TV producers find Ghajn Tuffieha beach littered with rubbish

The producers of the TV series Helen of Troy, which was entirely shot in Malta two years ago, have expressed their dismay at the state of neglect of Ghajn Tuffieha, where the film's major battle sequences had been shot.

Angela Mancuso, former president of Universal Studios' TV production arm, and line producer and production manager Michele Greco returned to Malta on holiday but said they were disappointed by the rubbish at what is also known as Riviera beach, especially when considering the strict regulations they had had to adhere to during filming.

"When we filmed here, we were not allowed to bring a four-wheel-drive jeep down to the beach and we were inundated with so much bureaucracy just to set up our cameras.

"It is such a contradiction that we now return to find all this rubbish and junk strewn about," said Mr Greco, who currently lives in Los Angeles and cannot understand why it is so difficult to keep Malta's small beaches clean.

"In LA, we have miles and miles of sandy beaches and they are cleaned every day."

Ms Mancuso said she could "not understand Malta's attitude towards cleanliness when its biggest industry is supposed to be tourism".

Litter is scattered along the west side of the beach, as well as on the beach between Riviera and Gnejna, they pointed out.

However, despite Riviera's disappointing state, the producers were "extremely happy to be back in Malta. I love the Maltese and we made so many good friends here," Ms Mancuso said.

Indeed, Malta holds many happy memories for the couple - it was during the filming of Helen of Troy that they met up and got engaged.

"Malta sparked off more than one romance on our movie," Ms Mancuso recalls. "We actually revisited the island to attend the marriage of our stunt coordinator to a beautiful Maltese girl he met during the shooting".

As if two serious romances were not enough, the shooting of Helen of Troy was also the setting for another relationship between the film's lead star Matthew Marsden and a Maltese girl, which is still going strong.