TV blog Feed

Bonding with the villagers through laughter and rituals for Tribes, Predators & Me

2016-03-18T10:04:49+00:00

Spending time with the Waorani tribe in Ecuador for Tribes, Predators & Me has had a real impact on my life – their spirit is truly engaging.

I have filmed with many indigenous communities around the world. However, the experiences of being with the Waorani were some of my favourites. I was out in Ecuador for seven weeks in total, setting up the filming, directing the shoot and carrying out the translations afterwards and during this time we became close.

Some of the women in the Waorani tribe have lost loved ones to the anacondas that live nearby

They are great people. Kind, passionate and ultimately hilarious. But, it’s when the jokes stop that you know something serious is going on. One evening early on in the filming, the jaguar shaman (the group’s spiritual leader), Kemperi, said that I was filled with darkness. This needed to be sorted.

A cleansing ceremony followed which involved him spitting on my face and rubbing me with his sweat and some giant nettles. Half way through, he spat so hard that his false teeth fell on to my head. Despite my giggles, he didn’t laugh. This was real business.

The rest of the crew were also then cleansed by Kemperi too – whether they had any darkness in them or not. Unfortunately this meant that we all came up in giant welts as a histamine reaction to the nettles. Not ideal in a tropical climate…

Kemperi, 75, goes into trances to become possessed by a jaguar

The crew go through a lot of what presenter Gordon Buchanan experiences on screen, but sometimes he’s all on his own. When we were out filming the peccary hunt in Bameno, we couldn’t keep up with all our large cameras and sound gear.

So whilst we were left behind, lost in the forest, Gordon ran after the men who sped off and came back with a prized wild peccary kill. It takes incredible speed and agility to hunt in that kind of terrain, and on that rain-drenched afternoon we saw for ourselves that everything that the men bring back is hard won.

Gordon loses the tribe during a hunt and finds himself alone

I became a vegetarian when I was 13 and it’s only on special occasions when this slips. As they passed around the peccary skull to suck the juice out of, and handed us each a portion of peccary testicles to chew on, this became one of those special occasions!

The Waorani are incredibly accommodating, so I didn't want to cause any offence or confusion by refusing to share their food. However, it wasn't a particularly pleasant experience... They were charred all over, with a very peculiar texture; almost like warm jelly beans set into a rigid blancmange casing.

Gordon tries out 'choice' cuts of peccary to bond with the tribe

And there were plenty more special occasions that followed as we embraced the Waorani traditions, at one point I found myself dining on a spider monkey's arm. It was a particularly impactful moment.

Having spent time with several indigenous communities, I can say that I’ve eaten more monkeys than I have meatballs and now after being with the Waorani I’ve eaten more bollocks than I have burgers. I’m just not so sure I can call myself a vegetarian any more…

Rachael Kinley is the producer and series director Tribes, Predators & Me.

Tribes, Predators & Me starts on Sunday, 20 March at 9pm on BBC Two. Each episode will be available to watch in BBC iPlayer for 30 days after broadcast.

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

Botox, big bums and beauty: Producing Young, Welsh and Pretty Skint

2016-03-01T11:00:20+00:00

When I was asked to produce the new series of Young, Welsh and Pretty Skint, I had no real idea about the world I was about to step into.

Growing up, I’d never been a particularly girly girl. I prefer to go for the natural look and apart from the occasional manicure and fake tan (for special events), I’ve never really embraced the cosmetic or beauty industry.

But this series is all about young people living in Wales who spend every last penny on achieving a certain look. I have to admit, I was intrigued to find out why.

Armed with Iwan, the director, and Mali, the researcher we set out to meet those who see Botox and big bums as life’s necessities.

Fitness model Caitlin, 24, spends thousands on custom bikinis for competitions

Before we knew it we were thrust into a world where bikini-clad girls were wearing enough bling to rival any of Beyoncé’s outfits; where muscular men were queuing up for a spray tan with nothing more than a sock to cover their modesty and where the ‘ass class’ is the new going out!

Suddenly, as a thirty-something mother of two, I started to feel slightly old and just a bit scruffy. It didn’t help when I caught glimpses of myself in the many mirrors which seemed to be at every location we filmed in… Were those laughter lines around my eyes calling out for a shot of Botox? Or would life really be so much better with a permanent tan?

I was starting to worry that being immersed in this world may force our small production team to go native! There were several moments where Mali, our young and trendy researcher contemplated having her eyebrows weaved or attempt a fitness modelling competition. Even Iwan - whose beauty regime is very limited - went out to have his hair cut.

Hairdresser Jade lets clients rent hair extensions - made from real human hair

It’s not everyone’s cup of tea and admittedly, there’ll be a few raised eyebrows during the series. But each contributor has his or her own reasons for wanting to look good. Some are doing it to make themselves feel good and boost their confidence. Others use their look as armour to fight against the bullying they endured as a child.

Whatever their reasons, there’s no doubt that while these young people spend the little they have on fake tans, cosmetic procedures and hair extensions, they’re also really enjoying life. Soon enough they’ll have family responsibilities and mortgages to pay and will have to wave goodbye to their extravagant and indulgent beauty regimes, so are they really doing any harm?

Caitlin pays for multiple gym memberships - so she can train wherever she goes

As alien as this world was to me personally, I really enjoyed meeting with all the contributors. Yes, it was an eye-opener and a lot of fun, but before you ask, no, I didn’t reach for the Botox.

Catrin Rowlands produced the new series of Young, Welsh and Pretty Skint.

Young, Welsh and Pretty Skint starts on Thursday, 3 March at 6pm on BBC Three. It will also be broadcast on BBC One Wales from Monday, 7 March at 10.40pm. Each episode will be available to watch in BBC iPlayer for 30 days after broadcast.

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

How to avoid travel disasters – with Wanted Down Under

2016-01-04T15:46:22+00:00

I still remember the day I was summoned to my boss’ office in 2012 and asked if I'd series produce Wanted Down Under – the BBC One series which sends families off to Australia or New Zealand for a week before they decide whether or not to emigrate there for good.

