OCTOBER 2025 - Jules and Greg's Wild Swimming coming in 2026:)

Filming got underway for another season of Jules and Greg’s Wild Swimming, and this time we headed for the Scottish Borders. A part of the country I’ve not spent nearly enough time in, which was reason enough to be quietly excited about it. Plenty of water, plenty of space, and a fair bit of scenery I’d somehow managed to miss over the years.

We were filming in October, which added an extra edge to things. The water was definitely starting to turn by then, especially in the lochs and rivers. You could feel it straight away. The sea, thankfully, hadn’t quite caught up yet and was still hanging on to a bit of warmth, relatively speaking anyway.

The plan over the course of a few weeks was fairly straightforward, at least on paper. Start off swimming in the sea on the east coast of the Borders, then work our way right across the region, stopping off at lochs, rivers and anything else that looked inviting, before finishing on the west coast and wrapping things up at a lighthouse in the far south-west of Scotland. A proper journey, with a lot of cold water involved.

As well as the swimming, Jules and Greg also got stuck into a few other water-based activities along the way, which kept things interesting and, in some cases, slightly colder than planned.

One of the nice things about coming back to this job is how quickly everyone settles back into their roles. Within minutes it felt like we’d never been away. Tony was directing as ever from Solus Productions, Jim producing, with Rowan also producing on the ground. Sean was on main camera as director of photography, Colin on sound, Raonaid as Production assistant, runner and helping Jules and Greg throughout, and I was on second camera and drone, trying to get some nice shots while also keeping the drone dry. Jules and Greg did what they do best, talking to camera with the sort of enthusiasm that somehow survives repeated cold water immersion.

We were also joined by a cracking bunch of swimmers from all over the Borders, all with different backgrounds and different reasons for getting into wild swimming. Proper sound folk, and a big part of what makes the series what it is.

The Borders themselves are absolutely spectacular. Big skies, quiet places, and landscapes that just seem to roll on forever. It’s also just a really good job to be on. Everyone knows each other, everyone gets on, and there’s always a few laughs along the way. One night round the campfire, with a couple of small drinks, was particularly memorable. Nothing daft. Just good company and a fire.

Rowan Green is from this neck of the woods originally, from Traquair, and we filmed at Traquair Castle and in the maze there. The maze turned out to be memorable for another reason as well. That was the day Bonnie the dog had what can only be described as a bit of a situation. She ended up needing a wash in the river before she was allowed back into the van. We’d all been wondering why she was so grumpy that day, with half-serious threats of never taking her on a shoot again. Turned out she’d been having a far worse day than the rest of us. These things happen.

Jules and Greg also stayed at Traquair Castle, which was all very impressive until night fell. At one point we all agreed their living room looked particularly spooky, which didn’t do much for Jules’ nerves for the rest of the evening.

Accommodation on this shoot was a proper mix, in the best possible way. Old gypsy carts, yurts, castles, camper vans, and everything in between. Swimming-wise, we covered sea, lochs and rivers, including one loch that looked for all the world like it belonged in the Cairngorms, complete with Caledonian pines, despite being firmly in the Borders.

All in all, a brilliant job in a beautiful part of Scotland, with a great crew, great people, and just enough unpredictability to keep things interesting. Looking forward to seeing it on BBC Scotland, BBC, and iPlayer when it comes out later this year.

SEPTEMBER 2025 - Drone filming with Guy Martin on The British Train That Changed the World

Steam, stories, and a sky full of drones

Every so often a job comes along that feels a bit special. This one did. Channel 4 were filming Guy Martin: The British Train That Changed the World, marking 200 years since the Stockton & Darlington Railway — the line that more or less started everything on rails.

I was back on board as drone pilot, capturing the sights from above — steam, countryside, and a fair bit of history rolling beneath the rotors.

Back with the gang

Ewan, the director, gave me the call for this one. We’d worked together last year up in the Cairngorms on Guy Martin’s Proper Jobs with Mountain Rescue Sarda Dogs. It was a great shoot and a cracking team, and we all got on well — folk who could graft all day then still have a laugh over a pint at night.

