The British Isles, A Natural History
	OCTOBER 20th saw the broadcasting of the Island Britain episode of BBC1’s new series, The British Isles, a Natural History, presented by Alan Titchmarsh.  One of the ideas behind this series was that six of the eight episodes would have a 10 minute regional slot, showing features or sites of interest within the local area, with the aim of encouraging people to go out into the countryside and discover things for themselves.  The 10 minute eastern region portion for the Island Britain episode was filmed on Mersea Island. I was approached last January to ask if I would take part.  I have been based at the University of Essex for the last 14 years, conducting scientific research on the biology of the Colne Estuary.  I already knew Richard Daniel, the presenter of the eastern region slots, from appearing on a BBC Radio 4 environment programme with him.  Richard also works for BBC Look East, and you will often see him on the regional news.  They wanted me to talk about the formation of the estuary after the last ice age, and the biology of some of the animals that live in it.  Mersea Island was the chosen location, the island being cut off by the sea in a similar way to how Britain had been isolated from mainland Europe by rising sea levels between 6,000-10,000 years ago. Filming took two days in May, just to get 10 minutes of final footage!  The first day was with myself, the second with one of the Rangers from Cudmore Grove Country Park.  The most difficult part was that every shot had to be filmed at least 3 times, once in close up, once at distance from the front, and once from behind.  This is to allow, for example, a shot of us walking across a mudflat talking, to go from “close up” to “panoramic view”, and then to see us walking “out of shot” into the next piece of film.  It is not easy to say the same piece of information 8 or 10 times, and still sound “fresh” while this was going on.  Even more difficult on a mudflat, as every time you walk across it, you leave footprints, and the next shot has to be done of some fresh, undisturbed mud.  Add to this a rising tide diminishing the area of mud available, gusty bouts of wind and passing aeroplanes, mud being splashed onto the camera lens and the producer soon begins to get anxious!  The key word is continuity.  All shots need similar lighting, wind, amount of mud on the presenters etc.  We had to hose ourselves clean a number of times, as shots are not done necessarily in the final order they will appear.  It would be very obvious if in one shot you were muddy and in the next shot, suddenly clean.  All in all, it was a busy day, and much of the footage we shot was not used. Taking part made me realise how much work goes into producing these large television series.  Just when you thought a shot was perfect, the sound man says “didn’t quite get that bit” or the sun goes in.  By the time conditions are considered ideal again, you’ve forgotten what you were going to say!  We were all hungry, cold, wet and muddy by the end of filming.  As the producer said to me “New trainees think film work for the BBC is glamorous and exciting, a few weeks of this type of assignment soon sorts them out!” Graham Underwood (Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Essex)