Day of the Jackal: Former West Yorkshire Police officer advises Hollywood stars

Former police officer David Clayton runs Policelot, a TV and film prop and supporting artist agency based in Wakefield. He's worked with the likes of Emmerdale, Happy Valley, Coronation Street and Eastenders.

As part of his role providing extras and supplying crime props and costumes to the TV and film industry, David advises production crews and the cast to ensure the script, set, and acting are as accurate as possible.

Eddie Redmayne and Lashana Lynch star in Day of the Jackal which follows the story of an army sniper.

The popular series aired on Sky in the UK, based on the novel by Frederick Forsyth.

David, 53, was flown to Croatia to train Day of the Jackal stars Eddie Redmayne and fellow actors in policing skills.

David said: “I did some advising work for Emmerdale many years ago.

“Like anything, once you start in this industry, people keep your number and ask for help and advice.

“This kind of expanded into a full business and here we are in the centre of Wakefield with racks and racks of costumes and props supplying everyone from small student productions to the biggest films.”

Day of the Jackal

David, who has grown Policelot to a large warehouse, was approached by the Day of the Jackal producers to help ensure realistic scenes.

He said: “We were approached in the early stages, which is the script stages, to give some technical advice on the security services, MI6 and the police. So that’s how we initially started to get involved.

“The next step was that we advised them of certain things that needed to be in there. And then we were able to supply the authentic police props and uniforms.

Much of the Day of the Jackal scenes were filmed in Budapest, Hungary. Only the exterior scenes were filmed in London.

David added: “We had to make sure we took everything from England. It had to be sent to Hungary to ensure we had it.”

Policelot started 28 years ago supplying supporting artists and now it has a huge warehouse of props and costumes.