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Timewatch

Explore surprising aspects of history with the BBC's flagship history programme.

Tuesday 27 February

Chris and I have come to Cornwall on a recce to meet people and check out potential locations for filming. The Maritime Museum has recommended we speak to one of their contacts. He is very helpful and clearly knows about the subject but we both leaving feeling he probably would not work as a contributor on camera. TV is always a difficult balancing act, our contributors need to be authoritative and knowledgeable but they need to be able to tell a story in an interesting and colourful enough way for TV. We have more luck with another contributor I found, who has just been involved in a youth project on wrecking for the Cornish County Council. He is very lively and has some great newspaper cuttings about plundering ships.

Wednesday 28 February

A book we found about a wreck in 1842 off the North Cornwall coast has led us to a place called Morwenstow, so we visit this location. It is mentioned in Bella’s book but not in any real detail. We learn that this was a poor remote community living close to a particularly ferocious coastline, and there are suggestions that even the local clergyman Reverend Hawker got involved in a spot of wrecking. The current Reverend shows us around the Church and graveyard, which is windswept and overlooks the sea. Walking out to the cliff point, there are great views of the rugged Cornish coastline. We decide this is a great place to base our Cornish chapter around because it offers us good visual elements including Church interiors which will be different to what we get in other places.

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.