We were on BBC Points West but has it always been glamorous?

”Hi Mum, we’re on Points West!”

So hopefully you would have seen via our social channels that we were on BBC Points West this week talking about our upcoming documentary, Muscle and Medals. It was absolutely fantastic and I knew I had to write a blog, but I didn’t want to write a blog just boasting and I’m certainly not arrogant enough to write a ‘3 hot tips to get your documentary picked up by the media’ or something similarly dreadful. So whilst it was definitely nice to finally receive a bit of recognition for the documentary I wanted to counter the ‘glamour’ of seeing us on TV, and share 3 rather low points during the 3 years of filming it took to create the documentary. I mean truthfully, a good story is one that shows you both sides of the coin right?

Let’s start with the lows…

1. 1. Will and I had to lie down in the boot whilst driving around in Madrid. It was a long 30 minute journey and it is up there with one of the most horrendous things we’ve had to endure during production. I don’t want to go too much into why but basically we’d been stitched up. Our wallets were in the hotel, we had no money, no support and only one way out. I will admit, the parcel shelf was removed, but nonetheless it was a rather uncomfortable and extremely hot  journey that we vowed would never repeat itself.

   2. We had to help Romane cook about 15 meals in the middle of the night after travelling and filming all day, as he was too exhausted to do it himself. I’m not sure if that sounds that bad but believe me, after a long day of work, the last thing you want to do is cook kilos and kilos of sweet potato when you should be sound asleep. It felt like it was never going to end and with a 6am alarm cook looming, it put us off sweet potato and asparagus for a long time.

   3. But the worst period during filming for us was after Romane got such a terrible result in the British finals in 2014. In some ways, that was even worse than him being in hospital and I know that sounds horrible but the truth is, we knew he’d make it out of hospital alive. After he did so poorly in the British that year, no one was sure that his competing career would stay alive, including Romane himself. At that point we were looking at 2 years of completely wasted time and money and in all honesty it was extremely demoralising. After a few talks with Romane we regained our vision and faith but it’s fair to say that was a dark few months. You can see in the post below that on social media Romane was still very positive, but the reality was a harsh contrast which he openly admits now. In hindsight, these lows help make the film a well rounded, interesting and engaging story so whilst they were tough, they were absolutely necessary!

The BBC Points West Experience

I know it’s only regional news but to be picked up by BBC Points West felt like a huge honour if I’m honest! We were contacted by the BBC as they loved the trailer and Romane’s story and were keen to get us on the show. This was a great experience for us and of course great publicity for the documentary itself. I dressed (as hopefully everyone would expect), in my favourite blue suit and we tried to provide a sense of context for the viewers at home, as to what they could expect from the documentary. If I could do it all again, I’d move the mic from my inside pocket so my jacket didn’t buckle the way it did on TV, but this isn’t a fashion blog so I’ll stop there!

As we walked through the room full of journalists and waited in one of the rooms behind the studio, everything started to feel very real. It’s taken a lot of work to create Muscle and Medals and it now began to finally feel worth it, even if that’s just from a pure vanity point of view. We met Alex and David before we went on and they were very warm and welcoming. Bizarrely, because we see them on screen so much and they greeted us by our names, it felt like we knew them for years! Filming was live but everything seemed to run smoothly. We didn’t get a chance to plug the site but it is what it is! Overall, we really enjoyed the experience and were so grateful to BBC Points West for the opportunity. Fingers crossed this will be the start of many more media engagements and now we’re just looking forward to the much anticipated release!