So when he said the same crew were back — Justin Evans on camera, Graeme Smiles producing, Andrew Cholton on sound, and Simon Stubbs on minicams — I knew it’d be a good few days. We met up for dinner the night before, swapping stories and a bit of slagging about who’d drawn the shortest straw on call times. It’s the kind of easy company that makes early mornings a lot lighter.

A royal start to the day

Next morning was bright and freezing — that proper northern air (southern for me a suppose) that wakes you up faster than any coffee. The train was sitting ready at the line, steam drifting into the cold air, and there was a bit more buzz than usual. Turned out Prince Edward was coming along for the launch, which meant there’d be police drone teams flying too.

We all had a quick briefing, sorted our flight levels, and made sure everyone knew who was where. It’s not every day you’ve got three drone teams sharing the sky — especially with royalty standing a few yards away — but everyone handled it well. Bit of coordination, bit of patience, and a lot of mutual respect.

Getting airborne

For this shoot I ran my Mavic 3 Pro Cine for general shots and my brand-new Mini 5 Pro for closer shots but not as close as I’d hoped. 50m away because DJI made the drone 3 grams too heavy!. It’s a lovely bit of kit but will be more useful to me from January when the rules change.

The first location they’d marked for me was wide open, perfect for flight — only thing was, I couldn’t actually see the track from ground level. Once I sent the drone up though, there it was: the locomotive gleaming in the low morning sun, steam curling across the fields, the line stretching out through County Durham.

There’s something about watching a steam train from above — the rhythm, the smoke trail, the whole movement of it — that feels like stepping through time.

After those runs, we shifted to a second spot closer to town. Narrower airspace, more folk about, but that’s where the Mini 5 Pro came into its own. Smooth flying, plenty of control, and the footage looked brilliant on playback.

Wrapping up

Once we’d finished the last sequence, we packed down, had a few quick words with the crew, and I hit the road north again. Short trip, long day, but one of those satisfying ones where you know you’ve caught something a bit special.

A line that changed everything

On 27 September 1825, the Stockton & Darlington Railway opened its line from Shildon to Stockton via Darlington. George Stephenson’s Locomotion No. 1 hauled the first public steam train, carrying passengers and goods, and set off a chain reaction that spread across the world.

Two centuries on, it’s still a powerful story — invention, industry, and people connecting places for the first time. To film it now, with modern cameras and flying drones, felt like closing a neat wee circle between past and present.

Final thoughts

Jobs like this remind me why I love what I do. It’s the mix of history, craft, and teamwork — the buzz of working with a great crew and the privilege of framing something that means a lot to people.

Flying over the birthplace of the railways, marking 200 years of progress, and doing it alongside good folk — that’s a day well spent in my book. On Channel 4 26th October 7:30pm

A few pics from screen grabs below

JUNE 2025 - Filming Sam Thompson for UNICEF and Socceraid, 10's of millions of views on Social media

A wild week following Sam Thompson doing a marathon a day on foot and by bike from one stadium to the next stadium. Start at Arsenal in London and finishing at Old Trafford in Manchester.

A friend Vicci was doing the media bit for UNICEF and brought me on board to film as I have previously filmed with Comic Relief and Children in Need with Vicci and we get on well.

Here I would be in the lead vehicle filming Sam as he ran and cycled. The lead vehicle had a documentary crew in it. As these challenge events they raise usually a quarter to half the money from the actual event and through daytime TV, News and social media and the other half from a documentary that airs a week or so after the event. So it’s funny filming these as the documentary team are trying to film everything too. But I just film the occasional pieces throughout the day not absolutely everything like them and try stay out of their cameras way:) I then do a rough edit on my computer to pull out the better pieces etc and then upload to our base where a guy Matthew then edited social media posts from it, and Anna and Gabs would also edit things from it. I’d then film a bit, edit, upload repeat over and over all day. Then in the evening I’d have to quickly do a 5-10 minute highlight reel for Media. Such as News shows etc to use in their cycles. I would then do a longer edit (I say edit its just more a selection of shots and interviews for others to edit) for ITV This Morning that was featuring my footage each day. One of the days I also filmed a VT for This Morning with Ben Sheperd.

