BBC Reel History of Britain….23rd May 2011
The reason behind our trip…The researchers for the BBC program had come across some of my brothers ( Martin) old cine film footage of our families package holidays from back in the 1970’s on ‘Youtube’ and were very interested in knowing if we would both be interested in being involved and telling the viewers of the whole experience, not ones to miss out on an adventure Martin and I quickly answered with a “yes”. A couple of days before we went off on our adventure we also went into our families old photographs and took a trip down memory lane seeing images on slide film that had not seen the light of day for about 50 years , it was a totally awesome experience seeing our parents as 20 & 21 years old newly weds & so in love & HOT lol . We were asked to take anything with us that was relevant to the story so, armed with lots of old piccies & our release forms signed we had an early start so up at 4 o’clock in the morning with my bro as we had a 2 hours plus drive from Cheshire down to Bristol Airport for the filming. It was a pleasant drive down, well, at that time in the morning there wasn’t anything on the roads so it was bound to be really.
The inside of the portable cinema, when we were seated to watch the films it was filled with smoke to give it an authentic old cinema experience. Ours was the third movie played and it caused quite a giggle in there with my mum’s holiday antics 🙂
Quite a chilly day…
Martin and I had searched through lots of family piccies to find ones relating to package holidays we had taken as a family back in the 70’s
Martin and I had searched through lots of family piccies to find ones relating to package holidays we had taken as a family back in the 70’sWe got into Bristol airport just as the BBC crew were setting up their temporary office for the day right next to the café in arrivals, all very convenient for that early morning coffee.
Nick greeted us on arrival and looked after us all day he was such a lovely helpful guy! nothing was too much trouble for him 🙂 and he had a smile for everyone even though it was a very long day for him too. Here he is with Martin looking through the piccies so they could be scanned for possible use in the program.
He has obviously spotted something amusing amongst them lol
After introducing ourselves to the crew, we kicked back and had a coffee when Melvyn Bragg and Simon Calder arrived for the days shoot. Mr. Calder soon left with his folding bike and we didn’t see him again, maybe he was commenting on the pending ash cloud? Lord Bragg too kicked back and was reading his paper for a while before being led away by the airport manager for what I can imagine as being a pleasant lounge somewhere? Over the next hour or so, we were joined by a handful of other people who were also taking part in the filming. After sometime sitting around it was time for us to make our first foray in to the world of television….ekkk!
Nick greeted us on arrival and looked after us all day he was such a lovely helpful guy! nothing was too much trouble for him 🙂 and he had a smile for everyone even though it was a very long day for him too. Here he is with Martin looking through the piccies so they could be scanned for possible use in the program.He has obviously spotted something amusing amongst them lolAfter introducing ourselves to the crew, we kicked back and had a coffee when Melvyn Bragg and Simon Calder arrived for the days shoot. Mr. Calder soon left with his folding bike and we didn’t see him again, maybe he was commenting on the pending ash cloud? Lord Bragg too kicked back and was reading his paper for a while before being led away by the airport manager for what I can imagine as being a pleasant lounge somewhere? Over the next hour or so, we were joined by a handful of other people who were also taking part in the filming. After sometime sitting around it was time for us to make our first foray in to the world of television….ekkk!
Martin tweeting ha ha technology is great isn’t it!
Eventually we were led out of the airport and onto the red carpet which formed part of the entrance to the mobile cinema that was setup to showcase some 70s holiday footage. With the cameras rolling, Lord Bragg appeared and met each of us in turn. Unfortunately the Director wasn’t happy with the first take so we had to repeat the take once more. Once the initial meet and greet had been filmed, it was off into the mobile cinema to take our seats. Luckily we were positioned on the front row as one of the three films that were due to be shown was our 70s holiday footage that we had submitted to the BBC a few days previously. We then had to watch the three films a couple of times through while the crew filmed the inside of the cinema and then our reaction to the footage. Once filming had been completed inside the cinema, the crew then filmed us exiting back onto the red carpet. This had to be filmed a couple of times to ensure that the shot was accurate. A bit more waiting around on the red carpet while we were mic’d up so that we could be filmed chatting to each other about the films and our memories of our holidays. After all this was completed it was back into the terminal for lunch and a long wait for all the other folk to be interviewed and filmed in the mobile cinema. The Director wanted to interview us separately in the old terminal building of the airport so that they could either use the footage to add on to the program or use the audio to over dub on the final cut. It was late afternoon by this time and I think we were both flagging due to the early start I hope the lighting was good to hide our visible tiredness? That was it, all done for the day and free to head off home. A very long day with long spells of sitting around drinking coffee. Must be hard work being a TV star, Ill stick with my day job for now. Reel History of Britain is due to be show on BBC2 daytime sometime in September finger crossed we get some air time 🙂
