Alex Godfrey was old school, done his time at the BBC, learning how to be a damn good producer. He'd even survived a brief stint working on Dr Who, the famous burial ground of TV careers. True he was a bit of a cliché, a gay TV producer, about to buy a house near the coast with his boyfriend, but he was still the best TV producer in the reality TV game.
"We've been here three weeks Mel, no one has died. Get them out there for a few scenes with the finds."
Mel was his long standing assistant, who'd probably go on to far greater things than Dig Quest. In theory, the show was all about a group of archaeologists digging around for four days, in the hope of finding the Holy Grail, or a big shiny sword. People sent in thousands of letters, asking for their village or manor house to get the Dig Quest treatment. In reality, each episode took over a month, with weeks of pre-production research. They also cleared up after themselves, which could take another week to ten days. TV audiences liked tension and peril though, so they pretended it all happened in just four days.
"Josh insists something touched his arm." Said Mel. "He won't go back into the cellar, until you've checked over that corner."
Mel was giving him her, 'this is serious, I'm not fucking about,' look.
"And he wants more lights down there." She added.
"Then we lose the atmosphere." He replied. "Light it up like a football match and it looks fake, loses that Indiana Jones moment when Josh hold up the thing we found a month ago."
"You need to tell Josh, he won't listen to me anymore."
Josh was a pro, he'd presented dozens of reality TV shows. He turned up on time, never caused trouble and sat in his trailer for most of the day. If Josh was getting a bit flustered, there was something to be worried about.
"Fine, I'll go and work my charm on him." Said Alex.
Mel was grinning at him.
"Must you ? He's scared enough already."
"Yeah, yeah, come on sweet Mel, we'll look at that corner of the cellar first. You can be my witness that we found no boggy man, or Michal Myers waiting to pounce."
They left the marquee the production team used as a war room and walked the twenty yards or so to the wide open French windows. Cables went everywhere; it was a health and safety nightmare that the public never saw. Alex stepped over the various junction boxes and across the deserted lounge area. They'd been given a free run of the place; the current owners had seemed pleased to leave for a few weeks. Two basements and then a door to the lower cellars, Alex had been walking the same route for weeks.
"I thought I told everyone to keep this door locked."
"I think the lighting guy is still down there."
The old wooden stairs wobbled, but they'd been checked out by an expert and pronounced as safe. There was a lighting guy, hanging a couple of spots, for the upcoming 'money shot.' Josh was going to get excited about the find of the century and hold up a piece of Saxon jewellery. Just so long as they could persuade Josh to enter the cellar again. Alex was already formulating a plan B, maybe filming the scene by the pretty bridge over the lake.
"Can you use a Steadicam ?" He asked.
Officially all the expensive tech was supposed to be under lock and key, a kid at one dig had run off with a hugely valuable, broadcast quality TV recorder. They were underground though, well away from the local urchins and their sticky fingers. Josh picked up the high tech piece of kit, offering it to Mel.
