CHATHAM, KENT, England — A Playboy TV hardcore porn shoot at a historic U.K. fort is causing a war of words between the producers and trustees of the 18th century tourist destination.
The controversy started after officials at Fort Amherst in Chatham, Kent — Britain's most famous surviving Napoleonic fortress — learned of the filming of “Tight Rider” a spoof of ‘80’s TV series “Night Rider.”
The film aired on the pay-per-view Adult Channel and reportedly played to several thousand viewers.
Besides the fact that the fort was used for a sex film, trustees were furious that the movie started production shortly after it received about $80,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund to pay for its re-opening last May.
The film’s producers paid a $1,600 location fee and shot the movie in one day in the fort’s tunnels under a closed set policy with no public access.
What’s also causing a stir is that the Medway Council is trying to get the fort listed as a World Heritage Site.
The brouhaha caused the Trust’s chairman Martin Rogers to step down and Trustee Mathew Hill is demanding to know how the shoot was allowed. He's asking the new chairman, Edmund Gulvin, to conduct a full investigation.
"I think it absolutely appalling — there must be better ways of raising funds through filming rights," Hill told The Telegraph.
He also said, "I think if you want to film a porn film do it in a warehouse or wherever they do it."
An anonymous fort volunteer said, "It is disgusting that the fort has been used for the backdrop of a pornographic movie. How it ever happened it a mystery to me, but it certainly made me feel a bit seedy when I went back to work."
The film stars Michael Tight and Slovakian porn star Natali D'Angelo who has more than 100 porn films to her credit.
