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Timewatch

The BBC's flagship history series, from Gladiators to Genghis Khan, Bog bodies to Bloody Omaha, find out more in Timewatch.

Monday 19 February

Having read the book over the weekend we decide we can’t just concentrate on a couple of geographical areas at the expense of others. We know our viewers will like this documentary precisely because it offers a journey around the whole of Britain – a bit like BBC’s Coast, which was very popular with the audience. Also what we got from re-reading Bella’s book is that you can’t understand wrecking without getting a good grasp of geography because each coastal community is very distinct and has its own local practices and style of wrecking. We decide to try and cover as many places as we can. But Chris does decide to drop one chapter of the book completely – London. It’s a shame as there are lots of juicy wrecking-type stories attached to the Thames, but it doesn’t quite fit the story as well as the other coastal areas.

Wednesday 21 February

The book contains so many wonderful little stories and anecdotes but how do we turn this into a narrative that will keep our viewers watching to the end? We meet with Bella, the author and talk about some of the issues in the book. We all agree the most interesting angle is why people wrecked; putting wrecking in the context of a particular time and place – for instance, getting in the mindset of someone living two hundred years ago on a remote island off Scotland with poor harvests and a large family to feed. This seems like a good way of knitting a story together if we learn something new from each place about why people wrecked. But we still have a problem, how do we keep the viewer watching to the end – what is our central quest or mystery that we can promise an answer to at the end?

Friday 23 February

While Chris has been trying to nail down the story structure, I have been making lots of calls to potential contributors. We start with the people Bella has met in her book and most of them are interested to hear about the programme and willing to help, which is good news. But Bella has taken quite a journalistic approach to her book and all the people she meets are locals, who can’t always put wrecking in its wider historical context. We want to add a layer of expert opinion, particularly to understand the rather complicated law of wrecking, so I need to do some people scouting of my own. I contact the Cornish Maritime museum in Falmouth and various University departments dedicated to maritime history to tell them about the programme and ask if they can help. Soon I am building up a good list of recommended contacts.

About the author

Timewatch is the world’s longest-running history series, having started in 1981, and is the BBC’s flagship history series. Here, members of the production team share the highs, and lows, during the production process as they make some of the next series of programmes.

Blogging about

Timewatch

The BBC's flagship history series, from Gladiators to Genghis Khan, Bog bodies to Bloody Omaha, find out more in Timewatch.

The Timewatch Team diary about the making of the Wreckers programme.

Friday 16 February

Day one of the project and Chris Wilson [producer] and I have a daunting task ahead of us. We are working with the author of a 115,000 word book that investigates the truth behind the myths of wreckers and wrecking – but for a piece of television with just 8,000 words of commentary and 50 minutes of air time. In the book, Bella Bathurst [author of The Wreckers] visits seven different regions in Britain to uncover stories about wrecking. One of the first things we need to decide is how many of the places can we feasibly visit in our programme. The other worry is the lack of a simple narrative, there is no real chronology or story we can follow. We go away to read the book over the weekend to have a think.

About the author

Timewatch is the world’s longest-running history series, having started in 1981, and is the BBC’s flagship history series. Here, members of the production team share the highs, and lows, during the production process as they make some of the next series of programmes.

Blogging about

Timewatch

The BBC's flagship history series, from Gladiators to Genghis Khan, Bog bodies to Bloody Omaha, find out more in Timewatch.

In early February 2007 I was invited by Timewatch to present a programme on the history of the Medieval Tournament. Here are my thoughts on how the whole thing went.

Wednesday 7 February

I'm in London to meet the director of the programme, Dom Sutherland. It turns out we both studied history at Edinburgh – a good start. The fact that I know very little about the Tournament is, says Dom, a good thing as it will allow me to go on a journey of discovery. His plan to frame the story around the life of William Marshal, the most famous tourneyer of his day, makes complete sense; otherwise the narrative becomes too diffuse. The possible film locations include New York, Paris and Scotland – I can't wait. Dom then asks the inevitable question: can I ride? I say yes, but not well. I haven't ridden for at least ten years, and was never that good. I'm terrified at the prospect of being filmed on a horse, learning to joust, but put on a good face. I'm up for anything, I say, quaking in my boots.

About the author

Timewatch is the world's longest-running history series, having started in 1981, and is the BBC's flagship history series. Here, members of the production team share the highs, and lows, during the production process as they make some of the next series of programmes.