Thursday 21 August 2014

As (hopefully) seen on TV


The question might have been asked thus “Can you help me out with catching dippers for a filming session for Ray Mears’ new series?”

What was heard was “Whotcha! Want to meet Ray Mears?!”

Vaf practising his on screen his pole
handling technique
 
And so that is how it transpired that Vaf and Facey found themselves, chanting “Ray! Ray! Ray! Ray! Ray!” on their way to meet Prof Steve O(merod)  and get some BTO bling on some dippehs in front of Ray Mears (while not pointing and not drivelling “You’re Ray Mears, you are!”).
Mr Mears is a genuinely, genuinely, nice guy – friendly, chatty, and down to earth. He took the time to talk to us both and even listened to what we had to say (more than just “You’re Ray Mears, you are!”). He clearly cares about the world around him and the fact our species is royally screwing it up.

Steve wanted the big riparian three; dipper, kingfisher and grey wag. Water birds are like water buses, after a long wait for nothing four come along at once; in quick succession we missed two kingfisher, a dipper and a grey wag.
But the Gods of Ringing did smile on their loyal disciples and we soon caught a kingfisher. No sooner as the bird was on dry land it was a case of “ere, Ray! Hold this!” and off our merry pair went to extract two dippers, quickly followed by a grey wag.

Facey, Ray and Vaf. Mr Mears is clearly pleased to be in the
presence of the (in)famous Cardiff Ringers.  
The camera was pointed at us a good few times, thankfully as we took ages on our hair and makeup. So you might, just might, glimpse our overly excited grins on Ray’s (yeah first name terms) new programme to be aired in Feb 2015. But if we end up on the cutting room floor, we’ll be pleased with the fact that the dippers we caught made it on screen with Steve Ormerod and Ray Mears.

 
If you have a film sequence involving of ringing... if no one else can help... and if you can find them... maybe you can hire... The Cardiff Ringers*

(Cue Facey’s car rolling over and Vaf throwing an eco-tone pole at some trainees)

 *If locked in a warehouse we’d probably fashion a larger potter trap.