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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.

Wednesday 12 April

Another part of Bella’s book that we knew immediately had to be covered in our documentary was Stroma, the uninhabited island in the Pentland Firth just south of Orkney. When we were here on our recce, Chris and I had been bowled over by the island’s mysterious atmosphere with its dilapidated crofters’ cottages gazing out to sea. This island is right in the middle of one of Britain’s most dangerous stretches of water – a small channel between the Orkney islands and mainland where the Atlantic ocean meets the North sea, causing whirlpools and ferocious currents. In its time, the island of Stroma was notorious for its lawlessness – and wrecking. We have permission to film from the top of the lighthouse which gives us a good vantage point over the whole island and surrounding sea and then we film Bella by a campfire reading the passage from Robert Louis Stevenson that first inspired her to write her book.

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.