'Brilliant!' I thought. 'Amazing!' In my head I already had my bags packed, and was living a life by the beach. Unfortunately though the reality was slightly different. My Antipodean adventure was to be lived out over the phone from an office in not so sunny Belfast.

In February, at the end of the 10th series, I’ll be hanging up my cork-adorned hat and handing Wanted over to a new team. And it’s fair to say my three and a half years on the show have been as much of a roller-coaster ride as the emotional journeys our families experience on the show.

Sending 20 families and four producers every year to the other side of the world for an intensive period of filming certainly comes with its own unique set of challenges – from dealing with kids falling off airport trolleys to losing expensive kit at the bottom of the Indian Ocean. Here’s how I personally managed to (mostly) avoid disaster during my time on the show.

1. Plan, plan, plan

With just two days between each of our families departing Australia and the next one arriving, ensuring everything sticks to schedule is key.

Even just getting our families down under can cause problems. One year we had a frantic phone call from parents to say our travel company had helpfully booked their two young children on a separate flight from their mum and dad. And this year, a producer turned up to film a family arriving in Adelaide only to discover their flight had been delayed by eight hours in Malaysia. With no room for slippage, that meant they were filming well into the night – not ideal after an exhausting long haul flight!

2. Always have a back-up

Once we’ve chosen our families and organised their trip, experience has taught us that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll end up appearing on the show.

Over my time on the show we’ve lost families due to illnesses, bosses refusing to grant time off, cold feet about appearing on TV, and even unfortunately couples separating (not once, but twice).

It means a mad scramble to cancel flights, find a family to jet off to Australia at almost impossibly short notice, and research, set up and complete all their filming in the UK before the producer leaves for down under. Back-up families are a requirement when casting now!

3. Having a good team is everything…

I’ve been very lucky on Wanted to work with some really talented producers. The show requires not only good technical skills (all our producers film the shows themselves, apart from in New Zealand where we use a cameraman) but also being on call for families day or night.

Like the producer one year – who on a rare day off – got a call from a distraught mum in floods of tears. Her family had become lost on their way to the airport and spent two hours driving round Auckland in circles. After jumping in her own car and eventually tracking them down, our producer led them out to the airport and merrily waved them on their way as they caught their flight in the nick of time.

4. …but remember they’re only human!

Possibly the biggest challenge we faced making this year’s series was when one of our producers in Australia was taken ill. We had no choice but to get him home quickly, but with only three days before the next family was due to arrive, we suddenly faced having no one to make the show.

Getting someone to Australia in time wasn’t an option. So thus began a weekend of more frantic phone calls, desperately trying to track down a producer in Australia who’d be in the right city at the right time and be able to get up to speed in the show over the course of a weekend.

Amazingly, thanks to the efforts of our production manager, we managed to pull it off. Copies of the show were sent via email, and I had telephone conversations to explain the format. The producer we hired did a cracking job, and come January when those episodes air on BBC One, hopefully they won’t look any different for viewers!

5. Don’t put your phone on 'do not disturb' at night

Unfortunately four teams shooting on the other side of the world simultaneously means a good night’s sleep isn’t guaranteed. Previous Wanted series producers swap tales of how many times they’ve been woken when something’s gone awry in Australia.

I got off pretty lightly – with only three mid-slumber calls. One was from an alarmed producer who on bringing a family to their accommodation for the week found it flea-ridden and filthy. Mum was in tears – understandably after their flight all they wanted to do was sleep in clean surroundings. Managing somehow to be coherent at 3.30am, we thankfully got them re-accommodated quickly.

My most recent early AM call? A producer whose phone developed a habit of calling me randomly from his pocket. We soon put a stop to that!

While I am looking forward to having my phone on silent while I sleep, and not checking my emails bleary-eyed before I’m even out of bed in the morning, I will miss being a part of the show. Out of the 70 families that have made the trip down under since I started on the series, almost 30 have either made the move or are in the throes of doing it. As we say in the office it really is a show that changes lives.

Simon Miller is series producer on Wanted Down Under.

Wanted Down Under, series 10, continues on Tuesday, 5 January at 11am on BBC One. Each episode will be available to watch in BBC iPlayer for 30 days after broadcast on TV.

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

Love You To Death: What domestic violence does to a family

2015-12-16T12:30:00+00:00

The statistics about domestic homicide are shocking. On average, seven women a month in Britain are killed by their male partner or ex-partner. My idea for Love You To Death: A Year of Domestic Violence, was to make a film that would name all the women killed by their partners in one calendar year, to dignify all them with a name and an identity so they would be more than just a Home Office statistic.

We approached all 86 families of the women killed in 2013 to explain that the project would name their relative with a view to raising awareness of the issue of domestic violence – a terrifyingly common occurrence that people often shy away from discussing.

A board of photos and clippings marks out the 86 deaths as part of the documentary

There are so many assumptions about domestic violence, but the striking thing was that the women were from all over the country and had died in such widely differing circumstances. They were from very different cultural backgrounds. Some were teenagers, others in their 80s. And the length of their relationships with the perpetrators varied from just a few weeks to over 40 years.

Some were relationships with a history of violence, but – perhaps surprisingly - in many instances, the murder was the first act of violence ever to occur. The thing that shocked me most was how extreme the violence was in many of the cases – a beheading, a man who cut his wife’s heart out, women brutally murdered in front of their children.

The film features the stories of several of the women in more detail, remembering who they were and trying to piece together what led to their deaths. Their stories are told in the film by their families, friends and neighbours, so it quickly became apparent that the film would also explore the traumatic impact of domestic violence on those left behind.

Assia Newton's murder caused a rift between her three daughters

The effect on all the families we talked to in the course of our research was overwhelming and enduring. Many were suffering post-traumatic stress and are still in need of counselling or medication. As well as shock at the sudden and violent loss of someone they loved, people often described feelings of guilt. Why did they not know more about what was happening behind closed doors? Could they have done more to intervene?

Others reported feelings of anger that their warnings and advice were ignored and that they are now left to live with the consequences - a never-ending legacy of grief, helplessness and anguish. One young woman in the film describes how her friend’s murder has damaged her trust and has made it much harder for her to form a relationship with a man. Another woman whose sister had been killed explained to me (off-camera) that she panics when she sees her husband picking up a hammer, even though she knows he’s just doing a spot of DIY.

