What next when the phone rings?

You never know quite what the next phone call will bring to the BAS office.  This is both a joy and a terror, depending on how things go.  A recent example illustrates how some events develop in unexpected ways……

I took a call from the Latin TV production office along the lines of, “We are making a documentary to celebrate the 200^th anniversary of the declaration of independence in Peru and want to feature the influence of Peru around the world, can you help us find some alpacas in the UK?”  (28th July 2021 if you are interested).

There were some fairly narrow dates of availability and some fairly tight geography for the venue, along with a plea to meet a “typical” UK alpaca owner.  After some phoning around I found a willing host on the route of the camera crew and a date and time was fixed.

The farm host, for the filming, then asked if it would be OK to see if the local news team would be interested in reporting on the Peruvians filming alpacas in sunny Bedfordshire.   Two takers appeared in the form of BBC TV South Today and BBC Three Counties Radio.

The radio interview turned out to be a preview of the event and a general chat about alpacas – which went well. You can find the interview here if you are interested.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p09k1jgc   start at 2:16:55 runs to 2:23:

On the day of filming the BBC chap turned up at the appointed time and explained that his “story” was the Peruvian team coming to the UK to film alpacas. So, when the Peruvian team turned up (a little late but not too bad) we had the slightly surreal scene of the BBC reporter filming Latin TV filming me and the farm host talking about alpacas in the UK.  I am not sure when this will be used but I can update when I know.

Just when we thought we had seen everything one of the Peruvian production team appeared in Peruvian National Costume to pose for pictures with everyone and the resident alpacas too……

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