3/5ths there

...And so ends two hugely intense and exhausting days of filming Tales of the White City. There have been tantrums and arguments, terrible faux pas, rainstorms and random encounters, but we're slowly getting there...

It is hugely surreal. At one moment yesterday, I was filming 8 Zumba dancers dancing on a balcony with an Indo-Caribbean 76-year old lunatic, whilst people on higher walkways waved down at us and banged rugs in time to the calypso music.

When I thought things couldn't get any more bizarre, scores of planes, which had, we discovered, featured in the Queen's birthday celebrations, suddenly flew over, very low in the sky, in increasingly intricate formations. It was rather unnerving. A woman on the balcony opposite was laughing manically and rubbing her hands together. Because, for a time, we hadn't got a clue what was going on, she appeared like some kind of doom-monger. The woman who laughs as the world collapses!

The weather has thrown almost everything at us, which has led to some astonishing shots; the combination of sun and rain being one of the most beautiful sights in nature. 

Today was the turn of our vicar, Bob, who was astonishingly unnerving in a quite brilliant way, and poet, Imhotep, who delivered his epic poem in ever-higher locations which culminated on the roof of BBC television centre. 

The only disappointing part of the day was our big dance sequence, which we'd offered up as an opportunity for anyone on the estate to have a free dance lesson and be part of the film. Sadly, probably because of the weather, only 8 people turned up. Still, those who came, danced with conviction. Well, mostly! I don't think one little girl knew who she was or why she was there! 

It was such a treat to finish the day on the roof of the BBC building as the sun set and the lights of London started to twinkle. We will almost certainly be the last people to film from the roof of that particular building within the complex; it has been condemned, and will be knocked down very shortly. 

I can't write anything else. My eyes are closing and my feet hurt. Night, night...