The primary reason these seven families took part in the film was because they did not want their loved one to have died in vain. I hope we have done them justice and that the film will have the impact they are hoping for. Many of them said to me that if even one woman who is in a bad situation reaches out for help as a result of this programme, that would make their involvement in the filming worthwhile.

Vanessa Engle produced and directed Love You to Death: A Year of Domestic Violence.

Love You to Death: A Year of Domestic Violence is broadcast on Wednesday, 16 December at 9pm on BBC Two.

If you, or someone you know, is affected by the issues raised in this programme, please see the information and support page (available until 25 January, 2016) for details of organisations which can help.

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

Socks, chocolate and saddle sores: Filming The Hunt

2015-11-25T16:28:07+00:00

Being thrust together with a colleague for weeks in wild, faraway landscapes while your family are a whole continent away: it could go either way, right? So it was a good job that crew members Sophie and Mandi bonded for life through shooting The Hunt, camping together in the isolated mountains and coasts of Ethiopia and Patagonia.

It all comes down to boosting each other's mood in the low moments and sharing socks when it gets too cold. Meeting these two left us smiling at their stories of coping strategies – from a phone ban to a chocolate stash.

On filming what they’d always wanted to

Sophie: Mandi and I have wanted to film Ethiopian wolves since the beginning of the mention of The Hunt. And so we couldn’t quite believe our luck I think.

Mandi: They’re extraordinary animals, and quite rare - there are fewer than 500 of them in the wild. I love wolves anyway: I am really interested in animals that have such sociability. I love the pack structure and their bonds and the hierarchy. And also I really wanted to go to the Bale Mountains where they live: it’s epically beautiful.

Sophie: It’s like this mad, alien landscape isn’t it? You’re up high and it’s incredibly green but quite other-worldly. It’s quite like you are in outer space. And then the wolves are bright red.

We had quite an epic journey with all our kit, because you never travel light, and so we finally get there after I don't know how many days of being on the road and the guy said to us: "Welcome to Bale Mountains". And at that moment this wolf just bounced through. It was magical.

The Ethiopian wolves were 'tolerant' of the crew, hunting close by them

On long trips away

Mandi: I’d say typically, for the type of filming that we do, very infrequently would you be away for less than three weeks: three to five is typical. The longest one I had for The Hunt was nine and a half, but that was two shoots back to back.

My husband and I met working at the Natural History Unit, so for our entire relationship this has been the normality. But nine and a half, ten weeks is pushing it for any relationship (laughs) and I would say that would be the absolute limit. I only did that because it was Ethiopian wolves, and I wasn’t missing that for anything.

Sophie: But because of the nature of the job, you go away for a month and then you have to come back and live life and do all of that boring stuff. You have to pay your bills. And of course we’ve both got family. Mandi’s got a husband, I’ve got a son. And they’ve got used to it.

Mandi: My personal way of dealing with it is to switch off. It’s too difficult. I find it easier to actually not speak to my husband very often when I’m away because it makes it harder. I find emails easier.

Sophie: And my son is 15 now and he’s like: "Mum, just go away". I‘ve had to learn not to go on about what I’ve been doing. He’s like: "Yeah, whatever, I got an A in science".

Mandi (left) and Sophie also worked together on The Hunt in Patagonia

On creature comforts

Mandi: My mum sends me the same advent calendar every year which I really love, so I’ve taken it on trips. It’s super old fashioned, and last year we had a little ceremony every day.

Sophie: It was to break the day up, because you do go slightly bonkers on shoots. You are in these very remote, beautiful, exquisite places, just very few of you. We decided because each country we were filming in has such beautiful traditions, we would start showing them some of ours. So every morning or evening we would stand and sing random carols in front of the calendar. Really seriously too.

Mandi: And Sophie’s great with food. I generally get through my treats by day five. Then you’ll get to three days before the end of a shoot and Sophie will whip out some amazing chocolate that she happened to get in Paris, that she just hadn’t mentioned the whole way through!

Sophie: You’ve got to wait for that really low moment. We do the best job in the world, there’s no doubt about it, we’re lucky lucky lucky, but there are days which are tough, and there are days when you need high quality chocolate.

Mandi: What are the things that I always take?

Sophie: Not enough socks!

Mandi: (laughs) Yeah, never enough socks! I’ve still got a pair of your socks actually.

Sophie (left) was one of Mandi's wedding photographers after the pair became close

On facing their fears

Sophie: There were also some amazing moments of madness. Mandi is allergic to horses, but she had to go and do a recce and the only way to get to the nearest town, 22 kilometres away, was by horse. So we’re loading Mandi up onto a horse, watching her, just going: "Will she ever come back? Will she be alive? Will she… explode from this horse?"

Mandi: I mean it was the size of a Shetland pony in fairness, but if you’re scared of horses, you’re scared of horses, OK!

Sophie: And if you haven’t been on a horse in 20 years, and your horse happens to have a wooden saddle as well, she came back - I promise you - she couldn’t sit down.

Mandi: It was so painful.

Sophie: It was so funny – sorry, I mean… really awful!

Mandi: I’m never forgetting that!

Sophie: On our last day, because I had laughed so hard, Mandi organised for both of us to leave by horse, and so we both went down singing. It was one of the best journeys of my life: the two of us on horses who wouldn’t respond to any known signals. It was 22 kilometres of us singing Christmas carols as we headed home to our families. Although, it did make sitting on a plane hard!

Sophie Darlington is a camerawoman and Mandi Stark is an assistant producer on The Hunt.

The Hunt continues on Sunday, 29 November at 9pm on BBC One. Each episode will be available in BBC iPlayer for 30 days after broadcast on TV.

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

Patagonia: Had the pumas attacked, we would have been done for

2015-09-24T13:30:23+00:00

Patagonia is one of those places that has a mysterious draw. The sheer scale and drama of the landscape is breath-taking.

The lords of this uncompromising wilderness are the pumas, and for me it was the shoot of a lifetime. In most locations, a glimpse of a puma is all you can hope for, but in Torres del Paine National Park there is a real chance of capturing detailed wild behaviour.

