The fifth series and Michael Palin’s latest journey for 5 – Michael Palin in the Philippines lands on the channel this week.
The three-parter took Palin and the ITN Productions team to the Philippines, following his hugely popular journeys to Venezuela, Nigeria, Iraq, and North Korea.
In a Televisual behind-the-scenes exclusive, series producer and director Neil Ferguson describes why they chose the Philippines and the challenges of filming.
Michael Palin in the Philippines is the fifth series we have produced with Michael for 5. The ITN Productions team is accustomed to setting up the complex security and health and safety arrangements that make the documentaries possible, but, before that infrastructure kicks in, we have to decide where we’re heading.
I have been wanting to take Michael to Southeast Asia for a while and, although we considered several other countries, The Philippines was the first place we suggested to him, and it just felt like a good fit.
As soon as I read that Bongbong Marcos was President, four decades after his notorious parents were thrown out of power in 1986, I was hooked and when I then read that a third of the country is on the UK Foreign Office ‘do not travel’ list, any fears that The Philippines was too ‘safe’, evaporated.
Each of the Palin series we have done have had very different production team set ups. When we made contact with Inky Nakpil and Girlie Linao at Fixer Ink about this project, we realised they had the skills and experience to take on the combined the role of fixer and assistant producer, along with their team, led by Maki Calilung. This was in October, with the recce needing to take place in November and the shoot mid-February, we had to move fairly fast.
Recces are essential on these projects. As producer/director, not only do they allow me to see locations and meet contributors, but they also help me to understand a country on a much deeper level.
Each series of Palin has had its challenges to set up but with The Philippines we raised our ambitions, possibly because in many ways it is a more functional country than other places we have gone to, so I thought we could achieve more. I was determined to film on the militarised island of Pagasa and our commissioning editor, Guy Davies at 5, was determined we would film with a member of the Marcos family, and both for episode one.
On the recce, Girlie and I had meetings with four different branches of the military to get permission to film on Pagasa and after that there were months of further meetings and endless follow up calls.
With the Marcos family, we first focused on Imee Marcos, Bongbong’s sister and a Senator; we met her team on the recce and chased her for months, but when she publicly accused her brother of being a drug addict, allegations that he denied, we pivoted our attention back to the President himself.
Despite our attempts to secure access to Pagasa and a Marcos, we began the shoot not having either. We only got permission to fly to Pagasa the morning we were supposed to go there.
Securing an interview with the President himself was also down to the wire. The turning point was when I realised, aged 68, there must be a high chance he was a Python fan and asked Girlie to use her contacts at the Presidential Palace to tell Bongbong about Michael and miraculously, it worked and the door opened.
We filmed with him on the morning of the day we were flying back to London and thought we’d have about two minutes with The President but he walked into the room gushing about Python, I realised we would be there for much longer. We did come worryingly close to not getting a Marcos or access to Pagasa island and I am very aware of how the margin between success and failure on these shoots is often razor thin.
We shoot three 45-minute episodes in three weeks including travel, supported throughout by the team back home, headed up by executive producers Jeremy Daldry and Ian Rumsey with Emma Stone as production manager. The schedule was demanding and most of the time we are in different hotels each night. On this shoot, we also had two overnights on planes, one in a pretty basic beach camp, one where four of us shared a room in a shed in Pagasa, plus two on bunk beds on the open deck of an overnight ferry. Stomach issues, injuries and illness are all part of the mix on these shoots, but Michael always seems to bounce through them, ailment free, and is normally the first one at the bar.
One of the things I am most proud of with the Palin series on 5 is that most of the creative team have worked on all of them. Michael (obviously!), myself and Jaimie Gramston (DOP) have been to all five countries, while Eddie Haselden has edited each episode and Miguel d’Oliveria has composed the soundtrack for all of them. The craft all the creative team bring to the production is a joy to watch and while we often bicker and occasionally fall out, it’s very much an ITN Productions family.
Story picture: Manila – L-R, Neil Ferguson, Jaimie Gramston, Girlie Linao and Alex Lobsang (camera operator and drone)
Ferry to Jolo – L-R, Neil Ferguson and Michael Palin
Pippa Considine
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