Dear Shrewsbury Theatre Guild,

I'm contacting you from Granada Television, where I'm
working on a "Savage Planet" documentary for ITV about
Scott of the Antarctic. I'd be very grateful if you could help
with an enquiry I have. We're hoping to do some dramatic
reconstructions of Scott's journey in a snowdome in
Telford, for three days in the first week of June, and I'm looking for some people to be polar heroes!

If we go ahead we'd be looking for 4 or 5 men in the age
group 28-45 (Scott was the oldest member of the party at
43) , and the roles would entail sledge hauling, taking
meterological records (swinging thermometers etc), cooking inside the tent, writing diaries etc - we would intend the roles to be non-speaking ones. I'd be very grateful if you could let me know, in theory, if anyone from the Guild (and fitting the description!) would be able to take part.

Most of the roles would not require likenesses of the explorers, (the explorers in question were Oates, Bowers, Wilson, Evans and Scott), except for Captain Scott himself, who we'd prefer to have some kind of likeness as he'd be the subject of the occasional close-up.

As documentary makers our budgets are unfortunately not high, but we could offer travel expenses etc of about £30 a day. If you think you can help with this request or have any recommendations for other dramatic societies in the region I'd be very grateful if you could get back to me in the next few days. Many thanks, and I look forward to hearing from you, Best wishes Jenny Greep

Here is the request from Granada

Just a few snaps of the filming. Took about 80 but decided only my mum would want to see all 80! Hopefully it will not clog everyone's computers up.
The pic "Scott2" (right) was the shot of the camera BEFORE it moved in for the close up. It was less than 2" away! Quite intimidating.
The pic "Scot1" (above) was a reconstruction of the famous pic. When they added in the snow it looked brilliant. It was very hard work, tedious to the point of frustration. (including Scott and I arguing with the director on how to direct!)
It wasn't cold at all. Took a total of 40 hours over 3 days. When you saw the results on the monitor those guys really did know what they were doing.
Would I do it again? !!!
Well that was probably (or will be) my 15 minutes of fame.

KEITH

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Keith reports back: