In fact what Queen Elizabeth I is supposed to have said, when she came on a visit in 1574, was that she thought St Mary Redcliffe "the fairest, goodliest and most famous parish church in England". We've chosen it as a representative of the glories of the English parish church. Glorious it certainly is, with the second (or third, depending on which architectural historian you believe) highest spire in the country and a soaring nave into which light streams from lofty windows. All over the church there are astonishing details: a porch built in an oriental style; a roof with more than a thousand stone bosses, each one individually designed; 15th century tombs; and connections through history with Handel, Hogarth and the boy poet Thomas Chatterton, who committed suicide in London at the age of seventeen.
We have Saturday to film the church, and this is the first day that we put the camera on a jib arm. This really smart piece of equipment allows us to raise the camera up to about 12 feet above the ground and also to swing it (carefully!) in arcs and circles. At one point director of photography Ian Serfontein and I discover that we do a 360-degree shot about which we get boyishly excited. The downside of the jib is that it takes a long time to set up and is tricky to manipulate, but we have the luxury of two full filming days here, and it unquestionably helps bring out the "goodliest" qualities of the interior.
On Sunday we film, as unobtrusively as we can, the 9.30am Sung Eucharist. Afterwards we shoot exteriors and many more details of the architecture before spending the afternoon with Revd Dr Simon Taylor who takes us around the church and speaks (beautifully!) about his sense of worshipping in such an architectural masterpiece. We are also graced on Sunday with a clear blue sky, and our only frustration is that we can't talk our way into a building site across from the church to take some shots from the balcony of a new block of offices. "Sorry, mate, more than my job's worth…"
The highlight of the two days is a boat trip on the local ferry that takes tourists and commuters around the Bristol docks. We want some shots of St Mary from the water to bring out its historical connections with the docks and trade. As we walk down to the boat stop at Saturday lunchtime the disappointing grey sky of the morning begins to break up and blue patches to shine through. By the time we're shooting, and despite the bitter cold, the sky looks glorious and the spire of St Mary is magnificent. Inevitably, as everywhere, people want to know what we're filming. "A series about architecture and faith," we explain, "for Sky Arts." Sometimes the response is a disappointed, "Oh we don't have Sky" but an older couple on the boat promise to look out for the programme. "We really enjoyed your programmes on the National Trust," they say. So we should be able to count on two viewers. (John Wyver)
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