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Janet Sumner's Blog
Never work with children and animals (and midges!)
During this summer I have been on a ‘grand tour’ of Britain’s North West, filming for the new BBC1 series ‘Nature of Britain’ which is due to be broadcast in the autumn of this year, and is a co-production with the Open Univeristy. The series will be hosted by Alan Titchmarsh.
The Open University has been in a formal partnership with the BBC, to produce quality broadcasting with learning content, for many years, and this series is another contribution to a long list of international award winning landmark programmes and series.
Nature of Britain – really does what it says on the tin... It is a comprehensive look at the wonderful habitats we have across the UK and the fabulous wildlife they contain. The series of eight programmes will each be an hour long – there’s a 50 minute programme, which is broadcast nationally, followed by a 10 minute ‘short’ programme dedicated to wildlife and conservation projects across all the British nations and regions.
I am the presenter for the ‘North West Region', and as always when you are filming with children and animals the experiences have been many and varied...
One experience stands out in particular. We were filming in Grisedale forest for the Nature of Britain (in the north west) ‘woodlands’ programme and felt that we simply must include a sequence with badgers. The evening was very warm, humid and still – and in the UK those conditions mean only one thing – we were about to become midge food, and be eaten alive, all the pursuit of TV! There are only two kinds of people you’ll find down in the woods on a night like that – 'mad people' and BBC camera crews – and long experience leads to believe that the two are one in the same. So let me introduce you to ‘Team Badger’…..
On the photo from left to right (on the back row) are: Mike, the Forestry Commission Warden and our guide and mentor for the day; Myself (sometimes known as ‘the talent’ – but more commonly referred to as ‘the turn’ i.e. turns up on the day), next to me; our against all the odds producer Sally; then Sean, our no-holds barred cameraman, and finally kneeling at the front; Rob our intrepid soundman.
OK, it’s kind of difficult to tell who is who given the headgear – we do rather look as if we are about to head off into the jungle – but we were supplied with mosquito nets to fend off the marauding midges. Only guess who couldn't wear her’s? Yep, Moi. It simply was not going to work doing a piece to camera in a green net. So I had to crouch in the undergrowth being nibbled to death whilst we waited for the wildlife to show up. Eventually the badgers came stumping out of their set and I turned to whisper my piece to camera, only to be slightly disconcerted to see Sally and Sean silently shaking with laughter – I couldn’t work out what I was doing to promote such hysterics – but manfully soldiered on to the end of the piece. Once the badgers had departed, helpless laughter followed, as Sean moved aside and I saw what they were laughing about.
Rob, our intrepid soundman, hunkered down, heavily swathed in his mosquito net and sporting his headphones at a very jaunty angle on top of it….. There are no lengths to which we will not go to bring you the best of British wildlife! We have travelled the length and breadth of the North West to bring you the best of our region’s nature and wildlife, and to bring you the stories of the great conservation and land management projects that people are undertaking to ‘make space for nature’.
So let’s hear it for ‘Team Badger’
In the picture from left to right are: Rob, our soundman, Myself, the presenter, Sally our producer; and Sean the cameraman.
If you are interested in finding out more about ‘Making Space for Nature’ visit our ‘Breathing Places’ website http://www.open2.net/springwatch/index.html
‘Nature of Britain’ will be broadcast on BBC1 in autumn of 2007.
About the author: Dr Janet Sumner more about Janet is a Geologist and Associate Lecturer in the Earth Science Department at the Open University. She is also the Broadcast Project Executive for all the science, technology and nature programming that the Open University does in collaboration with the BBC. Janet is also a science and nature presenter, and does research on active volcanoes. You can find out more about her at janet on the BBC
During this summer I have been on a ‘grand tour’ of Britain’s North West, filming for the new BBC1 series ‘Nature of Britain’ which is due to be broadcast in the autumn of this year, and is a co-production with the Open Univeristy. The series will be hosted by Alan Titchmarsh.
The Open University has been in a formal partnership with the BBC, to produce quality broadcasting with learning content, for many years, and this series is another contribution to a long list of international award winning landmark programmes and series.
Nature of Britain – really does what it says on the tin... It is a comprehensive look at the wonderful habitats we have across the UK and the fabulous wildlife they contain. The series of eight programmes will each be an hour long – there’s a 50 minute programme, which is broadcast nationally, followed by a 10 minute ‘short’ programme dedicated to wildlife and conservation projects across all the British nations and regions.
I am the presenter for the ‘North West Region', and as always when you are filming with children and animals the experiences have been many and varied...
One experience stands out in particular. We were filming in Grisedale forest for the Nature of Britain (in the north west) ‘woodlands’ programme and felt that we simply must include a sequence with badgers. The evening was very warm, humid and still – and in the UK those conditions mean only one thing – we were about to become midge food, and be eaten alive, all the pursuit of TV! There are only two kinds of people you’ll find down in the woods on a night like that – 'mad people' and BBC camera crews – and long experience leads to believe that the two are one in the same. So let me introduce you to ‘Team Badger’…..
On the photo from left to right (on the back row) are: Mike, the Forestry Commission Warden and our guide and mentor for the day; Myself (sometimes known as ‘the talent’ – but more commonly referred to as ‘the turn’ i.e. turns up on the day), next to me; our against all the odds producer Sally; then Sean, our no-holds barred cameraman, and finally kneeling at the front; Rob our intrepid soundman.
OK, it’s kind of difficult to tell who is who given the headgear – we do rather look as if we are about to head off into the jungle – but we were supplied with mosquito nets to fend off the marauding midges. Only guess who couldn't wear her’s? Yep, Moi. It simply was not going to work doing a piece to camera in a green net. So I had to crouch in the undergrowth being nibbled to death whilst we waited for the wildlife to show up. Eventually the badgers came stumping out of their set and I turned to whisper my piece to camera, only to be slightly disconcerted to see Sally and Sean silently shaking with laughter – I couldn’t work out what I was doing to promote such hysterics – but manfully soldiered on to the end of the piece. Once the badgers had departed, helpless laughter followed, as Sean moved aside and I saw what they were laughing about.
Rob, our intrepid soundman, hunkered down, heavily swathed in his mosquito net and sporting his headphones at a very jaunty angle on top of it….. There are no lengths to which we will not go to bring you the best of British wildlife! We have travelled the length and breadth of the North West to bring you the best of our region’s nature and wildlife, and to bring you the stories of the great conservation and land management projects that people are undertaking to ‘make space for nature’.
So let’s hear it for ‘Team Badger’
In the picture from left to right are: Rob, our soundman, Myself, the presenter, Sally our producer; and Sean the cameraman.
If you are interested in finding out more about ‘Making Space for Nature’ visit our ‘Breathing Places’ website http://www.open2.net/springwatch/index.html
‘Nature of Britain’ will be broadcast on BBC1 in autumn of 2007.
About the author: Dr Janet Sumner more about Janet is a Geologist and Associate Lecturer in the Earth Science Department at the Open University. She is also the Broadcast Project Executive for all the science, technology and nature programming that the Open University does in collaboration with the BBC. Janet is also a science and nature presenter, and does research on active volcanoes. You can find out more about her at janet on the BBC
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