The long wait is over

14/09/2008 by admin.

12 September.  I’m in York to resume filming the Timewatch doc after a break of three months!   Insumountable logistical problems, I was told, which apparently is something of an occupational hazard for archeology programmes.   When I last saw the two cannon in the Tower of London in June, they were covered in concretions from the sea-bed.  Now, thanks to the work of conservationists in York, they’ve been deconcreted and it’s pretty obvious that they’re all part of a set - which confirms Mensun’s theory that this ship was carrying one of the first co-rodinated naval weapon systems.  Not only that, one carries a mysterious mark near it’s vent hole: ‘FW’.  Mensun is convinced that this cannon, at least, was commissioned by Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth I’s spymaster and the second most powerful man in England after Lord Burghley (William Cecil).  If he’s right, then it places the wreck at the very centre of Elizabethan politics and emphasizes the importance of the secret mission that the ship was on: taking dispatches and munitions to Sir John Norris who was fighting to prevent the Catholic League (Spanish and French) from obtaining a deep water port in Brittainy from where to launch an invasion of England.Mensun is suitably excited, as am I, and the filming goes well.  We start at 1 - having driven up from London - and are done and dusted by 5, my kind of film day.  Because of the delay, the director Dan has moved on to another project, so Ian and Malcolm are back in the saddle, with Julie J handling the logistics.   Ian is a shooting director, and a v good one, so little time is wasted setting up shots.   I catch the 6 o’clock train from York and am home by 10.30.Why can’t all film days be like this one?  True to the erratic schedule, we resume filming in early October, continue on into November and deliver the film in December.  Which means the film won’t be shown until early ‘09.  Better late… 

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