Arthur’s Hell on High Water

Wall To Wall

I was Shooting PD on a 10 day trip off the coast of Cornwall on a Cornish beam Trawler. This involved following the presenter as he worked as part of the deck crew in whatever weather was thrown at us. Around the clock, the nets would be hauled every three hours then the catch would be sorted, prepped and stored in the fish hold. Having worked at sea a lot, I soon had my sea legs and enjoyed living cheap by jail with Arthur and the crew.


This was the first production I ever worked on that was fully tapeless, and I was the designated DIT! As everyone was finding their feet at that stage, I had a Pelicase the size of a fridge filled with various hard drives, and a DIT Protocol that involve a staggering amount of backups!


We all survived the Haul was good, Arthur got his share of the money and the film became part of the 'Hugh's Phil Fish Fight' series on Channel 4





""Chef and eco-friendly restaurateur Arthur Potts Dawson is passionate about the environment and sustainable food, and not exactly a fan of trawler fishing – boats fish with huge nets and catch vast numbers of fish, some of which end up dead and are thrown back into the ocean because they cannot be sold.


Trawler-men risk their lives on a daily basis battling the forces of the ocean. But with fish stocks in crisis, many environmentalists want to put an end to commercial trawler fishing. For the men who carry out this incredibly physical job however, it's all about economic survival.


In a bid to understand the realities faced by the trawler-men who are trying to make ends meet, Arthur takes to the seas for one week, living and working alongside lifelong fishermen on a commercial trawler and testing his ethics as he sees first hand the struggles faced by commercial fishermen. He has to find his sea legs and work round the clock to help deliver the right catch while tackling the rough seas.


Will the experience challenge Arthur's preconceptions, or will he still believe that a fisherman's methods and way of life need to change for the good of our seas?""