Celebrity to Tackle Broad Stand
Sunday 3rd September 2006 (Postponed until 4th September)
One of the major broadcasting companies is filming a new series - it is all about the mountains and in our case the first recorded climb, that of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and his descent of Broad Stand in 1802. See here for the words of Coleridge during that frightening descent.
On Sunday 3rd September 2006 a small group of team members were organised to set up an abseil and meet up with the TV celebrity before he did his abseil. He was to recall some of Coleridges written thoughts whilst descending Broad Stand. The series (5 episodes each 60 minutes) will be shown in May 2007. Publicity of the celebrity's involvement is not permitted prior to the series being shown so some of the pictures have been doctored.
The picture below was taken a couple of weeks before the shoot by the Programme Director and Assistant Producer when they were up there to check it out. The guy standing at the entrance to 'fatman's agony' is the programmes technical expert and risk assessor. The photo shows the line of the planned abseil and the camera positions.
The Day of the Shoot - Monday 4th September
Before you start the climb you need to negotiate fat man's agony - it is literally that, nothing but a tight squeeze |
Colin about to start up Broad Stand. Today the rock is extremely wet and slippy so what is normally a dry scramble becomes a 'climb with caution' - Julian led the route and set up the belays for the film climbing expert who found the experience 'challenging'. This also dictated the route that the remainder of the film crew should take i.e. being hauled up from the ridge to the abseil boulder (see below). |
Direct route from the ridge - walker and white dog on Mickledore in the background to give some idea of scale |
In position and ready to pull up the Director |
This is basically grunt and pulling work. All the camera and sound equipment also had to be brought up this route. |
Film Director safely up but feeling pretty exhausted by the experience |
Celebrity arrives (face currently blanked out) in a team jacket to keep his own one clean for the interviews. Camera Man and sound man safely belayed on the left |
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A period during the afternoon's filming when the cloud lifted |
Celebrity in the background doing his bit to camera and taking the viewers through Coleridge's recorded experience. Note safety lines - Safety was the key message throughout the whole day's filming. Each non mountain experienced person had to have a safety buddy when they moved across the hazardous crag. |
Who would be the real star of the show? You will have to wait until May '07 to find out |
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Group photo at entrance to fat man's agony - Celebrity now well soiled from the epic abseil |
I just want to have a quiet sleep |
Clearing up at 5.30 pm after a long hard day. We received a call out from the police at 6.00 p.m. whilst still on the mountain but fortunately it was a Langdale Ambleside job. |
Page created 28th august 2006 - update after filming