Peggy a cleaner in the hospital
On screen
An ordinary day in the health service - but the results are extraordinary. Find out more about the programme.
Questions and comments
We'd like to know what you think of this website and A Picture Of Health. Please take a moment and submit your views on our questions and comments page.
We tried as much as possible to get a spread of people across the organisation both in different parts of the country and different types of job. I am painfully aware that there are many areas of the health service that we had to leave out. Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy, all the cancer services, District Nurses, screening work. The list of professions that weren’t included is far longer than the list of those that are featured. I’m particularly sorry that we didn’t have a mental health story in the film. We had one arranged but at the last minute it suddenly became inappropriate for us to go ahead with the filming. If anyone feels aggrieved that their profession has been excluded - all I can do is apologise and say that if there’s a next time I’ll try and correct the balance.
I am very lucky that BBC Bristol has long been the home of observational film-making and I had the pick of some of the best directors and researchers in the business. They have all had years of experience to accumulate the discreet talents required for this sort of documentary making.
Our sort of film-making is sometimes called fly on the wall, but I think it’s a daft name. Three people standing in the corner of a room with a camera and sound equipment are anything but tiny flies. The way we aim to approach our filming is through openness and trust. It is only then that people behave naturally in front of the cameras.
The best way to get that trust is to spend time with people. All our directors and researchers spent time following our contributors around, so everyone got to know each other before we took out the cameras. However, when the filming has started we also try our best to blend into the background as much as possible. We don’t have lights, we don’t shout action and we never call anyone ‘darling’.
The actual day - Wednesday 13th November 2002 - went very smoothly. I sat in my office all day half expecting the phone to ring with sobbing directors or irate press officers - but all was bliss and silence.
The team of directors came back with over sixty hours of videotape which I then had to condense into one hour of television. My editor and I locked ourselves in a small darkened room for eight weeks before finally emerging blinking into the daylight with the finished programme.
I hope you like the resulting film - but whatever your thoughts, please let me know through the feedback page.
I am very lucky that BBC Bristol has long been the home of observational film-making and I had the pick of some of the best directors and researchers in the business. They have all had years of experience to accumulate the discreet talents required for this sort of documentary making.
Our sort of film-making is sometimes called fly on the wall, but I think it’s a daft name. Three people standing in the corner of a room with a camera and sound equipment are anything but tiny flies. The way we aim to approach our filming is through openness and trust. It is only then that people behave naturally in front of the cameras.
The best way to get that trust is to spend time with people. All our directors and researchers spent time following our contributors around, so everyone got to know each other before we took out the cameras. However, when the filming has started we also try our best to blend into the background as much as possible. We don’t have lights, we don’t shout action and we never call anyone ‘darling’.
The actual day - Wednesday 13th November 2002 - went very smoothly. I sat in my office all day half expecting the phone to ring with sobbing directors or irate press officers - but all was bliss and silence.
The team of directors came back with over sixty hours of videotape which I then had to condense into one hour of television. My editor and I locked ourselves in a small darkened room for eight weeks before finally emerging blinking into the daylight with the finished programme.
I hope you like the resulting film - but whatever your thoughts, please let me know through the feedback page.
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