The BBC had filmed there before, so I gained all the tips and advice on offer and got in touch with a respected puma tracker: Rodrigo Moraga. His view was that to film pumas hunting guanaco was ambitious, but possible. It needed time in the mountains and a lot of luck, since pumas hunt mostly at night. We would be on foot with Patagonia's top predators, which do very rarely attack humans. Tricky!

We believe the only successful filming of a wild puma hunt in Patagonia is by a park ranger – Heriberto Yaeger Hernandez on his handi-cam. Heriberto has the huge advantage that he lives and works in a small ranger station in the heart of puma country.

But for the Patagonia: Earth's Secret Paradise series we would have one trip, one chance, trying to film something that no other professional crew had done with bulky ultra-high definition cameras. Were we crazy?

Each day, I started early with Rodrigo. At the cusp of dawn we drove out looking for pumas, fresh kills, or circling condors. We walked miles through puma country, but it took me several days to get my eye in and even see the pumas Rodrigo pointed out. None were hunting or even stalking. There were few kills to give us any leads. Our task seemed daunting.

We tried instead to find a den with new cubs. Rodrigo walked the rocky fringe of a lake where pumas had had dens in previous years. I sat on a high-point hoping to see the female walking home. Somehow when I was with Rodrigo I felt safe, but sitting alone on a windswept hill hoping a puma would walk by – a kilometre from the nearest vehicle - I had hours and hours to imagine she was watching me as keenly as I was looking for her.

More than once I felt that sixth sense that something was behind me – but I never saw her.

Only later on did we film her favourite lookout, which was about 100m above where I had sat for two days. But this wary female did let us film her and her three gorgeous, six-week-old cubs playing at their den. To see the cubs, even if just through binoculars was a real thrill, and a good start.

After two days we left them in peace and returned to our mission to film a puma hunt, in particular two young puma sisters who Rodrigo had known as cubs. He told me these pumas, now teenagers, were more tolerant of people.

Several times Rodrigo was able to spot them and we would track them, on foot, keeping our distance, carrying our kit, filming when we could. It was totally exhilarating, being in such a wild place with two pumas, letting us walk alongside them.

At times they would wander towards us. I know the rule is DO NOT RUN, but your adrenaline is pumping.

More than once they approached within a few metres, and had they attacked we would have been done for. But happily their body language was relaxed and it was broad daylight. The worst that happened to me was that I was ridiculed by the team, as I subtly shifted behind the camera as the pumas got close.

One was tailless – a defect Rodrigo believes is since birth. She was more playful, cheekier, pushing boundaries. But her sister was definitely a predator, and locked me with her cold eyes. I wouldn’t have liked to meet her at dusk, on foot, alone - then the outcome would have been very different.

By working with the experts we were slowly able to film the two sisters taking steps towards independence, and those precious days walking with pumas will stay with me always.

So did we catch a hunt? You’ll have to watch to find out…

Tuppence Stone is the series producer of Patagonia: Earth's Secret Paradise.

Patagonia: Earth's Secret Paradise starts on Friday, 25 September at 9pm on BBC Two. Each episode will be available in BBC iPlayer for 30 days after broadcast on TV.

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

Shark: How swimming with whale sharks still brings me to tears

2015-05-11T09:59:08+00:00

This afternoon I’ve pulled everything off the office walls and emptied my desk after working on Shark for three years. Thinking back to the start of production, I felt very differently than I do now – I was scared of sharks.

Of course I wasn’t alone in that, and episode one of the series shows why, focusing on their awesome power and predation. But this week’s episode will show you a different side. It shows sharks as vulnerable babies, seductive mates and caring mothers.

I was the assistant producer on the series and dived with sharks all over the world. Over this time I discovered another side to their infamous fearsome image… and learned to love sharks.

As one of the crew in charge of dive safety, you would think a shark attack was always the top of my risk assessment. In reality, the most dangerous hazards were the cold, dehydration, getting the bends from diving deep, and of course the weather: we had two cyclones and a tsunami when I was on location in the Galapagos and Great Barrier Reef!

Sharks can, of course be dangerous, but by working with world-renowned scientists we learned how to read a shark’s body language and stay safe. For instance if a shark arches its back and lowers its fins it’s a sign of aggression and it’s best to give it some space, or get out!

Although it’s quite unnerving when a great white shark holds your gaze for several seconds, I knew I wasn’t on their menu. In fact you’re more likely to die from a wasp sting, a lightning strike, or my favourite – a vending machine falling on you!

Watch Rachel in the water: This is the clip that makes her cry

When working in wildlife film making you can be so focused on ensuring the camera operator gets the shot that you forget to enjoy the experience. But there was one moment that really took my breath away: I was fortunate enough to swim amongst a group of whale sharks and manta rays off the Yucatan in Mexico.

Each whale shark is the size of a double decker bus and mantas have five-metre long wing spans. When diving down with these huge harmless fish (they eat plankton) I kept having to stop, take a breath and pinch myself to believe I was actually there.

I didn’t realise how many sharks I was swimming amongst until I watched the footage back, shot from a helicopter above. I was overwhelmed to see I’d been in the water surrounded by 800 of them, and every time I watch the sequence back it still brings me to tears.

Sharks can be brutal, but they’re also mothers trying to find a safe place for their young, passionate lovers, cheeky adolescents and graceful giants. You only need to look beyond the bite!

Rachel Butler is an assistant producer on Shark.

Shark continues on Thursday, 14 May at 9pm on BBC One. Each episode will be available in BBC iPlayer for 30 days after broadcast on TV.

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

10 awe-inspiring quotes and pictures that will make you fall in love with Alaska

2015-02-11T14:00:00+00:00

Spending three months filming Alaska: Earth’s Frozen Kingdom through the summer left a lasting impression on episode two producer Alex Lanchester. He explains the impact the stunning North American state had on him in words and pictures.

Alex Lanchester is the producer of episode two of Alaska: Earth's Frozen Kingdom.

Alaska: Earth's Frozen Kingdom continues on Wednesday 11 February at 8pm on BBC Two and BBC Two HD.

