A SILENT melodrama about drug smuggling at West Bay features on a new website, alongside modern-day interviews with local people.

The Close Encounters media trail takes people on a journey of the resort as seen through the eyes of a group of amateur actors in the 1930s and through the microphone of journalist Margery Hookings.

The film is Dope Under Thorncombe, made by hairdresser Frank Trevett and his family and friends, which was set to a new musical score by Rachel Leach in 2009.

Trevor Bailey, director of the Windrose Rural Media Trust, which created the website, said: “It was shot on 9.5mm film, the amateur’s favourite film choice in the 1930s.

“It was an amazing project for local people to take on and has been crying out to be given its own special music and to be seen more widely.”

The film, accompanied by a live performance of the new score, was seen by an enthusiastic audience at Bridport Arts Centre and Burton Bradstock Village Hall last year.

It can now be seen on the Close Encounters website where there are also photographs and audio interviews with local people who have special links to West Bay.

These include Arthur Watson, from the Riverside Restaurant, who talks about the build-up to the D-Day landings when American troops were stationed at West Bay, Margaret Grundell, who has been serving ice creams on the seafront for many years and Jo Hawker, whose family have been involved in fishing for generations.

Other interviewees are Bridport electrician and keen fisherman Rob Stephenson, diver Paul Crosby and harbourmaster James Radcliffe, who has known West Bay since he was a child.

The film can be accessed online by going to closeencounters-mediatrail.org.uk The website also features old films about Iwerne Minster, in north Dorset, and Salisbury.