GMTV Magazine - September 1997

Great balls of fire!

The 10TH series of London's Burning comes to our screens in September with a two-part special that's guaranteed to set ratings records ablaze.

Thirty youngsters are having the time of their lives, dancing to the thud of the disco beat on a train hired for a surprise 21ST birthday party.

But their carefree fun comes to a violent end when an aerosol can explodes in the buffet car. Within minutes, red hot flames engulf four carriages, trapping the screaming victims inside.

The speeding death trap comes smashing into Shadbrooke Station. Suddenly, a huge blast sets fire to a nearby goods train, which goes up like a tinderbox and explodes into a ball of fire and black smoke.

This chaotic scene is every fire-fighter's nightmare. It's also the moment when almost £1 million goes up in smoke in a two-part special that starts on Sunday 7 September, when the hit series London's Burning returns to our screens.

This, the show's most lavish and technically difficult disaster to date, took months to plan and eight days to shoot.

To stage the series of explosions in safety, the programme makers filmed on a track in an enclosed railway in the Neen Valley in Peterborough, near where last year's major disaster scene was shot.

Heart-throb actor John Alford, who plays fire-fighter Billy Ray says, "We do a bigger and better explosion every year. Last year we went to Peterborough and blew half of it up, and this year we're blowing up the other half. By the time we're finished, there won' be anything left."

When the fireball explosion on the goods train was shot, traffic on the A1 roadway was temporarily stopped in case startled drivers witnessed the life-like scene caused an accident.

Actress Zoe Heyes, who plays sub-officer Carole Webb, knows just how difficult it is sometimes to distinguish fiction from reality.

"It was the biggest stunt I've ever been involved in," says Zoe, who plays the woman who replaced actor Sean Blowers when he decided to leave the series two years ago.

"I was rescuing people from the train and the director warned me that after the count of three there would be a major blast. But nothing prepared me for the extent of the explosion.

"I was genuinely frightened. Sometimes you can get caught up in the reality of it because it looks so real and you get this surge of adrenaline. You find yourself thinking, ' What if something goes wrong?'"

While Webb, Recall, Billy Ray and the rest of the Blue Watch team were rescuing passengers and battling against the inferno, the show's technical adviser Nobby Clark made sure everything ran smoothly.

Eighteen real-life fire-fighters from the Cambridge Fire and Rescue Service and paramedics were on hand throughout in case of a real emergency.

"There are always dangers shooting anything like this, but you try to reduce the chance through risk management," says Clark, an ex-fireman with 29 years experience, who' s worked on the show since it began 10 years ago. "No cast or crew should be put at risk for entertainment. Over the years we've become more experienced at this and we now achieve fires far more safely.

"We've taken on bigger and bolder shoots, like this one. In many ways, we're a hostage of our own fortune because for viewers a house fire just doesn't leave a big enough impression any more."

Nobby is quick to point out that it's extremely important not to glamorise fire disasters.

"Big special effects fire scenes make good drama," he says. "But it's important to remember that every time there's a fire, there's a victim. The drama in the show is also very much about the sympathy you feel for the families involved. I think that's one of the main reasons why it's so popular with real-life fire-fighters because that's such an important element."

The most difficult part of shooting the spectacular two-part episode that kicks off the series was that all of the stunts and special effects has to be carried out on a 40mph train.

A 10-strong team worked on the project for a month to plan the fine details, such as the logistics of providing 2,000 gallons of water and half a mile of piping for the propane gas used for the fire effects, as well as lighting and rigging cameras for a speeding train.

But one thing that can't be planned is the weather. And when the moment came to film the disaster in January this year, heavy storms and 70mph winds created havoc.

"Just as we were about to shoot the major explosion, the gale-force winds became so strong we had to take down the 150-foot cherry-picker [crane] that provides the lighting," Clark."That hiccup cost us half a night's shooting."

Nonetheless, the programme makers were delighted by the final results and are convinced that the breathtaking action, which lasts for 20 minutes, will keep the show's 17 million viewers glued to their screens.

"I'm particularly proud of this new series. I really think it's the best one we've done so far," says London's Burning producer Paul Knight.

