Chariots of Fire’s Olympic secret revealed

THE extraordinary role of a French resistance fighter in bringing the award-winning film Chariots of Fire to the big screen has been revealed by the film’s producer, Lord Puttnam.

In a lecture in Edinburgh that paid tribute to Eric Liddell – the Scottish runner immortalised in the Oscar-winning movie – the peer told how Monique Berlioux had played a pivotal role in overcoming opposition within the Olympics’ governing body to any visual reference to the Games.

He revealed: “This impasse was only solved at the last minute through the intervention of a remarkable woman I never had the privilege of meeting.”

Lord Puttnam, who was also marking the 30th anniversary of the film, told a packed audience at Edinburgh University how the “courageous and independent-minded woman” had gone the extra mile to overcome the resistance of the powerful Olympics hierarchy.

She swam for France at the 1948 Olympic Games and in 1971 became the first woman to hold the post of director of the International Olympic Committee.