As well as myself and the Doc crew there was a social media team for UNICEF getting other pieces and then Sam had his own social guy Ted, ITV TM had a live crew each day and each person that met Sam to run with him for a short while usually also had their own media team:)

Was a fun week, couldn’t do it every week as 18 hr days take their toll. But worth it for the money raised and my overtime was my bit to charity:) A few pics of the day week below.

Some of the footage I took that was made into reels on instagram have individually had millions of views (one vid 8million) and probably 10’s of millions combined which is amazing.. This started the fund raising this week with £1.5m and by the end of it all as in documentary and football game it got up to £15m:)

APRIL 2025 - Live Camera Operator from Jersey with ITV This Morning

A fun few days out in Jersey doing some filming for VT’s with Phil Vickery as the chef presenter, Dom Gatt directing and Julia as food preparations. Then we had John from Jersey as our main fixer who sorted all the people and places we visited. Extremely helpful guy.

We went out fishing for a morning then visited a Jersey cow dairy farm then we cooked the mackerel near a beach at The ‘Driftwood’ Cafe which also has some lovely food inside. The following day we filmed the first picking of Jersey Royal potatoes live. The first live I have done for over 20 years. The last one was with ITN News with Laurence McGuinty in Antarctica lol.

We then cooked the Jersey Royals Live on television for ITV This Morning and it all went well and looked good thanksfully:) I then cooked the same Jersey Royals at home for my parents when they visited and had them with Salmon, it was very tasty:)

FEBRUARY 2025 - Upgrade of Camera kit to Sony Full Frame Cameras FX6 and FX3

So made a big upgrade and changed from my Panasonic micro four third cameras to Sony Full Frame Cameras. This is the FX6 and FX3 Cameras and I have been using them the last few weeks to get used to how they work. Footage is beautiful from them. I also bought four G master lenses with them and a monitor. Amazing having autofocus for first time in 9 cameras hahaha.

So new kit list below. Cameras and lenses are the only new parts to this Kit list:)

JANUARY 2025 - Camera operator for the Hunt for the Lynx with BBC 2 Highland Cops

A fun last minute day filming the actuality of the hunt for the illegally released Lynx cats nearby in the Cairngorms National Park. Unfortunately I did not get to see the Lynx themselves. I got to see the camera trap footage and they looked so cute.

So today I filmed the press in the local area as they gave interviews with Dr Helen the head of conservation for the Royal Zoological society. The press were at Ruthann Barracks so took some drone shots around this area. The Highland park said I could fly there but not any further east as this was where the Lynx were spotted. Then I returned to the park for some actuality of the team doing the search with pics and videos etc. These images I shot will be used when the Highlands cops TV show follow the wildlife investigator as he tries to track down who released the Lynx.

The caught the second two lynx only an hour or two after I left. Few screen grabs below of the day.

Ruthven Barracks

DECEMBER 2024 - Camera Operator for Good Morning Britain in Inverness (Drone too:)

Great fun day meeting this team and seeing what they do. We were filming Angela who is partially sighted who has organised a group where each month a team of partially sighted and blind folk (there were 21 this day) go for a walk and lunch together in Inverness. She is a great person and we were filming her as she is one of several folk who might be selected for an award for amazing people like Angela who have helped several people in making their lives better. I’ve actually forgotten the exact name of the award but if you watch on Christmas day then you will see the finalist and find out who wins.

I got to film this one because it is close to home but other camera operators will film the other people. Would have been good to see them all as always very fascinating and fun shoots these. A few screen shots below of the day.

