The Lost World found - in Canterbury

SUZANNE McFADDEN finds a touch of the surreal on the set of a BBC production being shot in the South Island.

In a circus tent on the arid plains of Canterbury, apemen and Amazonian Indians share their sandwiches.

Five minutes before, they were trying to kill each other.

The apemen are sweltering inside their furry suits in the 30 degree heat, while the primitive Indians sit beneath golf umbrellas listening to walkmans.

Everything is surreal on the film set of the BBC production of The Lost World being shot at a sheep station and in forests around New Zealand.

A man sticks his arm in an allosaurus' head, while other random dinosaur body parts - tails and clawed feet - lie waiting to attack a clutch of terrified stars.

And it gets even more bizarre.

Away from the cameras, actor Peter Falk, famous as TV detective Colombo, sits on a stool in a paddock in Karamea sketching the cows - art is one of his passions.

The movie stars who have come downunder to film the $25 million television production have fallen in love with the New Zealand countryside.

"It's the most amazing landscape I have ever seen - and I've been around," says Bob Hoskins (the human star of Who Framed Roger Rabbit) who plays lead character Professor Challenger.

Adapted from Arthur Conan Doyle's epic tale, the drama revolves around a 1911 expedition into the Amazon jungle to find a world where dinosaurs still survive.

The desolate, rocky terrain of Flock Hill Station, near Arthurs Pass, was chosen as the ideal spot for the plateau where the lost tribe of Amazonian Indians is found.

The lush Nile Valley, southwest of Westport, doubles as the Brazilian rainforest.

Next week, a redwood forest near Rotorua will be the home of the frightening apemen - the missing link in Conan Doyle's story.

Doyle is best-known today as the creator of Sherlock Holmes.

New Zealand came into the frame after it was used as a backdrop in the hit documentary series Walking With Dinosaurs two years ago.

The suggestion came from Tim Haines, the director-producer of Walking With Dinosaurs, who is co-producing The Lost World.

Locals have turned out in droves to help the production. Most of the apemen are New Zealanders undercover.

"They had to be short, less than five foot four, and most of them are dancers and acrobats so they can move around in the suits," Anne Chamberlain, the BBC Worldwide Unit publicist, said.

The Indians - arch-enemies of the apemen - are also locals. The BBC put out a call for South Americans living in the South Island to help out as extras.

Most of the stars are British. James Fox (Passage to India) plays palaeontologist Leo Summerlee, while reporter Edward Malone is played by Matthew Rhys, who made headlines opposite a naked Kathleen Turner in The Graduate on the West End.

American Falk plays a missionary - a character written into the drama.

A huge marquee serves as the lunch tent where actors and extras still in costume sit down to eat together.

Light rain failed to stop shooting at Flock Hill yesterday, but it also relieved the threat of fire.

The scrub fire raging across Arthurs Pass had come within kilometres of the set - crew staying nearby had to be evacuated to Christchurch.

There has been a dash of controversy - Tuku, the capuchin monkey, escaped while filming in the Nile Valley, and was never seen again. His owner is seeking compensation from the BBC.

The production team return to London at Easter to finish filming the two-part drama, which will be shown on BBC One at the end of the year.