I was looking forward to Tuesday’s Spring Watch more than most, as I had been told my rat piece, filmed with Michaela, would be aired. I do not get to see the piece before it goes out live so it is always exciting as I have no idea how they have edited all the pieces we filmed, to create the final piece. I knew that the team were going to do some studio rat filming, so they could focus in on all the different parts of the rats. This piece was going to be an informative piece about the biology of the rat and the adaptations they have that make them so successful. The team and I hoped to try to make people stop and look at rats in a different light, rather than recoiling, as many do! They are fantastically resourceful, intelligent and beautiful creatures and do not deserve the constant bad press that they get!
I certainly was not disappointed! With a combination of studio shots, archive rat footage, the footage they shot in my garden and my captures, the piece presented rats exactly as I had hoped and I was thrilled with how it had all come together!
It as also great to see the rats in the studio afterwards with Michaela and Martin and I really hope that I have made people stop and think a little more about these amazing mammals!
If you missed the piece, it is available for the next few weeks on iPlayer – Episode 6, at about 39 minutes in! The piece may also appear as a clip for more permanent inclusion on the clips section of their website… I hope so! Click the image below to go to iPlayer episode.
It was difficult to top that, but I then received a tweet from Jason Chapman…. an amazing illustrator who had been penning some fantastic cartoons about the Springwatch shows. I had retweeted some of these on my Twitter account. You need to have watched the shows as Jason cleverly picks up elements and snippets of information and then creates fantastic little cartoons all about what has been going on…. here are a few examples….
You can imagine my delight, when Jason contacted me with this amazing little cartoon following my piece…
I was thrilled and contacted him immediately to thank him. This will be framed on my office wall very soon!
If you watched Unsprung last night, you will have seen that Jason was invited onto the show, where he created some more masterpieces… I am sure that they will be appearing on his website very soon. Check out Jason’s website at http://www.jasonchapman.co.uk to see more of his work.
Thanks again to all the wonderful team at Springwatch and to Jason, who have made this a particularly memorable BBC Springwatch for me!
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