The team and Inverness

SEPTEMBER 2024 - Aerial filming with Guy Martin on 'Proper Jobs' TV Show

An amazing few days as a drone pilot over Aberdeenshire way filming Guy Martin (lovely person) working with SARDA (Search and Rescue Dog Association). We spent a day doing crag rescue at Pass of Ballater, a very familiar crag for me having climbed there many times as a teenager and beyond.

Mark Chadwick was leading the safety (also a SARDA member) and Stu MacIntyre and Paul Noble were doing the chat to Camera alongside Guy Martin as well as a few others. Great fun crew from North One TV and the SARDA team were great to.

Once we had done stretcher lowers and carries mixed in with first response first aid, the guys then went to do dog handling at Glenshee for a day. I went and filmed trains then I joined them again another day for a trip up to Derry Lodge to do a search and rescue involving a helicopter and up on Derry Cairngorm mountain in the mist.

A very friendly pilot was happy with me flying with him in the air. We just laid down where we would be and what to do if change of plan in his flights etc. So much fun filming a helicopter in the air. Only done it a few other times in the past, All in all a great few days and hopefully make a fun TV program when it comes out. A few pics below of the days out with some screen grabs.

Air to Air filming with the DJI Mavic 3 Pro CINE

Myself and Guy Martin

Crag Rescue

AUGUST 2024 - Drone operating in Orkney and Shetland for 'Jules and Greg's Wild Swimming' BBC Scotland

A superb few weeks up on these islands with wonderful locals, well worth a visit up here if you have not been yet. Season 2 of Jules and Greg’s Wild Swimming and this year it was Islands. I missed the first 2 weeks on the Western isles as I was is Norway on the Dana shoot for the same company the great Solus Productions.

We had the same team as last year with obviously Jules and Greg doing a super job of presenting and generally being lovely guys to hang out with for the few weeks. Then we have a brilliant and great fun team to work with. As last year Tony was at the helm directing again, Jim producing, Sean as DOP (main camera and gyros in water), also water safety, Colin on sound, Raonaid doing a bit of everything and myself filming the aerials and a little bit of second camera too:)

We swam in lots of different spots for the TV program with beautiful beaches, saunas, rum, vikings, shipwrecks, cliffs, waves, town swims etc and many swims on time off too:) So good being the only people on a lot of these beaches and we met some super characters along the way. A few pictures below to give you a flavour and it will be on BBC Scotland in January coming:)

JUNE 2024 - Jamaica filming with Rusty Lee and a Hurricane!

Brilliant fun week staying at a lovely Sandals resort in Jamaica. 5 Star resort and we all had 2 bath tubs and a swimming pool in our rooms. Pretty amazing. Obviously ITV doesn’t pay for this lol. Sandals sponsors it and gets it resort in the background on TV so everyone is happy:) Sandals staff are great.

Rusty Lee has an amazing amount of energy and was fantastic fun. We landed after our long flights and went straight into filming and even by 8pm in the evening Rusty was up singing to everyone in the hotel and dancing about with the hotel band as we filmed her singing ‘No Worries’. Great :)

This was a cooking show so we cooked many Caribbean dishes in different areas round resort then had a day out filming a coffee plantation and a farm. Both of which were brilliant and learned a lot. We even had a police escort to get though Kingstown in the morning rush hour lol.

We had a great team with Will directing, Rich on sound, Sara as Home Ecc, and Natalie as our Sandals fixer. We also had several folk from the resort helping especially Ian one of the managers.

We then had a last day of filming to do with a trip down a river and a trip to a local market. This got cancelled as a category 5 hurricane was heading our way and everyone on the island needed to batten down the hatches in preparation. So then started our briefings etc. I was quite excited until I heard actually what a category 5 hurricane is. It means an average wind speed of 180 mph gusting 260mph and it would destroy almost everything in its path!