More on Alaska: Earth's Frozen Kingdom:

BBC Two: Making Alaska: Earth's Frozen Kingdom
Radio Times: How to see nature in an untouched wilderness
The Guardian: Dougray Scott narrates like he doesn't give a damn, but I like that

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

The Driver: Acting again with my childhood friend

2014-09-29T08:37:34+00:00

In The Driver I play Vince McKee, a taxi driver working in Manchester. He is struggling in life, not necessarily financially, but emotionally.

His eldest son has left home prematurely, and Vince can’t cope with life without him.

Watch the trail: Vince McKee is an ordinary man who makes a terrible decision

His wife Ros (Claudie Blakley) isn’t prepared to talk about it, and Vince is only holding onto his sanity by his fingertips.

One night he picks up an old friend in his cab. Col (Ian Hart) has just got out of jail after six years.

He has fitted back in with his old gang and manages to put some work Vince’s way. Vince knows it’s 'no questions asked' - and from then on, there is no turning back.

Vince (David Morrissey) meets his old friend Col (Ian Hart) who has been released from prison

Ian Hart and I have been friends from childhood. I have tried to work with him many times, but he has always been busy working in America on films with Will Smith and Dustin Hoffman to name just a couple.

So I was biting my nails right up until filming started, hoping this time it would work out.

David Morrissey and Ian Hart acted together as teenagers in Willy Russell's 1983 drama One Summer

He is a fantastic actor. But also, because we are so close, we can fill in the gaps in the relationship between Vince and Col.

There is almost a shorthand between us.

One of the first scenes we had to shoot is a scene really near the end of episode three.

It was tough to get into, because we hadn’t done any of the scenes leading up to it.

But because Ian and I know each other so well, we were able to go for it and trust each other. It worked really well.

A tough scene from episode three for the two Liverpudlian actors playing Vince and Col

I was very nervous as it was made by my own production company, Highfield Pictures.

But we teamed up with Red Productions, who I have worked for a lot as an actor, and it was a joy.

I have directed, acted and produced in the past, so wearing many hats is something I enjoy. But it’s important to have a solid and talented team around you.

My partner at Highfield Pictures, Jolyon Symonds, does all the heavy lifting when it comes to producing.

Our director, Jamie Payne, is that rare thing, a great actor’s director and a great action director.

And I have wanted to work with our writer, Danny Brocklehurst, for many years.

I have to say, the whole shoot was memorable for me. I love the North West and Manchester. It’s a great city to work in.

The driving sequences were really fun to do.

Our stunt team was led by Crispin Layfield who is one of the best stunt men in the business and my stunt driver was Andy Smart who I have worked with many times.

For David's chase scenes his car was driven by a stunt driver

We were able to put the camera in the car with me as I 'drove' so it felt like you were in the passenger seat as I sped through the streets of Manchester.

It was a real challenge, but the results are spectacular.

David Morrissey plays Vince McKee and is an executive producer of The Driver.
The Driver continues on Tuesday, 30 September at 9pm on BBC One and BBC One HD. For further programme times, please see the episode guide.

More on The Driver
BBC Media Centre: The Driver
BBC One: The Driver: Creating the chase
BBC Writersroom: Writer Danny Brocklehurst on his morally complicated lead character

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

21 Up New Generation: It's like my extended family

2014-08-28T12:11:12+00:00

I am the series producer of 21 Up New Generation, the third instalment of the new series of the famous documentary series Seven Up!, which began in 1964, and has filmed with the same group of contributors every seven years since.

At the turn of the millennium, the BBC asked us to make 7Up 2000 to follow in Seven Up’s footsteps, with a new generation of children, all turning seven in the year 2000.

The director Julian Farino and I met thousands of children from different social, ethnic and economic backgrounds living all over the UK and chose a group of them to film with.

Melanie Archer with contributor Asif and director Julian Farino

The idea was to revisit them with the same production team, to take a snapshot of their lives every seven years.

Here we are already 14 years later. Things have changed so much since we started.

When we made 7Up 2000, I was 26 years old, and had no idea about children, let alone how to interview them.

When one boy, Talan, explained to me how we’re all connected in the great circle of life, I thought he was incredibly profound.

Fourteen years and three kids later, I realise he was just quoting from The Lion King.

Talan: 'Anyone who has seen any of the previous programmes knows I was a slightly quirky child.'

I was a researcher on the original series when the people involved reached the age of 42, so at least I had a bit of a clue what to expect.

I’d seen for myself the unique and intense relationship that had built up over many years between the producer, director, contributors and crew.

But one of the things that struck me was that maybe things change less dramatically in the middle period of our lives, and the contributors were sometimes worried about not having that much to report for their last seven years.

One contributor remarked to me that in the week before filming she had thought, "Maybe I should do a sky dive or something, just so that I'd have something more interesting to say."

Life just goes on. With our contributors, the differences between 7, 14 and 21 are huge obviously, but those will slow as they settle into jobs, marriage, and parenthood.

We first met Ryan, now a sports studies student, at his friend Gemma's birthday party in Bolton

The contributors to the original series were arguably the first famous 'ordinary' people.

Well before anyone had even dreamt up the concept of reality TV, they were recognised in the street, and had their lives commented on by the newspapers.

It came as a shock to them.

The New Generation contributors are in the main naturally much more comfortable with the idea of sharing their image and their lives.

Some blog themselves, and all regularly use social media.

But it is different choosing to be a part of our series, having to answer our questions, and being asked to analyse and contextualise their lives.

They are opening themselves up to comment and judgement by millions, and they do so because of their trust in and relationship with us as filmmakers.

Although it sounds cheesy, this is the thing I am most proud of in my career.

Courtney was fascinated by foreign lands in 2000, and now speaks several languages

We do keep in touch, but it’s not a reality show, and we don’t hang around for ages, or invade with cameras in between the seven year gaps.

Of course that means we miss loads of really interesting stuff, but the idea is that they’ll talk to us about what’s happened to them when we do come round again.

Basically it’s up to us to try to honestly and intimately capture the essence of their lives - even though we only get to film for a couple of days with each person, once every seven years.

