Media Opportunity - BBC4 documentary

Dear Organiser,

We have been approached by the BBC about a rather unique potential media opportunity. Please see below for the information they gave us, and if you are interested and able to help please contact Gaby on the details below, as soon as possible. Shooting starts in 3 weeks, so they need to finalise the details quickly, and then the programme is likely to be broadcast in the autumn.

THE PROGRAMME:

The Secret Life of the National Grid - BBC Four

Folowing on from two previous series for the channel - The Secret Life of the Motorway and The Secret Life of the Airport - the programme will be an evocative and eclectic homage to another one of the over looked and under-loved engineering masterpieces of modern Britain: the electricity grid. A social history of how the grid came into being, the series is also an entertaining look at how we got used to living with it and the ways in which it changed us.

THE REQUEST:

I am currently exploring the impact of the National Grid on the rural landscape and negotiations involved in getting hundreds of landowners to 'host' a pylon on their estate when the grid first went up in the late 1920s and 30s. We'd particularly like to feature a historic house and family that took part in this exciting - even alarming! - development.

We wondered if any of the properties that take part in Heritage Open Days might have a pylon either on their land or nearby on land that was once part of the estate, with the same family involved today as witnessed their erection then? Ideally I'm looking for someone who saw the pylons going up as a teenager or child, but would also be interested to hear from families who can remember stories their grandparents told about 'when the pylon came'!

CONTACT:

Gaby Hornsby
Producer, The Secret Life of the National Grid
BBC Factual London
' 020 8008 0335
8 gaby.hornsby@bbc.co.uk