A huge moment for the cast and crew — our local pantomime was featured on BBC’s The One Show. The segment, hosted by Bonnie Langford, focused on a wonderful tradition at the Georgian Theatre Royal: every year, a group of volunteers hand-knits themed items to be thrown during the show. In previous years, this has included everything from vegetables and bananas to fish — but this year’s theme was knitted ice creams.At a key point in the show, these items are handed out to the audience, who then gleefully throw them at the villain to help defeat them. It’s total chaos — in the best possible way — and has become a much-loved hallmark of the Georgian Theatre pantos. Cast members often join in, flinging knitted props at the villain, who usually retaliates with a few throws of their own. As the only person allowed backstage with cameras during the pantomime performances — thanks to years of close collaboration and my detailed knowledge of each show — I’m regularly tasked with capturing unique perspectives. For this year’s One Show feature, the BBC were only able to film from the audience’s point of view. To give them a more dynamic shot, I was asked to capture the “villain’s POV” — a perspective not possible without being hidden in the set. During the interval, I tucked myself away inside the ice cream van (which had supposedly washed up on the beach) and waited most of the second act for the right moment. When the knitted ice creams began flying, I poked my lens through some carefully arranged seaweed and captured the onslaught from the villain’s point of view — a moment of glorious, flying chaos that truly had to be seen to be appreciated.

 (IMPORTANTLY – never being spotted by anyone in the audience!!)

The video was quickly processed and sent to the BBC in time for inclusion in the show — and it ended up being one of the standout visuals of the segment.