So we then turned into a bit of a news crew as it came our way. But fortunately 2 hrs before hitting land (so unpredictable) it veered south and dropped to a Category 4. We were on the north of the island and maybe had 100mph winds so like a very bad UK storm. A few spots on the south of the island got a Category 3 hurricane. One town had 70% of its homes destroyed. So extremely glad the Cat 5 never hit the island as when we woke the next day it would have been to a destroyed island and probably many deaths. We probably would have been fine in our 5 star hotel as Sandals looked after everyone very well including their staff and we had big buildings that had survived a few hurricanes already. Anyway will be a trip to remember.

Rusty Lee cooking some Jerk Chicken

Sandals resort Jamaica

MAY 2024 - Filming Take That and Olly Murs with Ross King for Lorraine ITV

A fun wee job at Glasgow Hydro with the ‘Lorraine’ TV Show. Albertine directing today and Ian doing the sound. A three camera setup for the interview. These things are always a bit rushed so arrived 90 mins early and did a few drone shots then got in with Katie the Take That PR person to setup up well in time.

We met Ross King and did a few pieces to camera with him. Super nice guy and he had his mate Kenny along to play the bagpipes.

Then we sat in for the Take That interview with Howard, Gary and Mark. Lovely guys and very easy to chat to. They have an ice bath they jump in before doing the show too. We toured the stage after to see the set up and chat through their show. A fun time.

Then I had ten minutes to setup an interview with Olly Murs at the far end of the corridor. Thankfully everyone helped move the kit:) Olly is a super nice guy and the interview went well.

Then we were all done just before they started getting reading to get on stage. These jobs always pass in a blur of adrenaline as I rush around for 4 hours then all finished and off home haha. Watch on Catch up as it was on Lorraine this week:)

Ross interview the Take That lads

My ten minute set up for Olly interview actually looks great :)

Me and Take That

Glasgow and the Hydro

April 2024 - Aerial Filming in Benidorm, Spain for Dana TV show.

A brilliant two weeks away in the sun to film series 4 of Dana for BBC ALBA. This time Coinneach heads abroad for some climbing. His partner is fellow Gaelic speaker Somhairle who is a bit newer to climbing but is very keen. Also a Tiktoker with 55k followers!

The same Solus Production team was assembled with Hamish directing and main camera, Rich Parker doing safety, myself on drone and Rowan producing. Additionally we had Becky join the safety team for this trip.

Benidorm I had only heard of as a popular British beach destination and I hadn’t realised until we arrived there just how good the climbing is all around here and the mountaineering. Unfortunately we had a bit of flu within the group with mainly Kenny so we had to cut the trip short to head back again to complete the episodes.

Have to say it was so good to see the sun after such a terrible wet and windy winter in Scotland. here’s hoping for more sun:) A few pics below of our time there:)

Sella Valley

The whole team Bottom to top Sorely, Kenny, Rich, Hamish, Becky and me.

April 2024 - Aerial Filming in Glencoe for a BBC ALBA Documentary

A nice few days with Solus Productions filming a revisit to a documentary from 8 years ago with a lady called Gladys. She was born in Ireland then adopted and brought to the west coast of Scotland and speaks Gaelic. She has been trying to find her original family all her life and some things come to light since the previous documentary.

Tony was directing, Phil on the main camera and Rowan producing. I was doing drone then some second camera during the interviews indoors.

Classic drone shot Glencoe

Speak Bridge

Great Grannie and Grandads house:)

MARCH 2024 - Interview with a Forensic Scientist for a crime documentary

An interesting day doing an interview with the countries leading expert on fibres. As in fibres from carpets clothes etc and matching them to other fibres. He was involved in a series killers case and created a large part of the evidence towards the killer. Pretty interesting although gruesome world to hear about. Tom the director was brilliant too and very well informed. Good having him there to ask the questions and as he is a camera operator too he could check the set up was the same as other interviews he had done surrounding this court case.

It was a three camera interview with very specific lighting and a window had to be in the back ground. But must also keep all the floweriness of these carpets and curtains out of shot as kind of didn’t fit our theme but was our only location lol.

