This is the BBC’s last day at the set, and I was lucky to be just a small part of it from as early as 6 o’clock in the morning. And a glorious morning it was, no clouds in sight, Halema’uma’u was fuming at her best and the light was soft and golden with the sun at the low angle of the early morning. It is a pity the BBC could not start the live session until 9 o’clock when the sun was already higher up, but still this was the probably most perfect setting anyone could imagine.

My main task was really to keep the bustling crowd, especially the crew with the cameras, sound recorders and especially the miles and miles of cables to the paths and trails set out for them and off all the native and endangered plants, which had been marked with yellow tape and red flags by the Ecology Crew of HAVO earlier on. However, there was plenty of time, especially after everyone from the film team was in place, to observe the rehearsals, last minute changes and the live sessions of the production. This time the satellite link seemed to work without any problems, and everyone was in a good mood to bring the series to a successful end.

After the last second of the live footage was done, everyone was clapping and cheering, it seemed really like a very good live production, and the responsibles on site explained also why – pressure had been up a lot after a not-so-good live series of the BBC earlier on this year, and everyone felt it was their responsibility to make it work this time. I think they really did a good job, and after having watched most of the broadcast now at least twice or several times except for the last and final episode which I have saved for tonight (perhaps I am in there, at one of the camera rigs wide angle movements over the entire setup??).

So in any case, if you got the chance to catch that series somewhere on the web or ready for download as a podcast or broadcasted again at a later showing somewhere on the BBC or other channels (I anticipate it will be sold to other channels at one point), by all means do watch it, I really think it is a fascinating series recounting the stories of some of our most interesting volcanoes in this world. That being said, there have been a few glitches from the moderators throughout the program, the worst one probably being the last word of moderator Kate at the end of Episode 1 – I guess the nerve-racking moments of the live show were fading a little early and she was so glad that the whole thing had worked that she forgot the correct Hawaiian word, but it really is a big laugh – I need to find out what the people on the set said and did right after it happened, but this is a bad one.