I think the word ‘contrast’ is over used in this day and age when it doesn’t really apply. But over the last two days, I can safely say I’ve been to two of the most contrasting places in Britain.
Yesterday I headed into Central London to meet the presenter for our doc to get him up to speed on the situation (you know like ’24′ style for when they bring in a new agent and they need to know which terrorists have the nuke). We met Jeff Randall (our presenter) in the Gherkin, which is right in the heart of London’s financial district. Look left and there’s Lloyds, look right and there’s the Aviva building, look up and there’s Heron Tower (now the tallest building in Britain I’ll have you know). Inside the Gherkin, Sky have built a small TV studio which is run by about 5 people, including Jeff. It’s a fascinating set-up, one that I am wisely informed will become the norm for TV broadcasting in the future. So after explaining everything we’d set up, fixed, found out and researched over the past week and a half (trust me, it’s a lot), Jeff seemed pretty enthused and it sounded like finally, we had ourselves a documentary coming together. It was nice chatting to Jeff to, as he was an Essex man himself. He seemed to be impressed with the idea of me being an ‘Essex boy done good’, which was nice. I might give him a phonecall in a year to come and see if he’s got any work at his little studios going. Trust me, it’s a lot more fun than commuting to Osterley everyday.
Today was spent in my second home. Yes three times now in the past week and a half, I’ve had a lovely summer’s day in rain-soaked Wales. Today however was more of a tour than the usual direct route to Merthyr Tydfil. First stop was Cardiff, and at last, a piece of Wales you’d be happy to take a picture of and use it as a postcard. I say piece, it was essentially a strip of swanky dockside and that was about it. Convertible Ferrari’s, packed out coffee outlets, lots of men in suits. It was very chique indeed. Like if Paris was inhabited by a bunch of people that sound like Tom Jones. And it was beautifully sunny as well, which made a nice change from the usual rain.
That change was cut short after about 30 minutes. After deciding filming on Cardiff’s waterfront would be an awesome contrast to Merthyr, we headed up in the direction of Britain’s shittest town. And yes, it was raining, as though grey clouds position themselves there by default. Once in Merthyr, we had a few odd tasks to complete. First was to go and hunt down a Portuguese café, which we found in some dodgy high street near an air rifle shop (the last thing a depressed town like Merthyr needs is somewhere to buy weapons). Why Portuguese café you ask? Well, a meat packing factory opened on the outskirts of Merthyr fairly recently, but employs mostly Portuguese, who tend to hang out in this café. So why can the Portuguese get a job in the benefits capital of Britain when the local population are sat on their arses? Exactly the question we were going to ask.
After completing our little treasure hunt, we embarked on another. The opening shot of the doc requires a remote control car, gaffer tape and a camera (I’m sure you can guess where that’s going). Naturally Sky have plenty of cameras and gaffer tape, but no remote control cars. So, we hunted round Argos, Asda and Tesco for a decent remote control car that we could drive on the road (there are perks to this job). Unfortunately, we found only crappy battery powered cars that would entertain a 6 year-old for about 10 minutes and would have it’s performance seriously hampered by having a camcorder taped to the top of it.
We headed back over the Engine House (see the Day 14 post for more info on it) to meet our fixer who was going to hook us up with some people who lived on the fabled Gurnos estate. After he’s finished his shift at the Engine House, he directed us to the heart of the Gurnos and there we met two of the most interesting characters I’ve ever met in my life. They were 21 and 19, but you wouldn’t have questioned their ages if I’d have said they were 35. The guy, Davey, who was 21, had been in prison five times, for various offences including stealing a dozen cars and taking a guy hostage by stuffing a potato in a man’s mouth and try to cut his fingers off with glass. Yes I know, bonkers. The girl, 19, was a former Methadrone addict, who’d been clean for about a year. She funded her fixes by stealing racks of clothes and selling them for half price in the Gurnos estate, which naturally resulted in stretches in police station cells. Both these characters were on benefits, and both spoke so openly about life in Merthyr. It was just incredible to hear how callously they described how kids wouldn’t bat an eyelash at hot-wiring a car, or putting a brick through neighbours’ windows to steal televisions. It made me realise a) how sheltered a life I have lived and b) how doing journalism is such a great excuse to be nosey and find out stories from the scum of the Earth without being beaten to death.
I’m never going to voluntarily go back to Merthyr, but today was the last time I’ll be going there as part of my time with Sky. It’s a shame really, I think I’ll miss it, just simply because it was an adrenaline rush everytime you drove through the Gurnos estate. Hell, we had to lock the doors as we drove out when we passed the biggest group of kids I’ve ever seen. If we’d have driven slow enough, they would have stolen all the wheels.
So that’s my time in Merthyr done. The sort of place where Kamikaze pilots would turn around and fly home.
