TV crew prepares to "Strike Back" in Bangkok

And we don’t mean it’s just coming to TV. The makers of the series – about a secret section of the British intelligence service – are coming to Bangkok to film a few episodes for its fifth season. The production will be here until the end of March, so if you see some foreign military men running around with assault rifles, don’t worry – it’s just a TV show.

Even more exciting is that “Strike Back” wants you. Well, maybe not you, but they are looking for background actors and extras to play teenagers, clubbers, Japanese expats, soldiers and bodyguards, ranging in ages from 16 to 50.

One high-profile addition to the cast is Thai actor Nawapol “Guy” Lumpoon. It hasn’t yet been revealed what role he will play, but he’s been preparing for the action by getting himself in good physical shape.

One great thing about Guy is there are no worries about the language barrier – he attended school in New Zealand at a young age. And he’s inherited “artist blood” from his parents – rock musician Amphol Lumpoon and singer-actress Marsha Wattanapanich.

 

Photo realism

Except for those tragic flare-ups when people get hurt – and killed – Thailand’s uprising has been reasonably tame, allowing it to become one of history’s more photogenic revolutions. It’s not just the news photographers hanging around with cameras.

An estimated 17 billion “selfies” have been taken at the various People’s Democratic Reform Committee rally sites and all of them uploaded to the social media. Foreign tourists drift in and out getting pictures to add to the elephants-and-beaches slideshow for the folks back home. And, more or less inevitably, at least two Thai couples used the rally at the Democracy Monument as a backdrop for their wedding photos. 

The current rally sites downtown, snuggled up against massive shopping malls, offer even more dramatic scenery. 

A Taiwanese couple, all dressed up, had their pre-wedding photos taken near the Pathumwan stage the other day. They’d planned to shoot the pictures in, uh, romantic Bangkok anyway (the groom-to-be is half-Thai) and weren’t deterred by embassy advisories that they might, for example, get mowed down by machinegun fire if there’s a crackdown. Tens of thousands of colourfully accessorised, flag-waving, whistle-blowing protesters seemed to them and their photographer a wonderful scene for the pre-nup snapshots. “It was fun – we even had the chance to go up onstage!” the groom told Nation TV reporter Noppatjak Attanon. They weren’t afraid, they said, because everyone’s really friendly. 

Government and diplomatic pleading to keep at least 100 kilometres away from downtown Bangkok doesn’t seem to be deterring anyone from having a look, in fact. All those stalls selling souvenirs and the exotic costumes and war paint of the anti-Thaksin tribe are irresistible. 

There must be some heavy magic going on with the PDRC public-relations machine for so many outsiders to be cheerfully risking life, limb and eardrums to get that close. We’re only surprised that they haven’t erected a cardboard cut-out of “Kamnan” Suthep that visitors could pose next to for a small fee.