Newsletter from Hugh Miles .............. 23 February 2008
I have been a mad keen angler all my life, and ever since I caught a large roach when still a small boy, big redfins have been my favourite quarry. However, I love all forms of angling and it’s given me so much enjoyment that like “A Passion for Angling”, [ which I made for the BBC with Chris Yates and Bob James ], this new series of films will try to repay this debt of gratitude by benefiting angling as a whole, by showing fishing in a good light, and encouraging more into the sport. Martin and I are well aware that we could achieve this best if we manage to get a showing on television and there is considerable interest from several channels. We’ll keep you posted.
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Being a wildlife film-maker I’m constantly in search of new stories, and I was aware that not much has ever been shown on television of freshwater fish and their natural behaviour, underwater and truly wild. There has always been an enthusiastic audience for British wildlife so what better than to show them something they’d never seen. We’re beginning to get to grips with this new challenge and the results are fascinating, in fact I almost enjoy filming fish as much as catching them - but not quite !
Apart from the underwater world and the beauty of the other freshwater wildlife around Britain, we are also keen that our series will be a portrait of modern specimen hunting, so we have filmed virtually all the species and used pretty much every technique available. We’ve also been privileged to guest appearances from many of the sport’s best loved characters, such as [in no particular order of importance ! ] Chris Yates, Des Taylor, Bob Church, Frank Warwick, Terry Lampard and Tim Norman, Pete Reading, John Wilson and several young ladies !
As for the story itself, I devised a challenge for Martin and our friends who will fish with us. It struck me as potentially entertaining if our anglers had target weights for each species and we set these so high that they would carry the ‘Impossible’ tag.......and if they found them too easy, then I’d just raise the target .....just to keep them interested of course ! We feel sure that anglers will find this combination of seriously big fish and underwater action inspiring and judging by the reactions from those who have seen some of the sequences, non anglers are amazed at the size of the monsters that we’ve caught.
Thanks to the skill and determination of Martin and friends, and the generous help of so many landowners and fisheries, the results are pretty stunning. As has been pointed out, the film’s PB list is the equal of most anglers catches for a whole lifetime, yet we’ve only been filming for three and a half years. Barbel of fifteen pounds, a forty-four pound common stalked with a float, several ten pound tench, a crucian just five ounces short of the record, a three pound river roach, a thirty two pound pike and a river record perch of five pounds four ounces - and that’s just some of the catches.
However, as they say, “there’s more to fishing than catching fish”, and to ensure the whole epic journey doesn’t become too serious, Bernard Cribbins will be suitably jovial about the process of tracking down monsters. Bernard did a lovely job narrating “A Passion for Angling”, the difference this time being that he gets to fish. He too is a mad keen angler and as if to confirm his years of experience, he’s shown Martin a thing or two and never blanked, even with salmon on the Royalty.
Martin and I have committed four and a half years of our lives trying to make the series of eight one hour films a bit special. I’m filming and editing day and night, it will cost me half a million quid, and if I don’t run out of money and time then we hope to have it complete by the winter of 2008.
We’re writing a full account of our adventures, and the book will be available in October ....and we might release the first four films on DVD then too, but I’m not sure they’ll be finished in time. Anyway, we’ll update you on progress at this site when time allows. This frosty scene was taken when filming grayling fishing just last week.
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