Three camera interview

A Camera

B Camera

C Camera

JANUARY 2024 - Live drone from Scotland

A fun day and adrenaline fulled as normal with a live drone. Today I was experimenting with the Mavic 3 Pro CINE for the live drone and a bit of use of the Inspire 2 with x7 Camera. Wildly the image for the £5k drone is better than the £21k drone lol.

We were filming Carol Smillie for the ITV Competitions that run over ITV This Morning, Lorraine etc. Hadn’t filmed Carol Smillie since covid and she said she hadn’t been filmed since then either lol.

Jordan Summers was on ground camera and Rich on sound and Athene directing. Great team for the day. We also got to stay in Cameron house always a bonus.

I’ve done live drone a dozen times now or so and it still remains exciting work as you know a lot of folk are watching if you did anything wrong. Also making sure the drone is in the right spot and flying perfectly as no second take chances:) So much fun.

Inspire 2 with LiveU ready for filming

Experimenting with the Mavic 3 pro CINE live. Image is way better.

JANUARY 2024 - Filming at Walkers Shortbread for ITV This Morning

A fun day out seeing round the factory where they make the famous shortbread. Donal MacIntyre was the presenter who is a great laugh and Will Thomas was directing.

The factory is in Aberlour so a job pretty close to home. The smell all day was amazing. Made you so hungry.

Aberlour

Donal, Will and myself outside Walkers shop on Aberlour high st.

A freebie from our day out:)

DECEMBER 2023 - Filming Edinburgh Christmas markets and Edinburgh Castle light show

Filming the Christmas Markets and Castle light show with ITV ‘This Morning’. Was a date night for Roger and Janey from ‘My Mum your Dad’ TV program. Was fun going round the markets and seeing everything and going on the big wheel, and Ice skating. The highlight for me was flying my drone at the Castle to film the amazing light show. The Castle is very hard to fly from as in the centre of the city and an active military building too. But it was closed off for our exclusive use for two hours and with all the permissions there we could film the stunning light show. Just a couple of shots below for you to see:)

NOVEMBER 2023 - Aerial filming in the Western Isles, Scotland. Filming Highland Cows for National geographic.

A lovely day out filming Highland cows on north Uist with a great bunch of people. Carriane MacDonald and her mate and Angus MacDonald and his wife.

The plan was to film the cows going over to a tidal island for the winter. They’d walk a few kilometres down the road then head onto the sand and make the 3km crossing over the tidal sand at low tide. This all needed to be done at low tide. I’d got a friend of a friend Archie to drive for me so on the drive I could fly from the car and keep up. As the cows wouldn’t stop for us. Angus would lead the cows while Carriane and her mate would push from behind.

The day went very smoothly once I swapped the inspire 2 drone for the Mavic 3 Pro CINE so I could fly in the winds gusting 40 mph at times. I even had to rush off the island as the wind got worse and worse they cancelled all the ferries for the following days. Great to see these lovely looking cows doing the crossing though.

This will be shown on next years ‘Europe from the Air’ on Nat Geo channel or Disney Channel.

SEPTEMBER 2023 - A day out to ITV This Morning.

ITV This Morning is one of my best clients and a do a lot of location work in Scotland and luckily abroad for them. So as I was going to be in London I gave Will Thomas a shout (he is a PD I do a lot of work with and is the head of features). He said arrive when the show is still going live and he can give me a tour of the studios.

I had a great time meeting new folk and folk I have worked with before and seeing Alan Carr (Chatty Man) on the couch. I met John Torode as I went in the door who had been recording the voice over for our Australia films. He was on good form. Then I met Dr. Scott with Martin Harper in an edit. Will then had to get back to editing and Dom continued my tour.

I bumped into Julia doing the cooking prep for the live cooks and India in production and the head editor, Freddie, Amber, Abby and many more. When the show finished I chatted with Alison and Dermot and got a sneaky picture on the couch.

Marten Harper took me for lunch and then I joined for drinks with a leaving party for a lighting engineer leaving doo who had been there for 7 years so it was a good day to be visiting:)

Alison myself and Dermot on the Couch:)

Will (my tour guide), John Torode and myself:)