Post Description

How did the idea come about?
We wanted to pull together lots of different emergency elements into one show to appeal to viewers who leap between traffic cops, highland emergency and so on. The coastguards’ co-ordinating role across the sea-borne emergency services quickly emerged and we realised we could set the show in a huge water-bound precinct called the English Channel.

The RNLI had warned me of the number of skeletons of film crews littering lifeboat slipways, waiting for ‘the shout’ that never came, so it seemed obvious to follow lots of services, to get the best stories.

What made the idea stand out?
It had real scope - with access ranging from Customs cutters patrolling the straits, to the RAF search and rescue, by way of the Coastguard investigators, the Navy, the Marine Police and super tugs. It sounded great. Then we realised we had to keep nine agencies on board for the next six months of filming.

How did you pitch it?
I took my ob doc, police and emergency series experience to Wall to Wall where Alex Graham really wanted to build on the genre. I went to Nat Geo, which was looking for UK-based signature shows and it had the combination of characters and action they liked. Then I went to Five, which could also see the concept and was already successful in the genre.

On an editorial level, we were all in the same place, and on a financial level, the deal worked for everyone.

What were the challenges?
With these shows, the challenge is keeping an often exhausted team motivated (take a bow SP Tricia O’Leary). There’s a conveyor belt of cutting rooms and you need a belief you’ll get there - even when everything goes quiet on the waves and all you can hear is the breeze. That’s when you’re tempted to go and hire a yacht (even though you’ve never skippered anything more than a pedalo). But, of course, then it all kicks off again.



In het kort, COPS, maar dan op het water rond Engeland....
e01 t/m e04 staan er ook nog op!