Not a small deal.

It’s a strange experience being involved in such a long-term project.

When we were filming this time round, we went to a nightclub with Sanchez where he introduced me to one of his best mates as his "second mum".

Sanchez: 'My family are my rock. They're there for me and I can't wait to repay the favour'

I didn’t know whether to be flattered or appalled because of course I like to think I’m still the same age as when I started.

But he’s really close to his mum, and she’s pretty much the same age as me, so I’m genuinely touched that he feels that way.

I think it explains a lot about what it’s like to be the producer of this series because of course I am getting older at the same rate as the contributors and growing closer to them with every instalment, so each time it matters even more that we do it right.

It is like having an extended family, except I actually chose this one.

Melanie Archer is the series producer of 21 Up New Generation.
21 Up New Generation is on Monday, 1 September at 10.35pm on BBC One and BBC One HD, and 11.35pm on BBC One NI. For further programmes times please see the episode guide.

More on 21 Up New Generation
BBC One: Up New Generation: Director Julian Farino on making a portrait of Britain today
BBC One: Up New Generation: Gallery of the participants aged 14
BBC One: Up New Generation: Read profiles of the participants as 21 year olds
BBC Media Centre: 21 Up New Generation: Latest instalment of documentary series

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

Protecting Our Parents: Capturing a unique view

2014-05-01T09:29:58+00:00

We were lucky to have a year to film Protecting Our Parents.

It didn’t always feel it during the long winter months, late nights and early mornings my team from BBC Bristol’s documentary department spent in the busy elderly care wards of Heartlands Hospital Birmingham.

But we came to realise that time is a precious commodity across an elderly care system swelled by our nation’s rapidly ageing population.

Protecting Our Parents is a documentary series about all of us: our parents, grandparents and the many health and social care professionals that look after them as they get older, and will care for us in our old age too.

Before filming could even begin it had taken an additional 18 months to put in place permission to film.

The hospital elderly care team, community and hospital social workers and the scores of health and care professionals were needed to enable us to try to make sense of a system that, for the older people at its heart, is often bewildering.

Doctors, social workers and husband Leonard try to decide what's best for Kathleen

Being able to view the system from the perspective of the professionals, older people and their families gave us a privileged position from which to follow cases.

Hospital-based social workers and doctors rarely have the chance to see their clients or patients in the community, but we were able observe what many of the professionals can’t.

We filmed contributors leave hospital for home with social care packages that had been carefully designed over weeks, sometimes months on the ward - only to be readmitted within weeks, sometimes days.

On occasions, we’d know before the community social work team, the GP or the hospital consultants that our contributors were back in A&E or on a ward, because we’d have the information quicker from carers and families.

This isn’t because individual medics and social workers aren’t hardworking and caring.

It’s because what we saw is symptomatic of the fault lines of the elderly care system, between health and social care, hospital and community.

From our time on the hospital wards and in the community, we came to realise that the system is often measured, officially at least, against the ticking clock.

There are the hospital waiting time targets of A&E; there is pressure to free-up acute beds on wards for the next admission; there are the council-hired carers trying to meet their clients’ often complex care needs in 20 minute sessions.

Most of the many dedicated professionals we followed managed to find the extra minutes to spend with their patients or clients, regardless of the pressures of their workload.

Dr Peter Wallis at Birmingham Heartlands hospital during a consultation with a patient

But we were able to spend hours with our elderly contributors, not just to film, but to sit and talk, make a cup of tea, fetch a paper, watch the football on the TV together.

Building up trust and understanding over not just weeks, but months, was essential to filming with often frail, vulnerable people and their families as they went through what for many was the most difficult episode of their lives.

It also meant we had the time to learn about their lives and not just the current crisis they were going through.

They were all hard working people, who’ve led rich, full and colourful lives – like our own.

'I never expected to age so quickly, and I didn't feel that I aged so quickly'

Inevitably, the series has had a lasting impact on all of my team who filmed, edited and produced it.

For me, having put off thinking about old age for as long as possible, I’ve started to have the conversations with my own parents about their futures and have dared to contemplate what elderly care might look like for my generation.

Above all, that is what we want this series to achieve: a national discussion about how we treat older people and what we want from old age care.

With the system already struggling to cope and the number of pensioners set to grow by half in the next 20 years, it’s an urgent conversation to be had.

Alice Perman is the series producer on Protecting Our Parents.

Protecting Our Parents continues on Thursday 1 May at 9pm on BBC Two and BBC Two HD. For further programme times please see the episode guide.

If you, or someone you know, is affected by the issues raised in this programme, please see the information and support page for details of organisations which can help (available until Tuesday, 10 June).

More on Protecting Our Parents

The Open University: Find out more about the ageing debate and being a social worker
Protecting Our Parents: Information and Support

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

Bluestone 42: New challenges in our second series

2014-03-20T14:46:59+00:00

I’m the producer of Bluestone 42, a comedy set in Afghanistan, following a bomb disposal detachment.

I was incredibly excited to get working on series two, having had such a brilliant time on the first series.

I couldn’t wait to get back out to South Africa in the sunshine with our fantastic cast and crew.

Mary and Bird disagree over how Bluestone 42 should wind down on a Thursday night

Stellenbosch, South Africa is a really beautiful place to shoot in, even if it is swarming with deadly snakes.

A fact we did not know on series one, but are now all too aware of having had to employ a full-time snake wrangler! They were kept very busy with puff adders and cape cobras.

Launching series one was more sensitive than a usual comedy series due to the subject matter.

We were keen to do it in the right way, which included involving families who have lost loved ones, talking to bomb disposal charities and screening episodes to a military audience.

The response to series one was fantastic from the military community, with soldiers coming to us from all over the place to offer up stories, a lot of which would genuinely be unsuitable to show on television!

Bluestone 42 is a unique show. We get to have some really funny scenes with excellent comedy characters, right next to very serious moments and fantastic special effects.

Series two was easier in many ways – we know the show inside out, we know the set and the South African crew, and the cast know each other well.

Our biggest change was the addition of Matthew Lewis, who plays new guy Towerblock and is best known for Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter movies.

