|
Page 1 of 21 Here it is! 60 days of filming with The Hungry Sailors compressed into 21 action filled chapters. We've been on fire and nearly ship-wrecked, we broke a bowsprit, we've visited 29 ports and through it all we sailed and munched our way ever Eastward. We think that the most interesting stories are those of the folks we met though - many who have left "normal" jobs to pursue their dreams - just like us. Those stories still need telling and we're hoping to have news about that soon, but until then, read on! We hope you enjoy reading this blog, and watching the series as much as we enjoyed filming and writing about it, and don't forget - you too can sample the Amelie Rose experience! Lots of love, Skipper Nick & the Marvelous Miss M xxx
Episode 0: A Prologue to Episode 20: Click Read more... to read the rest of the blogs >>>
Episode 0: A Prologue For
those that don't know me my name is Nick Beck, and I'm the owner and
skipper of Pilot Cutter Amelie Rose - a traditional wooden boat that
stars (!) in ITV's new food travelogue "The Hungry Sailors". Amelie
Rose is a replica Isles of Scilly Pilot Cutter that my partner and I
launched in 2009 having quit our city jobs after we lost a friend in the
London Bombings to spend our lives taking people sailing aboard a boat
of Nelson's era. In early 2011 we were approached to take
part in a new ITV series with Dick and James Strawbridge, and this is
the story of what happened next. Our story starts in February 2011 with one of two phone calls that I
receive from TV Production companies that day. The one we care
about comes from Liz at Denham Productions and concerns a sailing trip
that they want to film with Dick Strawbridge and his son James who
are going to sail around the coast from Plymouth, stopping off en route
to find interesting ingredients to bring back to the boat and cook up.
Over the course of the next few days emails fly back and
forth concerning such items as "How long will it take to get from Fowey
to Flamborough Head?" and "What about visiting Lyme Regis, Hastings
and Crowmer (sic)?" which cause a certain amount of consternation
here (tidally restricted harbour at Lyme, no harbours at all at the
others) but eventually after a fair bit of Almanac leg-work and thinly
veiled sarcasm we get to a mutual understanding of what might constitute
a route.
I first meet up with the production crew on March 14th when the
exec producers Grace and Jill come down to Poole with Liz to see whether
I break the camera lens when they point it at me. Apparently it
doesn't although this might be because I've just had my annual haircut -
I decide that it's best not to mention this fact. They are pleased
with what they see aboard Amelie Rose though - the Galley
particularly impresses - probably because we spent ages making sure that
we can cook for 8 in it!
More phone calls and emails follow in a flurry and we finally agree
a deal on the 22nd March. Like all deals I'm sure, no-one is 100%
happy but there you are. Next up they'd like me to meet the presenters
so it's down to Plymouth I go to have a chat with Dick and James. First
impressions are good - from both sides I guess as I'm not summarily
thrown off the show. Dick tells me that we're going to have "loadsa fun"
and James quizzes me about the bunks. They tell me that they both sail
dinghies quite a bit and even race occasionally, I tell them that Amelie
Rose is basically just a big dinghy - everyone leaves happy.
Over the next month we furiously swap emails as I try to teach a
TV company how to passage plan and they try to teach me how a
"call sheet" works - probably a wasted effort on both sides but out of
this our two first shoots take shape...
Our first introduction to the weird world of TV production is
the discovery that a series is often started somewhere in the middle.
The thinking, I guess, is that it takes the team a while to get the
hang of the "personality" of the show itself and also to work the
wrinkles out of production and it's better for this not to be happening
in the first few episodes of a series when you're trying to win an
audience.
Hence the first two shoots are actually episodes 8 and 9 but let's begin
the story at the notional beginning of the trip shall we?
Next up: Episode 1: Back to the beginning...
|
