a walk on the wild side the extraordinary life of by gillian greenwood “I know of no pleasure deeper than that which comes from contemplating Neilthe natural world and trying to understandLucas it” - Sir David Attenborough Neil Lucas, a dedicated Nikon Neil grew up with a wonderful user, is a producer for the plethora of wildlife all around BBC’s Natural History Unit. him, an idyllic childhood full He has worked with David of nesting kestrels, barn owls Attenborough on three of his and other creatures. One of major series: The Trials of Life, his most vivid early memories The Private Life of Plants and was of his father bringing The Life of Mammals, as well as into his bedroom a family of individual films for Wildlife on hedgehogs that normally lived One and The Natural World. He under the garden shed. As spent the early part of this year a child he drew everything in the depths of the rain forests of Kenya filming he could find, from insects to horses and driver ants for a future edition of The Natural World. imaginary country scenes with ducks and other He has just returned from working on a six-week farm animals. The prize toy of his early years shoot on Corfu, directing the filming of all the was a model Commer van with a detachable wildlife and second-unit shoots for a BBC drama cameraman that could be put on the front, from based on the story of Gerald Durrell, My Family which he would pretend to film spiders and and Other Animals, to be aired on Boxing Day woodlice around the house. He created his own this year. An extraordinary sense of adventure, ‘flick books’ and, fascinated by how images his infectious enthusiasm for the subject and his moved, he progressed to a toy Zoetrope, with astonishing body of work as a producer for wildlife a spinning drum and viewing slit, making his programmes are apparent in both the images he own cardboard inserts – some of his earliest takes and the story he tells. attempts at animation and film-making. 14 15 Fig Tree, Kenya I really like this shot, Neil Lucas it’s the sort of tree I wish I had in my local woodland. It’s pure size and root structure made it the focal hen did you holidays, I would help out at point of the forest first become a local wildlife park, gradually for humans and animals alike. I sat interested in spending more time at the park here for many photography? than at college, which is how I first hours over a few I first started became involved in television. We weeks waiting for to play with supplied animals for the children’s the right kind of cameras while series Animal Magic, which Johnny light. This was taken just before a Wstill at school. We had cameras and Morris presented live from the rain storm within 10 black & white film but no dark room, studios in Bristol. We also went minutes of sunset, so I sneaked into the University’s on location with Man and Boy so there was still photographic department, which I presented by Simon King and Mike patches of light adopted as my second playground. Kendall. We used to turn up with Morris started to explain what was to lift the buttress happening, the vision mixer switched roots and give the I wasn’t supposed to be there but hedgehogs, moles, badgers, foxes picture some depth. knew where the key was kept. and all sorts of British wildlife. to the camera onto the badger’s I always went on a Wednesday, I have some very funny hole and all we could see was a dressed up in what I thought was memories of that time. Birds we snowstorm. We discovered later University clothes, even though I was were filming often flew up into the that the hole had been made out of only thirteen or fourteen at the time. studio roof and would not come polystyrene, so naturally, when the In this way, I had unrestricted access down, but the funniest occasion badgers went in the first thing they for several months. There was was on Badgerwatch, another did was to try to dig it out. nobody there and I had great fun. I live show with Johnny Morris. found some old negative film with We took some baby badgers What was your first camera? images of Charlie Chaplin and started along to a special set at the BBC, My first SLR was a Praktica, but to print them, but sadly I was caught where they were using infrared soon afterwards I bought a Nikon and couldn’t go there any more. cameras to demonstrate how the FE2, a great camera; and as soon as wild badgers outside were being I had one I wanted another, because What did you study at Art College? televised. They had built an entire it was aggravating to change lenses I completed a foundation piece of countryside in the studio, so often. I used to go into the course in graphic design, which complete with a grassy bank with garden and practice framing and also included ceramics, pottery, a hole where the badgers from focus, following birds in flight, often sculpture and photography, which the wildlife park were supposed with no film in the camera. meant that I could finally use the to emerge. We had to put the darkroom legally! But the course badgers down the hole just I believe you worked for a conservation was too structured, as I actually before the programme went on group in the U.S.A. for a while? preferred taking cameras apart and the air. So the seconds ticked I went to the U.S.A. to work seeing what I could do with them! by, the music started, the lights for a conservation group – the dimmed, my heart was racing, Peregrine Fund, based at Cornell What was your first experience and I quickly put the badgers in University in Ithaca, upstate New working with television? their place and stepped back to York. I worked in Arizona on their At weekends and during the watch the monitors. Just as Johnny Harris hawk, peregrine and bald eagle reintroduction programmes, watching birds all day, keeping an eye on the new releases, and simultaneously shooting a lot of images. It was an extraordinary place peppered with old gold mines and coyotes and rattlesnakes all around. After I received my first photographic commission from the Peregrine Fund, I went immediately to the local camera store where I picked up a battered old Nikon F3 to add to my collection of two FE2s. I spent about four years in the States, working there in the winter and returning to the U.K. in the summer. In the U.K., I continued to train animals for film and television, including the children’s drama Seal Morning and the TV vet series All Creatures Great and Small. I supplied 16 NIKON OWNER “My first SLR was a Praktica, but soon afterwards I bought a Nikon FE2, a great camera; and as soon as I had one I wanted another ...” 17 NIKON OWNER 17 Sir David on Elephant. Phuket, Thailand. Any trip with Sir David Attenborough is a fantastic experience but this one was special. A great beach, lots of sunshine and a magnificent elephant called Orapon; unfortunately this location would have been completely wiped out by the Tsunami. kestrels, foxes and badgers and all sorts of other wildlife. Another film was Lionheart, the story of some children in their search across France for Richard the Lionheart, led by the king’s falconer. I trained the birds, and we went everywhere – France, Hungary and Portugal. One day we were flying birds from the back of an articulated truck hurtling down the streets of Budapest, which was used as a stand-in for twelfth-century Paris. Usually I was in front of the cameras, dressed up as an old falconer, or in similar guise. About this time, I also went to Corfu to work on My Family and Other Animals, based on Gerald Durrell’s classic book. I trained owls to fly around rooms and down olive groves. Oddly enough, I have just returned from working on a six-week shoot on Corfu, directing the filming of all the wildlife and second-unit shoots for a remake of the story, to be aired on Boxing Day this year. How did you join the BBC’s Natural History Unit (NHU)? I was originally asked first to work on a film about owls in the Wildlife on One series, but I was in the U.S.A. at the time; subsequently I was asked if I would like to work for four days on a new project, Supersense, overseen by wildlife film producer John Downer. They wanted to film a blue tit flying alongside a car, which we achieved. Four days became four weeks and so on….I have been with the Unit now for 17 years. What is your role within BBC’s Natural History Unit? As a producer, I tend to be drawn into the more technically orientated projects. I get involved 18 NIKON OWNER Neil Lucas “David Attenborough was a childhood hero of mine” in creating new equipment and filming techniques, and it is quite a challenge to keep the NHU ahead of the game. I’ve worked, for instance, with David Attenborough on three of his major series, The Trials of Life, The Private Life of Plants, and The Life of Mammals, and have worked on individual films for Wildlife on One and The Natural World.