Made the local rag
Top French TV show filming in Scapa Flow
ORKNEY will feature on prime time French TV later this year, when a French diving group’s
exploits in Scapa Flow are revealed.The Paris-based channel France 3 film crew followed a group of divers on a trip to Scapa Flow last week visiting the wreck sites of the German Fleet scuttled in 1919. The team was filming for a show called ‘Thalassa’, which goes out on Friday evenings with between 4 and 5 million viewers each week.
The diving group, which has a special interest in wartime wrecks, normally dives the wrecks off the Normandy beaches. One of them, Yves Marchaland has written detailed books on French wrecks and was interested in comparing the wreck sites in Scapa Flow to the vessels he is more familiar with back in France, including the ‘Courbet’ which was a French flagship during WW1 and was scuttled during WW2 off the Normandy coast.
Speaking from the deck on the dive boat ‘Halton’ in Stromness on Friday morning he said
that the team had very much enjoyed the week it spent in Orkney, despite poor weather and poor
visibility under the water.‘‘We had a good strong wind and the visibility was not too good,
but we are used to similar conditions in Normandy.’’He said that during the time here they had dived all of the German wrecks as well as a block ship. The group employed the help of Longhope diver Angus Budge who was controlling the lighting as the team carried out the underwater filming.
They also interviewed veteran diver Sanday Roberston from Lyness who is an expert on
diving in Scapa Flow. Angus said that the language barrier was a bit of a problem while working with the team. ‘‘I was holding the lights as they filmed different scenes underwater, it was difficult to know exactly what they wanted but it was interesting though,’’ he explained.Ramon Gutierrez is a journalist with the TV station as well as being the director of the programmes they film and was accompanied by two freelance cameramen on the trip.
‘‘We had briefings every day about the underwater filming and used very powerful 4000 watt lights underwater. Angus did very well and improved every day, he was very good,” he explained. Ramon said that filming for his TV show, which is based on various aspects of the sea, sees him travel the world covering interesting and unusual stories. He said that the story of the German fleet would be an important story to tell the French people.
It will be shown in France in October.
Craig Taylor
Orkney Today