Nick (Oli Chris) and Towerblock (Matthew Lewis) face off over the Glock 17 pistol

It was excellent to have a fresh team member to add to the existing dynamic, and I know how much the team enjoyed introducing someone new to the delights of Cape Town and Stellenbosch with the occasional night out.

It turns out that Harry Potter is very popular in that part of the world, which made for some very interesting evenings out and mountain runs being followed by a regular troupe of fans.

Series two also brought with it new challenges. Not just to make the show even funnier and with more action, which I hope we have done, but with new and unusual weather, of all things.

It turns out that we had an unusually dry spring in series one. This time, sadly, we had an unusually wet one!

A lot of our show is set outside and although it actually does rain in Afghanistan, nobody really knows or believes that, so this presented us with a few issues.

On two occasions we lost half a day filming. Once when it was too windy to film an explosion that had taken three hours to set up , and another time when the storm was so ferocious and terrifying that we had to abandon ship.

I’d never seen weather of such biblical proportions! Unexpected to say the least. What happened to the sunshine?

Simon (Stephen Wight) loses visibility even under clear skies

The special effects and stunts are always great fun to film, if incredibly time consuming.

The car rolling precariously down the hill in episode one and exploding took four hours to set up and another 30 minutes or so to film, for what would be 23 seconds on screen.

This takes a lot of planning and patience, and we only ever get one shot at getting it right, so we rely heavily on our special effect guru Antony Stone and his team (which includes an ever present dog named Pyro!).

But it’s that tension, planning and a little sense of the unknown that makes it all so exciting!

Michelle Farr is the producer of Bluestone 42.

Bluestone 42 continues on Thursday, 20 March at 10pm on BBC Three and BBC Three HD. For further programme times please see the episode guide.

More on Bluestone 42
BBC Media Centre: BBC Three announces new comedy commissions
BBC Writersroom: Bluestone 42: Read the script for series two, episode one

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

Dissected: Getting under my skin

2014-02-17T10:06:19+00:00

I had my reservations when asked if I’d like to produce Dissected, a series about the dissection of a human hand and foot.

Not because I’m particularly squeamish - I have made a lot medical series, including a stint in the main allied forces military hospital in Camp Bastion, Afghanistan. I’m used to seeing the internal mechanics of the body.

I was more concerned about whether this was something that people would actually want to watch. It was an intriguing enough proposition to make me want to do it.

I’m very glad I did as it turned out to be a fascinating exploration into what makes us human.

The point at which the project really got under my skin, as it were, was when I met the hand surgeon in the series, Donald Sammut.

Donald Sammut reveals which finger you could most easily live without

It was at Chelsea Arts Club because not only is Donald an eminent surgeon, he is also a talented artist.

This effusive and intellectual man knew every fibre of the human hand – and made me look at mine differently than I ever had before.

This was all very well looking at my own hand but we needed to dissect one.

Dissection is not something the public are normally allowed to see, it’s traditionally reserved for medical training.

This is partly for health and safety reasons to prevent the risk of the spread of disease and partly to protect the anonymity of the donor and their relatives.

We had to get the permission of Her Majesty’s Inspector of Anatomy for Scotland.

They had never agreed to filming of a dissection before but they considered the request carefully and concluded that our project was a valuable opportunity to bring a greater knowledge of human anatomy to the public.

The next challenge was to find specimens and somewhere to dissect them. We discovered that we could order arms or legs for dissection from the USA.

Importing body parts wasn’t without its complications though so we were glad not to have to go down this route.

Anatomist Quentin Fogg at Glasgow University came to our rescue. He was enthusiastic about the project and became invaluable both on and off screen.

He was licensed to dissect in the university’s 100-year-old anatomy museum. This made a wonderfully rich and atmospheric location.

Crucially, the university’s involvement meant we could use limbs donated to them for educational purposes as long as we ensured the donors’ anonymity.

Leading experts in human anatomy join Dr George McGavin to look inside our hands and feet

The Body Donor Programme throughout the country is something I wholeheartedly support.

We had chosen to only have the specimen preserved by freezing rather than embalming as this gave a more natural look.

This did mean, however, that the specimen would only last for two days.

The heat from our television lights meant the clock was ticking even faster on the useable life of our specimen.

The dissections were complicated so the time limit presented a real challenge to Quentin and the dissection team.

When Quentin first brought the limbs into the studio for filming there was a stunned silence amongst the crew. We knew we had a responsibility to make this donation worthwhile.

During the dissection, the director of photography, Alastair McCormick, who relies on his hands for his livelihood was engrossed.

Musician friends of mine have been slightly embarrassed that they’d never really considered what gave them their skill and dexterity.

I don’t think I’ve made a programme before that is so universally relevant.

The foot programme was equally as fascinating to make. In both episodes, we wanted to relate the fascinating anatomy we were seeing to the real world.

We included short insert films looking at the latest research into hands and feet including comparative animal anatomy.

We also brought people into the studio whose hands and feet have extraordinary abilities.

My personal favourite was foot painter, Tom Yendell. He had been born without arms due to the drug Thalidomide.

George McGavin kicks off his shoes and tries his foot at sketching with Tom Yendell

Watching him flip open a tablet and operate it with his feet was incredible. He then went on to quickly produce a high standard painting with his feet.

I hope people are not put off watching the programmes by the prospect of gore – they truly are a rare opportunity to see a part of ourselves as we’ve never seen it before.

Paul Overton is the series producer of Dissected.

Dissected begins with The Incredible Human Hand on Tuesday, 18 February at 9pm on BBC Four. For further programme times please see the episode guide.

Dissected is part of BBC Four's Life Inside Out season: Watch clips examining bodies as never before

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

Hidden Kingdoms: Finding our real-life stars

2014-01-16T12:05:14+00:00

The stars of BBC One’s Hidden Kingdoms are miniature Jack Bauers, packing enough drama into 24 hours to put Kiefer Sutherland to shame, so from the start we knew that to portray their lives would require a new approach.

The world and its dangers look very different to the little creatures who star in this new series

This is a departure from the BBC Natural History Unit's usual output and is dramatised natural history.

