You have probably seen them in all kinds of movies – but you wouldn’t even know they were there.

Together they form a cast of hundreds, who have appeared in everything from Spiderman 3 to The Damned United.

But, unlike other supporting actors making up the numbers in films and TV productions, they don’t queue up at the catering van between takes, or even receive a pay cheque.

They are the ‘inflatable crowd’ – life-size mannequins provided by a company in Bingley, near Bradford.

More than 1,000 of them appear in crowd scenes in multi award-winning film The King’s Speech, partly shot at Bradford’s Odsal stadium and Leeds United’s Elland Road ground.

The ‘inflatable crowd’ was created on 2002 Oscar-nominated movie Seabiscuit and has since appeared in films such as Iron Man 2, Frost/Nixon, Spiderman 3, Million Dollar Baby, Fever Pitch, Dodgeball and Wimbledon, as well as TV programmes, commercials and videos.

Former Bingley Grammar School student Danny Burraway is company director of the Inflatable Crowd Company UK, which helps film-makers shoot large crowd scenes on a budget.

“When I was production manager on the film Bronson we wanted a crowd scene and someone mentioned the Inflatable Crowd Company in Los Angeles, so we used them. I thought it would be great to set up a UK branch,” says Danny.

And he did just that, with the help of Joe Biggins, founder of the successful US business, who has worked on more than 80 movies. The Inflatable Crowd Company, both UK and US, has 30,000 dolls, for use in films made both sides of the Atlantic.

With supporting actors, known as ‘extras’, getting anything up to £150 a day for filming, a crowd scene involving 1,000 people can be costly for production companies working to tight budgets. Danny says the inflatable crowd can save up to 90 per cent of costs.

“When film scripts are put together in this country they tend to shy away from big crowd scenes. Extras have to be paid, transported, put up in hotels and fed. We’re an affordable alternative,” he says. “But we don’t want to put extras out of work – the only way the inflatable crowd works is if real people are interjected among the dolls. We create the mass and extras provide the life by moving or cheering.”

A combination of real people and 3D models appeared in The King’s Speech, focusing on George VI’s struggle to overcome a nervous stammer. Crowd scenes were pivotal in the film, starring Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter and Geoffrey Rush.

“In The King’s Speech, 3D models work better than a computer-generated crowd because the King is addressing real people, visible in the mass. There’s an intimacy in the crowd scenes,” says Danny.

The company’s package, tailored to suit specific productions, includes costumes, hats, wigs, beards and moustaches. The ‘dolls’, which are made of PVC, have various skin tones and come in adults and child sizes.

“They only take a few seconds to inflate – we have a chain of people blowing them up – then we dress them in relevant styles, matching the period and look of the real extras,” says Danny. “The emphasis is on colour; for The King’s Speech we used long overcoats in dark colours, grey and green, and trilby hats and headscarves. For The Damned United we provided 1,500 inflatables for a football crowd. The distance crowds were dressed in beige, but figures in closer shots wore wigs and football colours. We don’t need too much detail in the costume, because if you can see that much detail you’d see that they’re not real people. It’s more about colour.

“Once we’ve dressed them they’re checked over by the costume department, and camera positions are checked. We take along extra items, like scarves or hats, to add if needed. We buy some of the clothes from Oxfam, to keep costs down.”

He adds: “We have the facilities to create crowds for any type of scene, from a formal theatre to supporters at a large sporting event.”

Another advantage is that an inflatable cast can be easily transported. “We can put a 1,000-strong crowd on a truck,” says Danny.

The King’s Speech was filmed around the country and regional film agency Screen Yorkshire provided crew and locations support during the Yorkshire shoot, which featured hundreds of local extras in period costume.

The size of Danny’s team depends on the production. For The King’s Speech he used nine crew, most of whom were from the region. “They have experience in costume, make-up and the art department side,” says Danny. “The scope of productions we work on is vast, from big action blockbusters packed with explosions to low budget independent films, and on set you usually end up meeting someone you’ve worked with before.”

Danny worked on amateur dramatic productions before landing a job as a location manager for ITV. He has worked as a production, location and unit manager on TV dramas including Frost and The Royal, shot in Bradford, and new film Tyrannosaur, shot around Leeds.

Another recent project with the inflatable crowd has been Clint Eastwood’s new movie, Hereafter, starring Matt Damon. Inflatable dolls were used for a scene shot on the London Underground.

l For more about The Inflatable Crowd Company UK, visit inflatablecrowd.co.uk