A week filming for Soccer Aid for UNICEF, following Olly Murs as he took on a challenge involving cycling, rowing and running his way around the country, visiting a few football stadiums and raising a load of money along the way.

I’d actually met Olly once before, about three years earlier, when I interviewed him and Take That in Glasgow. I remember thinking at the time that he was a really nice guy. Spending a full week working around him pretty much confirmed that. He’s just a genuinely lovely bloke, remarkably positive and very fit.

I got involved through Vicci, who I’d originally worked with on Comic Relief and who brought me onto this one along with photographer Tom Diamond. There was also a separate film crew documenting the whole challenge for TV, led by Cam, who I’d worked with before. So there were plenty of familiar faces and, thankfully, a really good crew. On jobs like this, that makes a massive difference.

My part was slightly different. Each morning I’d jump into the lead van with my Sony FX3 and gimbal and spend the day jumping in and out, filming bits of the challenge, grabbing moments with Olly and generally trying to keep up with whatever was happening.

Then, while everyone else carried on, I’d disappear into the van, throw together a very quick edit, send it over to Vicci for a check and get it uploaded for news outlets, daytime TV and programmes such as ITV’s This Morning to use.

So the daily routine was basically:

Film. Edit. Upload. Film. Edit. Upload. Drive somewhere else. Repeat.

We’d normally get one package out around lunchtime and another in the evening, so the days were pretty full on. There wasn’t much time for lovingly pondering an edit while sipping coffee and considering the emotional significance of a particular cut. It was more a case of getting good material, getting it together quickly and getting it out while it was still news.

It was a great week though. We travelled around the country, went through a fair few football stadiums, met plenty of familiar faces along the way and watched Olly cycle, row and run considerably further than I had any intention of doing myself.

Most importantly, the challenge went really well and raised a huge amount of money for Soccer Aid for UNICEF.

Long days, lots of miles, a very good crew and a genuinely lovely person at the centre of it all. Definitely one of the fun ones.