While he wouldn't go into too much detail, Paul says among the show's upcoming highlights are other big special-effects shoots, including a gas explosion in a hospital, and there's plenty of drama ahead on the domestic front for the Blue Watch team.

One of the jewels in the crown this year has to be handsome newcomer Stephen Houghton, who plays fire-fighter Greg Blake.

"We're all very happy to have Stephen join the cast," says Knight. "He's both good looking and charming and, as we discovered, has the most amazing voice. In fact, he's a professionally trained singer and was in the West End musical Martin Guerre before joining us."

Before you mention actors Robson Green and Jerome Flynn - who became pop stars after performing Unchained Melody on the hit show Soldier, Soldier - the answer is yes, the plan is much the same for Stephen."

Stephen will do a rendition of Bette Midler's Wind Beneath My Wings on the show in late October, and record company RCA will release the single at the same time.
London's Burning's popularity hasn't harmed John Alford. Last year, he signed a four-album deal after his debut single Smoke Gets In Your Eyes went straight into the charts at number 13. And that was the first time he'd ever sung professionally, except for in the school choir.

Like the rest of the actors who join the show, Stephen had to undergo a two-week course at the brigade training centre in Southwark, South London, before filming the series. Every year each member of the cast returns for a refresher course.

One thing the actors aren't trained for though is the pranks played on new cast members, and that happens without exception. Actor Ben Onwukwe, who plays Stuart Mackenzie, best known as Recall because of his photographic memory, says the same prank is played over and over again.

"The classic prank is in the first week is when we film the roll call and the Blue Watch team falls out," says Ben.

"Whenever someone does it for the first time, the rest of the cast deliberately fall out in the opposite direction, and because you're so nervous you think you're the only one who messed up. It happened to me, and again recently to Stephen. There are always plenty of pranks on set. We have a lot of fun."

Ben, who joined the series six years ago, is the fourth-longest-serving member of the cast, behind Glen Murphy (George Green), Richard Walsh (Burt Quigley, nicknamed Sicknote), and Andrew Kazamia (Nick Georgiadis).

Ben says he's very fond of Recall. "He's a decent, ordinary, hard-working guy. I often accept the parts we play are close in essence to what we're really like. Billy Ray is played by John Alford and he's a cheeky Cockney guy, but great fun and cute. And guess what?... John is also a cheeky guy.

"I play a bloke who's solid and unglamorous and given the wry humour - in fact, very similar to me. I'm playing someone who's in their mid-forties and I'm 39 and I have two sons just like in the show.

"How I differ is that, unlike Recall, I have a memory like a sieve. I am infamous in my family for forgetting birthdays and anniversaries."

Ben says one of the high points of the show has been the cystic fibrosis storyline that involves his son. Through that storyline, he met people from cystic fibrosis organisations and ever since has been involved on and off in charity work for them.

This series, viewers see a new side of Recall now that his wife Laura has left him and taken the children with her.

"Billy moved in as a lodger and I kicked him out," he says. "Now Clingfilm, the irritant who makes macrobiotic suppers, has moved in and Recall goes to tremendous lengths to avoid him - especially when he finds out he goes to divorced men retreats."

Difficult times also loom ahead for Zoe's character Carole Webb. "Her husband violently attacks her and moves out of home," says Zoe, 31, who was a nurse before a lucky break in the show She's Out. "Her husband puts her in a difficult position when he asks her to lie to the police after an accident where he knocks over a cyclist when he's been drink-driving. It' a really meaty part to play."

According to Zoe, one of the most harrowing storylines in the new series is about a young boy who burns to death.

"I became very emotional when we filmed this, even though we were only using a dummy. I had to brace myself."

For Zoe, who has every reason to be terrified of fire, the story struck home. She still remembers her horror as a five-year-old when she caught fire as she pulled the fire grate aside to reach her mother's perfume on the mantelpiece. She was so badly burned she spent a year in and out of hospital having skin grafts.

"The low points of doing the show like this are some of the emotions you have to create," she continues. "When we filmed the story about the little boy burning to death, I couldn't help thinking, "This could have happened to me."

 

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