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Busy and relentless!

Tim Scoones Tim Scoones | 12:48 UK time, Tuesday, 10 June 2008

It's week three - only three more live shows to go (but don't forget our mini series of Springwatch Specials next week ....) - and you'd have thought the pace of production and the levels of adrenaline would be calming down by now, but no - the pace is simply relentless!

The wildlife has been busy. Anyone who saw last night's show would probably agree that it was the "busiest" show we have ever had - so many birds fledging, running the gauntlet of marauding weasels (and mallard ducks!). Meanwhile we're still meeting new characters like our lovely new robin family .... and we even have a new family to introduce you to tonight, all of which you can watch on our webcams. Meanwhile, our Pensthorpe otters are giving our camera teams the run-around, and Joana, the Springwatcher who made a behind the scenes video on what she and the other story developers here get up to day-to-day, has gone to check out what's going on with those poor . More on this in tonight's show, when we'll bring you the very latest.

Production has been busy too. The Simon King team certainly put on a dramatic show last night. It's amazing that Simon can say so calm and composed when he is trying to present a show in 80 mile an hour winds and swirling clouds. He certainly gave us a very - and quite literally - "atmospheric" introduction to what it can be like among some of our highest peaks in - our very own British sub-arctic wilderness.

Last night was another one of those shows in the main production control room "gallery" when we were never quite sure if Simon was going to stay on air or not - the technology was stretched perilously thin. At one point I thought that Simon might actually blow away. I have already described in a previous blog what measures we have to take to prepare for moments when nature and technology stretch us just a bit too far. Fortunately Simon pulled it off (again!) and everyone got down off the mountain safely. I'm sure everyone will be wishing them better weather today.

Meanwhile, it was scorching hot down in Pensthorpe and our portacabin production village soon became like a row of ovens. No-one was complaining that much because they were so pleased to see the sun at last, but we nearly had a mishap with the planning of tonight's show. It's normal for the producers to meet up in the late afternoon to look ahead at the next day's show. It's quite a complicated one tonight, so we had the running order mapped out by pushing little bits of paper around on a desk (oh, the glamour !?! "So high tech!" I hear you cry .....).

We had finally cracked the basic structure (as far as one can plan a Springwatch show, 24 hours in advance) and then I very nearly - quite literally - blew the whole thing by turning on a table fan on account of the heat. Producer Stuart managed to dive on the pieces of paper before bellowing at me to turn the fan off until our collective thoughts had been captured on something a little more substantial. Phew!

Must go ... things just keep happening! More soon.

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