Pickup Truck

We’re currently on our way back to Leeds from Hull. The sun is beating down, and it’s already turning out to be one of those golden days; one I’m sure I’ll remember for the rest of my life.


We started out at Spurn Point underneath the most beautiful blue sky. I suppose it was the shot we’d all been looking forward to; the winning combination of the wonderful Circus Envy and one of the most mystical places on the planet. The boys were brilliantly well prepared, and filming them was a joy. We let the track run and they played along perfectly in sync...

One of our shots involved the band crammed onto the back of a pickup truck. They looked incredibly cool, and as we hurtled along the single track road running to the end of the spit, I realised that I was seeing exactly what I’d imagined when I planned the shot. The sea to our right was gleaming in the bright sunshine, and to our left, the ferries and oil rigs on the Humber were perfectly in focus, glowing magically in the early morning light. You could see for miles.

We filmed the sequence from the top of a van, looking down on the pickup as it sped along behind us. I think it was at this moment, as the wind rustled through my hair, and hundreds of cabbage white butterflies fluttered around us, that I made the conscious decision to take time out simply to consider how lucky I am.

...And the day continued to improve. An hour later, we'd driven back to the Hessle Foreshore, donned wet suits, and were with the Humber Lifeboat Rescue Team, steaming backwards and forwards underneath the Humber Bridge. We filmed a violinist and a skiffle board player and it was an absolute riot. It struck me that you’d be foolish to claim to have lived unless you’d hurtled underneath the Humber Bridge on a motorised dinghy!

July 10th 1660 was a busy day for Pepys. He kicked things off by putting on his “new silk suit, the first I ever wore in my life”. Restoration fashions and fabrics had obviously arrived in force! Pepys was heading to the wedding of the wonderfully named Mynheer Roder. It was a dazzling society event “with very great state, cost and noble company”. Pepys, never one to miss an opportunity to ogle the ladies, came to the conclusion that he was lucky to have found Elizabeth; “ among all the beauties there , my wife was thought the greatest”. Mynheer Roder, was by all accounts a bit of a pratt. He became an evangelist preacher and was eventually imprisoned by the usually tolerant Dutch, for systematic attempts to undermine the authorities in the name of Jesus. In 1672, he caused mayhem by mistaking the French invasion of Holland for the end of the world. Unfortunately there’s not much going back from that...