Mamma Mia! island's star turn
When Hollywood descended on a tiny Greek island for this summer's blockbuster, local life was turned upside down - by Jan Moir

Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan and Colin Firth? They were otherwise engaged. Bjorn and Benny? Nowhere in sight. On Thursday night, the only stars at the premiere of Mamma Mia! – The Movie in Skopelos were the ones that glittered in the inky sky. At the open air Orpheus cinema in Skopelos Town, the invitation-only crowd ate spinach pie, drank cocktails and fanned themselves in the sultry air, rich with the evening scent of jasmine. It was an occasion which may have lacked the red carpet extravaganza and celebrity cachet of the big Mamma Mia! premieres in London, Athens, Berlin and Stockholm, but it had a charm all of its own.

The mayor of Skopelos made a speech which was nearly drowned out by wailing feedback and the thrash of cicadas in the plum trees. Moonlight washed across the town's rooftops as the 200-strong audience took their places on rows of canvas garden chairs. A few plants in terracotta pots were placed before the big screen, while a washing line, complete with jaunty, plastic pegs, was visible just behind it.

The film had to be stopped halfway through to change reels, but enthusiasm did not dim.

Every time a local landmark appeared, the audience would whoop with recognition and pride. The first on-screen sight of the beautiful church of Agios Ioannis got a bigger cheer than the moment when Pierce Brosnan tears off his shirt – although it was a close-run thing. Uniquely at the Skopelos premiere it was the scenery, not the stars, that the audience were focused upon; scenery they had grown up with all their lives, and still loved. "The world will see Skopelos now," said the mayor afterwards. "We are the Mamma Mia! Island."

Hollywood came to Skopelos last summer, when the film's cast and crew poured into the island's hotels and breezy villas. Their mission? To produce a £35 million film version of the hit Mamma Mia! musical, which features 22 Abba songs and is a worldwide phenomenon. Since it opened in London in April 1999, 30 million people in dozens of cities across the globe have seen Mamma Mia! and it continues to take £4 million a week in theatre ticket sales. You can see the ker-ching! allure for any film producer, even if Mamma Mia!'s skimpy plot defies logic and is cheesy enough to make your eyes water. The story follows a teenage girl's quest to find her real father before she gets married. She writes to her three potential fathers (in the film they are played by Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgård) asking them to come to her Greek island home where the wedding is taking place. Meryl Streep plays Donna, the taverna-owning mother and the girl, Sophie, is played by Mean Girls star Amanda Seyfried.

The Skopelitans who attended the premiere noted with pleasure that, although a few scenes were shot on the Greek mainland and on neighbouring Skiathos, it is their beautiful island that dominates. Donna's taverna is situated at the headland of Nissi, near Glisteri, while much action takes place on the beaches at Kastani and Milia, with their emerald waves and pale cliffs. The wedding takes places at the spectacular 18th century Agios Ioannis church, situated high on a sea rock that juts out over the misty Aegean. When Streep first got there, she pressed her palms onto the rock and leant against the ancient stone. "Come on, feel the force," she urged colleagues, before going off to film a scene in which she bickers with Brosnan.

Until it became "Mamma Mia! Island", Skopelos's claim to fame was that it is Greece's greenest island. Situated in the Sporades islands in the western Aegean, it is less commercial and less developed than its near neighbour Skiathos, which – unlike Skopelos – has an airport, flights from all over Europe and long, sandy beaches.

So tourism has come late to this rugged island, which has resulted in low-key concessions to holidaymakers and general goodwill towards visitors; on Skopelos they have not yet learned to loathe tourists and it is too expensive here for marauding backpackers. In the film, Kastani beach has a groovy beach bar, complete with sexy barman dispensing elaborate cocktails which droop with fruit. I don't think so. The film crew built the bar for the shoot, then dismantled it afterwards. A cold beer sold to you by someone in a wooden shack wearing a pinny is much more Skopelos's style.

Yet the island's down home charms and friendly but largely unimpressed locals were a big hit with the stars. For the month or so they were on location here during August and September last year, they loved it. "I had the time of my life making this movie," said Brosnan..... "What a kick in the pants," he said, "to spend time with Meryl on a Greek island, singing Abba songs." Local rumour has it that he wants to buy a property. Someone else says he wants to buy a whole island.

Except for Streep, who went everywhere with two bodyguards, the movie stars moved freely around the island. Brosnan, in particular, was a big hit with locals. The beach shoes he accidentally left behind are now enshrined in a local travel agent's office, surrounded by fairy lights with a sign exclaiming: "Pierce Brosnan's Flip-Flops!" Brosnan, an old-school film star, ate in the tavernas, shopped in town, never refused a photograph or an autograph and shook every hand that came his way. He always attended the parties thrown by the film unit for the crew and locals. "He did not act like a star, none of them did," said Ildiko Matus, a Slovakian university graduate who works on Skopelos every summer. "When my friend saw Colin Firth in a taverna and screamed, he was cool."

Together with her sister, Aniko, the girls were part of a group of locals paid €70 (£55) per day as Mamma Mia! extras. They were supposed to be wedding guests, and even though they were painstakingly togged out in glamorous dresses, earrings, Chanel handbags and (much hated) crimson lipstick, the Matus sisters scenes did not make it into the final cut. To add insult to injury, Ildiko had her waist-length hair chopped into a bob by one of the film's stylists. It was so that she could act as a double for actress Christine Baranski, who plays one of Donna's friends. "I wish I had not done this," she laments now.

That's what happens when Hollywood comes to town. You have to take the good with the bad. The mayor and the Skopelos business people who rely on the tourist trade are hoping for the kind of boost that Captain Corelli's Mandolin brought to Cephalonia in 2002, when record numbers of visitors came to the island after the film's release the previous year.

... On Thursday in Skopelos, all seemed to enjoy Mamma Mia!, which is being shown at the Orpheus throughout summer. What changes will the film bring to Skopelos? It is too early to say, although midway through the screening, there was a genuine rumble of alarm when Brosnan began to sing.

This is a reaction that is bound to be repeated in cinemas everywhere. Still, you have to admire a man who can keep a straight face while singing Abba songs and delivering lines such as: "I see you've still got my bagpipes." It is more heroic than anything he ever did as James Bond. And Skopelos is an island fit for heroes, even ones in flip-flops.

Telegraph, Saturday, July 5, 2008