System News
Report by Alan Brentnall (Edited by Wayne Sheldon)
On Tuesday 18th December 2012, a production team from the BBC went into Peak Cavern to undertake some filming for the Horizon Series. The documentary was about hydrolic fracturing or Fracking and the filming itself started with a session up at Mam Tor where the shale is very evident. After this, they arrived at the TSG, got changed into caving equipment and headed up to Peak Cavern, and made their way to Surprise View. They were lifelined down Surprise View, prior to heading downstream to The Tube, to film part of the documentary on the underground geology.
The BBC crew was made up of five people, Jeff Wilkinson (Producer / Director), Laurie Rose (Camera), Prof Ian Stewart (Presenter), Duncan Singh (Researcher) and & Nick Walker (Sound). The BBC crew were non cavers so they were helped by: Ann Soulsby, Simon Mee, Geoff Wood, Colum Walsh, and Alan Brentnall. This took quite a time, as they had quite a bit of equipment in heavy Pelicases to carry - in addition to two huge darren drums full of food. The filming was quite repetitive - scenes being filmed over and over until the right result was achieved. The cavers sat along the edge of the stream watching while the professionals patiently got on with their work. Although the cavers all got quite cold, it was very absorbing to see how these things are created, and they found the subject matter interesting as it’s quite a topical (and political) issue at the moment.
The final production should be aired on the BBC in April/May 2013.