Interview: Neville Kidd, cameraman

Published on Saturday 7 November 2009 10:52

FROM a mad rush to hospital after a bite from a poisonous caterpillar to picking up a Bafta in the space of just two days.

They are the kind of hazards and highs you'd expect David Attenborough to encounter, rather than a cameraman working on the TV series A History of Scotland, which returns to our screens tomorrow.

Edinburgh-born director of photography Neville Kidd wasn't deep in the jungle, chasing an elusive shot of an exotic creature, he was safely – he thought – tucked up in bed.

Neville, 42, was with the show's presenter, Neil Oliver, in Jamaica in search of Scotland's links with the slave trade.

He recalls: "We were flying back and had a 2:30pm flight, and I woke at nine in the morning and jumped out of bed and noticed that my foot was black.

"I jumped into the shower and it wouldn't rub off. In the time it took me to have my shower it had grown about an inch, the veins were going black like tentacles. I went downstairs to the fixer who was looking after us, and he said, 'Oh s***, hospital – now'.

"The black was the poison from something that had bitten me. By this point it had moved up my leg, and by the time I got to the hospital it was up to my knee and I was starting to feel faint.

"They managed to give me an anti-venom medication – it turned out it was a venomous caterpillar that I'd lain on."

He boarded a plane back to the UK as soon as he was given the all-clear, and just two days later was receiving a gong at the British Academy Television Craft Awards for best factual photography, in recognition of his work on the programme's first series.

"I got the Bafta when I was still on medication so it was a bit like, 'Is this real, is this really happening?'," he says.

Most of the cameraman's work on the series was closer to home, however. Edinburgh's skyline features prominently against piercing blue winter heavens. By turning the camera skyward, Neville cunningly avoids ground-level, turning the Capital into a timeless backdrop where the Covenanters are just as easily conjured up as today's crazed jumble of tram works and tourists.

Preparations start well ahead of shooting. "We made a decision early on to make it as cinematic-looking as possible, so we used the same lenses that you use in cinema – which also keeps everything out of focus in the background, and keeps 21st century out of the background. It concentrates everything more on to Neil," he says.

According to Neville, the presenter is as popular with crews as he is with viewers. He says: "Neil's fantastic to work with. He's a presenter who carries the tripod for you – which is how camera crews measure presenters. Even if you're filming on top of a hill, he'll carry it to the top of the hill."

This series begins with him perched atop the Bass Rock for a stunning, sweeping sequence – one of Neville's personal highlights, having spent his childhood holidays in North Berwick.

But he has other reasons for being a fan of local shoots – five of them, in fact. Married to TV and film producer Carolynne Sinclair Kidd, they have four children aged between six and 18, so anything which keeps him close to their Glasgow home is a bonus.

Nonetheless, he has spent huge chunks of time working abroad since training at Napier University in the 1980s, and it's not only tiny critters like the caterpillar that pose a threat.

"I had a narrow escape in Malawi when I got attacked by an elephant when we were doing Scotland's Empire.

"We were filming some elephants with their babies, we came across them in the jungle and the fixer said, 'This is not good, we need to get away'.

"We got half a mile away and started filming again, but we didn't realise one of the mothers had come round the side and charged us. I had to pick up the camera and the driver had to start the car as we were diving into it. The elephant ran past and just missed us.

"The great thing was that the camera was still running as I threw it in the car, so you got all these fantastic sounds."

Despite the dangers, he never finds himself pining for a desk job. He adds: "You never think anything's going to happen to you, you'd think it's as safe as you'd be in an office."

Born in Edinburgh, the family, including parents George, a heating engineer, and housewife Lesley, left for Lenzie when Neville was just a toddler. He returned in 1986, however, for three years on Napier's photography and film degree course.

He recalls: "Our first student film was Macbeth. I don't think we ever finished it. Then I did a film called The Christening. We filmed in winter in a castle near Oban in the middle of the worst snowfall they'd seen for many years. I lost half my cast because they'd either got snowed in or their cars had come off the road."

He is pleased with the work he has done in Scotland since, and it has proved popular with people other than the Bafta judges.

He says: "I think History of Scotland is the thing I'm most proud of. I couldn't believe the reaction, it's the one programme that everybody comes up to me and says, 'I just have to tell you that I thought it was fantastic'. I've had more reaction about that than about anything else I've done."

A History of Scotland starts tomorrow at 9pm on BBC One. On 11 November, there will be an Open University debate at The Hub in Castlehill featuring series producers and historians to debate the issues around presenting Scotland's history. On 29 November, Eddi Reader and others will join the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra at the Usher Hall for a performance of music from the series.