We've filmed real behaviour but recreated certain key events, which are both scientifically and biologically accurate, that would be impossible to film in any other way.

The search for small animals leading dramatic lives began in iconic locations - the Wild West, African savannah, enchanted woodlands of North America, steamy jungles of Borneo and the urban jungles of Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro.

The animals had to be true characters which the audience would engage with - real-life stars.

The two animals in the episode I produced and directed were a kick-ass mouse in the Sonoran Desert that takes on America’s deadliest scorpions and howls at the moon like a tiny wolf.

Grasshopper mice have made their home in an unforgiving desert full of poisonous creatures

And the sengi (or elephant shrew) that lives for speed– building a series of race tracks in the African savannah in order to evade predators and find food fast. I could immediately see the dramatic potential in these two animals.

A mouse that 'roars', living an action-packed life in America’s Wild West – no brainer.

The sengi may be less of an action hero but it's story had some real strengths.

It's an animal that owes its life to something which also renders it incredibly vulnerable.

It builds an enormous series of trails through the savannah which it races along at high speed to find food and evade predators. They’re its greatest strength, but also its Achilles' heel.

The idea of this tiny animal owing its life to something it couldn’t possibly hope to defend seemed very attractive from a story point of view.

Twice as fast as a cheetah: A sengi's racetrack is its secret to success

The only animal I regret not being able to include was the Mongolian gerbil – a common pet in the UK!

I loved the idea of filming them in their native home - evading foxes, battling each other for territories and running for cover as the ground shook with the coming of Mongolian hunters on horseback - tame golden eagles on their arms.

Sadly the gerbils were a casualty of our storytelling approach.

We were initially worried there might not be enough variety in each programme and early treatments (documents where we outline our plans) featured three main animals per programme.

But as we gathered scientific information from the team's researchers and the producers started to develop the narrative structures, we realised that 15 minutes each wouldn’t do their incredible lives justice.

We didn’t want this to be a succession of five to six minute vignettes which is often the norm with our big flagship series.

We wanted the stories to develop and for viewers to become engaged, so chose to focus on just two animals per film. I hope it’s paid off.

Seen scurrying across the kitchen floor both the stars of my programme could be mistaken for pests.

By taking this unique perspective, not only have we been true to the scientific reality of their tiny lives, but we’ve also shown whether man or mouse, we all struggle to make a living, build a home and nurture our families whilst doing our best to avoid the hardship and dangers along the way.

I hope that the result is a programme that will give viewers a new found respect for the little things in life.

Simon Bell produced and directed episode one of Hidden Kingdoms.

Hidden Kingdoms stars on Thursday, 16 January at 8pm on BBC One and BBC One HD. For further programme times please see the episode guide.

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

Wild Burma: Nature's Lost Kingdom

2013-12-05T10:18:57+00:00

Filming in the jungle is always tricky. As the series producer, getting to the location in the first place, setting up power supplies when we are there, transporting enough food and water to feed a large team are just some of the logistical hurdles I have to think about.

For Wild Burma: Nature’s Lost Kingdom, I was part of the first team of wildlife filmmakers to be granted access to some of the least studied forests in the world in a country just emerging from a 50-year military dictatorship.

A jungle alive with sound: A light trap in the treetops to catalogue the insects in the canopy

This was a challenge on a different scale from anything I had done before.

The only reason we succeeded in Burma (also known as Myanmar) was that no matter what strange request I came up with, our fixer Tony Htin Hla and his assistant Tin Tun always came up with the answer. We relied on them entirely.

One of our biggest problems was how to transport two tonnes of camera kit around the country.

Our second location was in the heart of the Rakhine Yoma mountains in western Burma and, without roads or helicopters, our only option was to walk.

My original plan had been to use boats – 20 of them – so we could transport the kit as far upriver as possible. We would then use domestic elephants to help carry the kit the rest of the way.

However, when we arrived the river was much lower than anticipated and the elephants had not materialised because they were busy transporting logs elsewhere.

We reverted to plan B – ox carts. The heaviest kit was loaded up and taken to the last village along the river.

Change of plans: The ox carts move off

From here the track ran out completely and we would have to continue on foot.

We overnighted at the local monastery, the oldest in the region – made from entire tree trunks over 15 metres in length, it towered into the sky.

The head monk was not in residence, which, in retrospect, was a good thing – I suspect he would have been horrified at the sight of thirty dishevelled crew sleeping on the floor of his beautiful monastery.

The girls had the best deal as we slept outside on the balcony. I woke up the next morning to, what was for me, one of the most memorable scenes of the trip.

The village headman had hired over 100 people from the surrounding area to come and help us carry all of our equipment to basecamp.

Local Rakhine villagers also acted as guides to help the team reach the forests of Salu

Camera kit, food, solar panels, generators, fuel and cooking pots were all tied to bamboo poles until a long line of us, stretching over 100 metres, were ready to set off.

We waded through rivers, across rice paddies, clambered over rocks and trekked into the heart of the mountain range. The whole journey took two days.

Once in the jungle, the first things to do, in this order, are: dig the loos, build the kitchen, create a washing area upriver from both, find a clean stream for drinking water and clear the area of leaves to make sure you aren’t going to step on an unsuspecting snake.

Burma has the highest death rate from snakebites in the world but, with no mains power and two days walk from the road, keeping anti-venom refrigerated is a problem.

Our only option was to leave a store of anti-venom in the nearest hospital over two days walk from basecamp – too far.

Unbroken forest for 1000 miles

Usually on a remote location shoot, we would have medical helicopter evacuation planned, but Burma does not yet have any commercial helicopters that we could call on in case of emergency.

After a lot of head scratching, we decided to speak to the Burmese military. They immediately agreed that, should we need their assistance, they would send their helicopter to pick us up.

Having a hotline to the head of the Burmese Army is certainly one of the stranger evacuation scenarios I’ve come across.

Luckily, the expedition went without major incidents and I did not need to make the call.

Susanna Handslip is the series producer for Wild Burma: Nature's Lost Kingdom.

Wild Burma: Nature's Lost Kingdom continues on Friday, 6 December at 9pm on BBC Two and BBC Two HD. For further programme times please see the episode guide.

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.