Tag: Michael Wood

03
Nov

Yellow River filming

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Filming on a pontoon bridge on the Yellow River. This was actually a rare sunny day with blue skies, sadly not caught on this camera! We were very fortunate as the bridge was undergoing maintenance work so the only noise was from a queue of trucks waiting patiently for it to reopen.

09
Oct

Michael marvels at the size of the planets in China

while the locals get on with their shopping under the night sky, forests, umbrellas and snow trees.

This shopping mall is in Xi’an, one of the oldest cities in China, and the location of the capital during the Han, Sui and Tang, several of China’s greatest dynasties.

 

09
Oct

Bored with being a TV presenter….

Michael in class

Michael is a hit as the new TEFL teacher in China!

Michael visited this school at the site of the tomb of Du Fu, one of China’s best loved poets. The pupils showed Michael around and shared their enthusiasm for eighth century verse, and their pride in the super-hero poet linked to their own home town.

15
Aug

King Alfred and the Anglo Saxons

AlfredHere’s another chance to see Episode 2 of King Alfred and the Anglo Saxons “The Lady of the Mercians”, presented by Michael Wood. BBC4 next Tuesday at 20.00PM. And if you missed episode 1, there’s still time to catch up on iPlayer!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b038dbd5

06
Aug
04
Aug

Hoping for continuing good weather

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We’re filming this week in Warwickshire, please let there be sun….

30
Jul

Recent Work

Du Fu: China’s Greatest Poet

Sir Ian McKellen reads the poetry, Michael Wood traces the journey on the ground. Together they conjure up the extraordinary life, times and words of China’s greatest poet, Du Fu.

From the Yellow River to the Yangtze Gorges, and down to the forested hills of Hunan, Michael Wood travels in the footsteps of China’s most-loved poet. Born in 712, the age of Beowulf in Britain, Du Fu lived through the violent fall of China’s brilliant Tang dynasty. As rebel armies sacked the capital, and floods and famine wrecked the country, he was forced to flee, taking his family on the roads as refugees.

But out of these events he produced what Harvard’s Stephen Owen calls ‘the greatest poems in the Chinese language’, words that ever since have been seen as an expression of what it means to be Chinese. ‘There is Dante, there’s Shakespeare, and there’s Du Fu,’ says Owen. ‘These poets create the very standard by which great poetry is judged.’ But though in the east Du Fu is an immortal, in the west, even today, few have even heard of him.

In this film, the first to ever be made about Du Fu in the west, Michael follows his tracks by road, train and riverboat. Along the way, he meets ordinary people, dancers and musicians, who help to tell the amazing story of a poet whose words have resonated through the centuries, describing the experiences of ordinary people caught up in war, corruption, famine and natural disasters. ‘I am one of the privileged. If my life is so bitter, then how much worse is the life of the common people?’

In China, poets have always been seen as the trusted chroniclers of the people’s hearts and the nation’s history. And for the Chinese, Du Fu is ‘more than a poet,’ says Wood. ‘For generations he has been the guardian of the moral conscience of the nation.’

BBC page with clips

21
Jul

New crew member in China

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Everyone pitches in on Maya Vision shoots, even the contributors. In this case a Buddhist monks at the Temple in ?

21
Jul

Shooting at Mary Arden’s Stratford

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Waytes and Measures play in Mary Arden’s house in Wilmcote. A real life Vermeer in action…

18
Jul