Green Wing Series 2 Airs in March

Apparently the new series is due to go on air on March 31st 2006.

Watch this space.....

Favourites Characters and Favourite Scenes

Here's a chance for you to vote on your favourite Green Wing characters, and your favourite scenes.

Please post your votes/comments here......

Statham & Joanna

Mark & Pippa rehearsing in Statham's set.

There are some absolutely superb Statham scenes in Series 2.

The Boyce/Statham relationship is hysterical with loads and loads of great comedy....stay tuned!

Statham

Poor old Mark Heap....not actors were harmed during the filming of this sequence.

Desk Details

Harriet's Desk
Rachel's Desk
Kim's Desk
Karen's Desk
Here's a sequence of photos showing close-up details of the office girls' desks.

Sand Castles

Here's a photo of the sand castle that I made with my own fair hands for a sequence with Guy and Caroline in a park.

It's all solid real sand!

No trickery involved.

Matchstick Jesus

The amazingly funny Mark Heap and my little matchstick Jesus....one of about 6 we had to make for re-takes.

One for the ladies

By popular demand...a picture I took of Julian and Stephen, sharing a quiet moment off camera.

This was taken during Series 2 filming btw, so it's fairly recent.

Ambulance stunt

Later that morning, after setting up the various ambulance rigs, Stephen, Karl and Julian were driven down to the cliff edge, and then blindfolded.

They were carefully led to the spot where we had rigged the ambulance.

This photo shows the moment that we revealed the ambulance rigs to them, with the ambulance on the cliff, and the second dummy ambulance on the gimbel rig.

There's so much to write about this day, that I'll have to post more later.....

The Cliff Hanger

26th November 2003.
I arrived at Seaford Head at about 5am that morning. I have never known weather like it. The wind was gusting to at least 50mph, and the rain was torrential.
Our dining bus swayed back and forth rendering the upper deck useless.
The facilities vehicles looked fragile. A vigorous low pressure system was descending across southern England, and we were feeling the full force of it.
As dawn broke, the atmosphere amongst the crew was very tense.
It was costing a fortune to be here with so many special effects and stunt people. It was clearly far too dangerous to film on a cliff top, and the prospects were looking grim.

Dawn broke.

Miraculously, as the sun came up, the wind died down and the rain stopped. An air of calm descended. The change from the pitch black morning storm to the peaceful dawn was nothing short of incredible.

This photo was taken at about 7:30am.

The Bearded Ladies

If you're here looking around, you'll have almost certainly come across the website of comedy writers Oriane Messina and Fay Rusling.
http://www.beardedladies.co.uk/index.htm

I even had the pleasure of doing an audio commentary with them for the forthcoming DVD.

They are extremely talented, very funny, and completely lovely. I only wish I'd been able to work more closely with them, but sadly my job pretty much starts once theirs finishes. I can't believe I worked on three series of Smack The Pony with them and didn't see them once!

Anyway, click on their link on the right and check them out.

One day, when they're collecting their Lifetime Achievement Award to British Comedy, I'll be able to say "I worked with them!"

The Office Scenes

Here's a couple of pictures showing the Admin Offices before and after.

Before was an empty dis-used office, and after, it became home to Joanna Clore (Pippa Haywood), Harriet (Olivia Coleman), Rachel (Katie Lyons), Kim (Sally Bretton) and Karen (Lucinda Raikes)

We filmed here in December of 2003, and it was pretty cold!

...more to come soon

Just sorting through all my old pictures, and will upload some more shortly.....

The Camel in Sue White's Office

We had to remove a wall to get the camel into Sue's office....it wouldn't fit through a door.

More camel pics

Here's a few more pictures of Michelle and the camel.

Michelle and the camel

These pictures show Michelle leading the camel through the set.

The Camel

Imagine having designed and built the set, and then being asked whether Sue White could ride a camel down the corridors?

Just another little predicament to solve.

Once we had found the camel, we had to brief the handlers as to exactly what was required, and then work out whether the animal would not only fit into the set, but would be happy to do it.
There were all sorts of logistical problems, such as how best to get the shortest route to give the camel the least amount of walking in the studio as possible.
What to do about the inevitable camel mess....
At this point, it's worth mentioning that the welfare and well-being of the camel was completely paramount.
It may look a bit mad and a bit of fun, but a huge amount of planning went into this sequence in order to make the camel's filming as pleasurable for the camel as possible.
This meant keeping the camel on set for a very short space of time, and allowing it's handlers to have complete control over what was possible for the camel to do, and when it needed to go back to its trailer. The handlers were extremely professional, and the camel was very well cared for during it's brief visit..

On the day, it was beautifully behaved, and more importantly for me, didn't mess on the set at all! (When I worked on Brass Eye, we had an elephant in the studio that decided to relieve itself, and when those things wee, they just go on and on. It was like emptying out a paddling pool....not fun)

This particular picture shows the camel arriving on set.

Sunrise over Basingstoke

This blog covers Series 1 only at the moment, but will include series 2, as and when it's aired.
This picture was taken at 05:13am on the 18th October 2003, looking across the fields at the bottom of the overflow car park where our unit base was.
The weather was almost always great in Basingstoke when we were filming. It was however, one of the hottest summers on record, and our Art Dept. office was a dark blue 7.5 ton truck that was often hotter than an oven!
Of course, we were extremely grateful to have our own location office, which served us well during filming.

Welcome to Green Wing Series 1

Welcome to my blog about all things Green Wing, but particularly about the Art & Design.
As the Production Designer on both series, I had a very privileged role, being responsible for all the sets props, animals, vehicles, special effects and location dressing.