was handpainting this sign, I'd never done anything like this before, but I think it came out quite well, considering!

The rest of the time I spent - along with Claire Paige - tea dipping and distressing miles and miles and miles of bunting. Just when we thought the bunting was done, somehow more bunting appeared! It was October/November and we were in a workshop with no heating. Dunking your hands repeatedly into cold water then using metal implements on coarse, damp fabric in freezing conditions for hours on end is no fun at all! This was a very real introduction to the glamour of film making! (copyright Studio Canal/BBC Films)

And just when we'd finished the bunting, the deckchairs arrived! Row after row of deckchairs to be dyed, sanded and distressed! (copyright Studio Canal/BBC Films)

And, oh, look, what's this? MORE BUNTING! (copyright Studio Canal/BBC Films)