The Heat is On: Sport Relief, BBC1

This year’s Sport Relief production for BBC1 was always going to be our most ambitious challenge yet. The plan was to film celebrities travelling 100 miles across one of Asia’s oldest lakes in Mongolia over four days by skating, cycling and walking in -30°C conditions with a 10-day turnaround to edit.

Right from the start, we knew it would require a lot of preparation with the best possible team around us.

The location we’d chosen in Mongolia is very remote. The infrastructure that goes into this kind of production is huge and eats up hours of everyone’s day, planning, preparing and assembling the right kit to enable us to film in sub-zero temperatures.

But thanks to four months of brilliant planning, we were fully prepared. We’d been meticulous with training and health and safety, knew the route, what people were going to eat, where they were going to camp and how we were going to film everything.

We’d also banked content ahead of the trip with footage of the celebrities as they prepared for Sport Relief ’s coldest-ever challenge.

Time was precious and, as we made our final preparations with less than a month to go, we knew we couldn’t afford any surprises.

Like everyone, we knew about coronavirus – but Mongolia had done the right things in trying to prevent it and we were in constant touch with consuls in the country. Everyone wanted to make this challenge work.

But then the phone rang. Mongolia was considering restricting travel to the region, which would scupper accessing our location, rushes runs and even leaving the country.

And so, with just days to go before filming, a frantic race against time began and we were forced to look for another location and challenge amid fears we could end up with no film at all and, in turn, not raise any money for Sport Relief.

Rat Race, the event management team with which we were working, also runs treks in Namibia and after discussing with Sport Relief and the BBC, we swiftly made a group decision to switch the triathlon in freezing Mongolia to the stifling desert in Namibia.

If making fast-turnaround films already came with a high level of risk, changing location increased that ten-fold. Within 48 hours, we had to rebook flights, start on new preproduction and replace our Mongolian gear with desert boots, sun cream and loose-fitting clothes.

Luckily, we were able to repurpose some of the kit, so had a tiny head start. Thankfully, the cameras we were using were kitted out to film in extreme conditions, whether that was the Arctic or the heat.

Our amazing DoP even built a fat bike with a stabilised gimbal system on the back. It has a monitor as you ride along controlling the camera angle using a remote, enabling us to capture the celebrities’ journey with nice smooth shots. Plus, it doesn’t make any noise.

When we told the celebs our plans, they knew the coronavirus could still be a factor, and they were surprised by what we were suggesting. Yet fair play to them all for saying they would go for it as they wanted to make a difference.

Logistical challenges

The first thing that hit us on landing in Namibia was the 40°C heat and, not surprisingly, it caused a few problems. The heat zaps the life out of you. Getting around in a car also proved a nightmare, as it’s so slow and driving across sand requires specialist drivers.

Our other problem was the actual environment. The sand caused havoc and proved very tough for the celebrities, who were walking, skiing and cycling across the desert to complete the challenge.

When you think what we have had to get to grips with in such a short space of time, this was by far and away the biggest logistical production we’ve ever had to pull off.

Now with just days to go before transmission, our goal is to finish editing and make our best-ever film to raise as much money as we possibly can for such a brilliant cause.