Wednesday 15th August - Olympics and Chopin (amongst other things)

Gatwick Airport. En route with Easy Jet to Toulouse. Preparing myself for the scrum at boarding…

My mind is a jumble of projects which I am sure isn’t terribly healthy, although it’s certainly stimulating in its way. Nor have I recovered from the wonderful Olympics. I was one of many who were a bit cynical and a bit worried that we’d put on something a bit average, How wrong I was – from the superb opening ceremony, they have been a joy. I was asked in the office today what were my highlights and I was stumped…Mo, Jessica, the cycling team, Becky (we still love you!), the rowers, Tom Daly, the equestrian team, oh and lots more. I also loved an Afghan getting a bronze, the Saudi women, the Turkish and Algerian gold medal athletes, Phelps, and of course Andy Murray. See? Where do you stop? Of course that’s from a pretty British perspective – in France the TV seemed to be showing a completely different Games – all judo and handball. Anyway, what a show – well done to all concerned. I’m glad to see it was a film director (Danny Boyle) who pulled off the best Opening Ceremony ever too.

Meanwhile, my own film-making has been much more modest: yesterday though I had the absolute pleasure of filming Leif Ove Andsnes playing Chopin and Beethoven at the Snape Proms in Snape, Suffolk. As always, it was a bit of a chore to set it up, get the gear, get to the location, overcome the logistical problems that often do (and yesterday did) pop up – but once I’m filming and he’s playing, it’s all so worth it. I’m finding this project very interesting as, unlike Haydn, Beethoven and Mozart, Chopin is, of course, largely single piano works. Quite how that will finally look on film is a bit of a concern. I try to film each piece in a way that is sympathetic to the story at the moment but there really are only so many ways to film a piano and pianist (without getting very show-biz). I also know that my audience are not afraid to just watch and listen too. I don’t need to panic after twenty seconds – people sat enraptured last night for two hours so I’m sure they’d be happy to watch a pretty static shot and edit of Leif Ove playing for a few minutes on screen. We’ll see. What is clear so far is that the first twenty years of his life in Warsaw are essential and need a lot of research and focus. That was true of the other three composers too: so much can be learnt from looking at their formative years. I’m off to France today, partly to go to Nohant and then Paris and look at some of the locations he lived in but really the most important location in his story is, by far, Warsaw. Sadly, the broadcaster that had seemed very likely to commission the film pulled out last week – as they have had budget cuts. So I’m half way through the film and haven’t raised a penny – not very impressive. But in September we’re going to try everything: broadcasters, arts funders and private donations (through crowd-sourcing). Fingers crossed…

Another piano project that is nearing conclusion is my pet project ‘PIANO NOTES: THE UTTERLY PARTIAL HISTORY OF THE PIANO WITH RONALD BRAUTIGAM’. Not only has that got to be the longest title in history but, if I say so myself, it’s really good. The first 13 shows are done and just need grading and mixing. It’s wonderful to see him play chosen works by the greatest of composers and then talk about them. It will be such a useful tool for young pianists for years to come but also, I’m sure (and I hope) will be much valued by aficionados of classical music no matter their age. Ronald was great when I interviewed him – having to articulate about one composer after another until we had covered all thirteen episodes of series 1 (of 2).

It reminded me of the much-missed David Chandler, once Head of Military History at Sandhurst. I will never forget interviewing him in depth about six great commanders. He talked at such length and with such insight about Alexander, Caesar, Napoleon, Nelson, Grant and Zhukov. It didn’t matter what I asked him – he had the answer. A lovely, lovely man who was one of the great Napoleonic experts (and Marlborough too). I also remember taking the interview to show my Channel 4 commissioning editor. He too was thoroughly impressed and then told me to shoot it again as I’d shot from the side that showed off David’s missing tooth. Tail between legs, I scurried back to Sandhurst, and shot it all again (from the other side). It’s over 15 years since I made The Great Commanders and I look back on that period with enormous fondness. I had a great commissioning editor (who, yes, made me shoot stuff again sometimes!) at a once-great channel (C4) with a decent budget that allowed me to really focus on six wonderful stories – and write a book too. I travelled the world filming actual locations, taking experts with me. It was the first military history project Channel 4 did and, to their surprise, was a great success. The book sold 50,000 copies and, as so often, the receipts seemed to end up elsewhere. Getting back to my point though: so often it is these experts that we film-makers absolutely rely on. I always make a point of paying them, even when I can’t afford to pay musicians or orchestras.

It does all seem a long time ago: can you guess what the audience share is this week for the main channels? In digital homes it’s as follows: BBC1 35%, ITV 9%, BBC2 6%, C4 4%, C5 3%, More 4 0.9%, BBC4 (less than 0.67%), SkyArts (even less). Maybe those figures are skewed by the Olympics…but still, I remember when BBC 2, C4 and C5 were vying for 10%... Those days are long gone. The dominance of terrestrial is certainly over. I try not to follow the crowd as it’s way, way too busy (it’s like boarding an Easy Jet flight – all elbows and crushed toes) but we are developing an arts app, have put my books on Kindle and Audible and Amazon TV…and do talk as often to non-broadcasters as to broadcasters). I don’t know how so many decent films still get made (as far as docs are concerned, BBC4 is the best) but there’s a lot of ducking and diving involved nowadays. The danger is you spend so much time fund-raising that you actually don’t spend enough film-making…