Hollyoaks funeral taken by Volkswagen Funerals
Volkswagen Funerals transported a Hollyoaks character to her final resting point.
The TV soap featured ‘Ernie’, a VW Split screen hearse, taking Jade Albright (played by Kassius Nelson) to her funeral.
Clare Brookes, founder of Volkswagen Funerals explains: “We were contacted by Lime Pictures vehicle team who are responsible for sourcing all the action vehicles for the show. They contacted a funeral director in Manchester who advertised our vehicles on his website. He very kindly gave our details and they contacted us to talk about what they needed.
“We arranged the filming and we transported Ernie up to Rainsford Greenacres burial ground in Liverpool. We have been there before so we were lucky to know the great team at the beautiful location. We arrived early to prepare Ernie for filming before the crew arrived at about 7:30am.
“There is a lot of waiting during these kinds of jobs, we were due to start filming at 2 PM but it had rained so it took longer at the grave side which was filmed first. We were still filming Jades arrival at 5 PM and the rest of the funeral service was filmed into the evening.
“They had chosen a lattice bamboo coffin engraved with Jade Albright 26/1/00 – 21/10/16.
“The hearse was filled with mostly flagging fake flowers. Michelle and I sorted those out and to make it more obvious that Ernie is a hearse we also put floral tributes on his roof rails.
“The cast were really friendly and really interested in the hearse as were the crew, quite a few took photos of the VW. David Easter who plays Mac, Alfies Dad, was very impressed with the vehicle.
“I thought it would be fun to have a bit of a laugh with him (because all people who work in our profession are always deadly serious) I tried to sell him a funeral plan!
“When the penny dropped and he realised I was just joking with him he laughed and tried to clout me with the bag he was carrying. He was great fun and Richard Linnell (Alfie) was really friendly, such a lovely lad.
“Throughout the day I chatted to quite a few of the actors on the show about our work, some of them I had recognised from the TV but most were unfamiliar. Interestingly it seems quite a lot of them wear wigs so I didn’t know who they were anyway until they were in full costume!
“Jade was described to me as a geek, herself and Alfie her boyfriend liked the stars so I added a flag to represent that as chosen by the producer.
“The producers and director were very impressed with Ernie, in fact the executive producer told me that he would wish to go in Ernie himself when the time came, now there’s an accolade.”
The programme aired on Tues 25th October 6:30 Channel 4 and is currently on catch-up.
