Interview excerpt: Walter Murch recalls Michael Sundin’s Performance as Tik-Tok

Here’s a nice mid-week treat for you all – a five minute excerpt from our interview with Walter Murch.

Walter directed Return to Oz for Disney at Elstree Studios in the early 1980s.  Michael Sundin, who was the World Trampolining Champion at the time, was cast to perform as Tik-Tok – actually physically operating the robot character from inside.  In this clip, Walter recalls quite what Michael had to go through in order to be able to perform as Tik-Tok, including standing with his head pointing between his legs, his arms back to front and walking while watching himself on a TV monitor!

During the filming, the BBC’s flagship children’s show Blue Peter visited the set and filmed a profile about Michael.  This subsequently led to him becoming the 14th Blue Peter presenter.  Michael sadly died in 1989.

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