Bears about the house - BBC2

In 2019, before the Covid-19 lockdown, I completed work on a series for the Natural History Unit. The the 2x59 minute episodes follows Giles Clarke as he takes on his biggest challenge yet - building a bear sanctuary.

Series Producer / Director Tom Jarvis filming a rescued Moon Bear cub in Laos (Free The Bears)

This time Giles was in Laos in South East Asia working with Free the Bears. Across Asia hundreds of bears are kept in coffin sized cages to be used for their fur, meat and body parts. The Laos government are determined to stop this illegal trade in bears. The first episode was shown on BBC2 on 15th July 2020 and got some great reviews!

Having completed several of the "About the House" shows (Tigers About the House & Big Cats About the House) this one was special as I was the only editor. This enabled me to ensure the tone, style and story of both episodes meshed well. We edited on Avid Media Composer.

While episode 2 was being filmed in Laos I was editing it in Bristol. This meant I was able to supply story notes and ideas from the cutting room to location. This enabled us to really focus the storylines of both episodes. A really rewarding experience to be working with this talented team again. Also having Andrew Lincoln back on board to do the voiceover was fantastic. You can watch both episodes on iPlayer here.

Andy enjoying a coffee while the team are working hard in Laos.

We also worked closely with the very talented composer Chris Roe. His music enabled us to fine tune the emotions throughout the two episodes. His music gave us an instant shortcut to character moments for the animal and the human storylines.

SERIES PRODUCER / DIRECTOR: Tom Jarvis

EXEC PRODUCER: Jo Shinner

CHANNEL COMMISSIONER: Daisy Scalchi

NARRATOR: Andrew Lincoln

All post (Offline, Online, Grade, Comm Record & Final Mix) completed at Doghouse.