Text: Can you play a newspaper reporter for a TV show (the one with the most deaths in one place). I had worked on this before, albeit a different series so I knew that the cast and crew would be very welcoming. Having agreed, the job was confirmed.
On the day I travelled off to Buckinghamshire (can't say where just yet!) to a most beautiful location. The call time was 11.15am so I drove through the countryside, birds singing, sun shining (for once) at a lovely slow place - don't worry there were no other drivers :)
I arrived early so went off for a coffee on the catering bus to wait for the others. It was very strange waiting by myself as usually there would be someone to greet me and to tell me how the day was going to pan out. At the very least there would normally be another member of cast to talk to.
I peered outside - one man was sauntering past the coffee place and tI thought I recognised him, I smiled and said hello. It wasn't until a lot later that I realised that it was the actor Ace Bhatti who played Doctor Yusef Khan in Eastenders.
I have to mention what a lovely person he was - not pretentious, and made everybody feel as if they were in a team. He had a very wicked sense of humour too!
Suddenly a mini bus pulled up and a man called out
"Are you press?" I nodded.
"Come on then, there's another one here too."
The other person was a handsome young man called Jack. Well, his real name was Jack but for some reason I couldn't stop calling him Mark! We got in to the mini bus a little surprised that there was no one else with us and traveled to location. There was a church / community centre opposite a cafe, or what I took to be a cafe. Even when I went inside the place I thought it was an old fashioned coffee place. We were put on to a table and given huge slices of coffee and walnut cake and Victoria cream sponge to eat. We didn't eat them because usually food on set has been there for a number of days. You can imagine my dismay, a few hours later when I saw my cake being eaten by someone on set!!
Two others were brought on to set and were asked to stand beside a door leading from the cafe into the 'museum'. One turned round and I realised it was the lovely Fabio who I had had the pleasure of working with on previous productions. Fabio was to play the part of a participant in a yoga class with three others - this was their second day.
"Action!"
"Cut!"
We were taken into the Community Centre where Jack and I met reporter number three, Stefan. He was just as I'd imagined a newspaper editor to be, a large man with a booming voice and I could just imagine him downing a few pints down the local pub collecting a few newsworthy stories. We decided between ourselves that these would be our character, Stefan as Editor, myself as Chief Reporter and Jack as Junior Reporter.
Blondine (probably the 3rd A.D) came in and said,
"I want someone who can pick things up quickly!"
Everyone murmered that they all could and I said we all could as that was part of our job.
"You'll do."
Next thing I know I'm a Scene of Crime Officer (wait a minute - wasn't I supposed to be the reporter?) known as a SOCO for short. Next I was given the outfit, a fetching one piece in jaycloth blue with plastic bags for shoe covers, gloves and a mask. As Ace was opposite me, you can imagine the ribbing I was getting....My job was to dust down one of the doors (no, silly or course I'm not going to tell you which door - that would give you a clue and clues can only be revealed in the series.) Several passerbys stood and gawped looking quite shocked until they turned their heads and noticed the crew waving at them from behind the camera. This scene didn't take long and we were soon heading back towards base for a brief lunch. The catering is well known for its excellence and this day was to be no exception with chicken curry, salad, puddings etc. However, time was tight so we were very soon heading back to location to be reporters heading back to our offices presumerably after their lunch! Thereafter not much happened sadly so we were quite relieved when the words
"It's a wrap!" sounded out loud and clear. We were also very happy as we knew that the reporters would all be back next week to work inside the offices and would be working with.....well, you''ll just have to wait for that one!
Two others were brought on to set and were asked to stand beside a door leading from the cafe into the 'museum'. One turned round and I realised it was the lovely Fabio who I had had the pleasure of working with on previous productions. Fabio was to play the part of a participant in a yoga class with three others - this was their second day.
"Action!"
"Cut!"
We were taken into the Community Centre where Jack and I met reporter number three, Stefan. He was just as I'd imagined a newspaper editor to be, a large man with a booming voice and I could just imagine him downing a few pints down the local pub collecting a few newsworthy stories. We decided between ourselves that these would be our character, Stefan as Editor, myself as Chief Reporter and Jack as Junior Reporter.
Blondine (probably the 3rd A.D) came in and said,
"I want someone who can pick things up quickly!"
Everyone murmered that they all could and I said we all could as that was part of our job.
"You'll do."
Next thing I know I'm a Scene of Crime Officer (wait a minute - wasn't I supposed to be the reporter?) known as a SOCO for short. Next I was given the outfit, a fetching one piece in jaycloth blue with plastic bags for shoe covers, gloves and a mask. As Ace was opposite me, you can imagine the ribbing I was getting....My job was to dust down one of the doors (no, silly or course I'm not going to tell you which door - that would give you a clue and clues can only be revealed in the series.) Several passerbys stood and gawped looking quite shocked until they turned their heads and noticed the crew waving at them from behind the camera. This scene didn't take long and we were soon heading back towards base for a brief lunch. The catering is well known for its excellence and this day was to be no exception with chicken curry, salad, puddings etc. However, time was tight so we were very soon heading back to location to be reporters heading back to our offices presumerably after their lunch! Thereafter not much happened sadly so we were quite relieved when the words
"It's a wrap!" sounded out loud and clear. We were also very happy as we knew that the reporters would all be back next week to work inside the offices and would be working with.....well, you''ll just have to wait for that one!
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