A new exhibition at the Kent Museum of the Moving Image, Deal, offers a rare look at the career and collaborative world of acclaimed production designer Terry Marsh (1931-2018).
The exhibition spans Marsh’s 40-year career, from his early work as an assistant art director building the immense Aqaba set for David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia, to his Oscar wins (with mentor John Box) for Dr. Zhivago and Oliver!, and his later films, including The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile. Other notable films featured include The Hunt for Red October and Basic Instinct.
Beyond the Art: The Film Family
This is not a display of design as “artworks,” but a focused look at how Marsh and his colleagues lived and worked—as apprentices, collaborators, mentors, and, most importantly, friends.
The exhibition highlights the “apostolic chain” of British art department tradition. Marsh learned from mentors John Box and Carmen Dillon, who were linked to the brilliant John Bryan (Great Expectations). Marsh, in turn, passed the baton to designers like Stuart Craig (Harry Potter) and Alan Tomkins (The Empire Strikes Back). A special focus is placed on Marsh’s close collaborators: his senior colleague and mentor John Box and his lifelong friend Tony Rimmington (“Rimmers”), a fellow assistant on Lawrence of Arabia who became a specialist in hardware and engineering (boats, planes, and explosions).
A Treasure Trove of Materials
Marsh, known for his modesty, often concealed his work. Shortly before his death in 2018, he gifted original materials to his daughter, museum curator Joss Marsh. Visitors to the Museum in Deal can see a mock-up of Marsh’s drawing board, stocked with tools, sketches, letters, and mementos.
The exhibition’s broader scope is made possible by:
- Digital loans from the Box family, including designs and material related to Box’s WWII service as a decorated tank commander—experience that served him well on large-scale productions.
- The donation of Tony Rimmington’s personal archive, a trove of technical drawings, expert correspondence (like building gliders for A Bridge Too Far), contracts, and even relics of his famous on-set practical jokes.
- A newly built “white-card” scale model of the Aqaba set from Lawrence of Arabia, recreated by model maker Martin Earle and designer Yuliia Antonova. This model vividly demonstrates the production design in action on one of cinema’s greatest films.
The exhibition makes Marsh’s lifetime of ingenious and often-hidden work visible after more than 60 years.