In this first instalment of a new blog series, we speak to Mike O’Regan — line producer on Delicious, Fisherman’s Friends, The Coroner and Malory Towers. Mike talks career changes, crewing, and why a Cornish set is a happy set.
Mike never intended to become a line producer. In fact, he amassed a wealth of credits as first assistant director on series such as Being Human, Doctor Who, Spooks and My Mad Fat Diary. But he tells me he can’t imagine doing his current job without having that experience to draw on. ‘I think that all line producers should have been first ADs’, he says, though he admits that the shift from running the filming floor and ‘getting irritated by line producers interfering' came with a significant adjustment period.
So why make the leap at all? ‘Circumstance’, says Mike. When he was approached by BBC Birmingham and asked to line produce The Coroner (shot in Devon and Cornwall), he initially refused. But they kept asking. ’In the end I caved in! I thought, why not? As it’s local, I’ll give it a go.’ It’s easy to see the appeal. Having moved back to Cornwall as soon as possible following his training on Casualty (then based in Bristol), Mike spent the next fifteen years working outside the county.
By contrast, his work as a line producer has predominantly taken place in reasonable proximity to his Liskeard home. Mike neatly summarises the role. ’It’s my job as a Line Producer to get it made lawfully, safely, on budget and on schedule.’ Indeed, since giving it a go on The Coronor, he’s been kept busy doing all of the above for Cornwall-based productions Delicious, Fisherman’s Friends, and the forthcoming adaptation of Enid Blyton’s Malory Towers.
Perhaps it goes without saying that productions like these, and many more besides, come to Cornwall because there are more stunning locations here than you can point a camera at. Contrary to popular belief, they’re not all beaches and clifftops either. Mike tells me he’s stood in landlocked fields with directors who ‘feel like a kid with a goodie bag’, saying they ‘want to shoot everything, because it’s beautiful’.
It’s not just directors, DoPs and Mike who prefer the Cornish versions of their jobs. ‘Crews are happy to be here’, he says, and he has evidence. He tells the story of one ‘famously grumpy’ crew member who was uncharacteristically easygoing on set. When Mike asked why, he received a simple answer — “Every day I get up and work on a beach somewhere!” It’s certainly a welcome change of scene from ‘smelly old London’ for many, while those who live locally are ‘chuffed to bits at the rare opportunity to work from home’.
Self-professed ‘cynical old salt’ though he is, Mike delights in reiterating his overwhelmingly positive experience on Cornish sets. ’It’s extraordinary. Just a lovely atmosphere, full of happy people having a lovely time.’ Not to put too fine a point on it, but his experience of working elsewhere has been…well, not that.
Why, then, don’t more productions come down here? Mike recalls at least one discussion regarding a script set in Cornwall that ended in the decision to shoot elsewhere. The problem, he says, is that producers mistakenly believe they’ll have to bring crew from London, Bristol or Cardiff, and therefore incur hefty accommodation costs.
The solution? Crew locally. The county is full-to-bursting with talented and experienced professionals who have either always lived here, or built their careers elsewhere before moving down, and Mike has repeatedly proved he can crew a job locally with ‘top quality people’. While he’s always sought to source at least a quarter of his crew locally, he was given near-free rein on Malory Towers, and recruited around 90% from Cornwall. ‘Everyone was amazed that was possible!’ Of course, the Screen Cornwall talent databases make this a much easier proposition.
Yes, Cornwall presents some logistical challenges. ‘When you’re in London or Cardiff or Bristol, pretty much everything’s on your doorstep. When you need something, you reach out and grab it.’ This isn’t the case when shooting on Bodmin moor, for example. Cornwall is a large county, and Mike’s job as a line producer here requires more local ‘know-how’ and forward planning than it would elsewhere. The flip side, he feels, is that, ‘There’s more of a sense of achievement when you’ve made the show, because of where you are.’
Furthermore, Mike believes that it is in some respects ‘easier’ to shoot in Cornwall. While the major filming cities grow increasingly ‘film savvy’, he finds that ‘people aren’t sick of you’ in Cornwall — this means a better relationship between crew and community, and less red tape for Mike to navigate when pulling it all together.
With our time almost up, I ask Mike what’s in store for the start of 2020. The answer, as it turns out, is a well-earned rest. ’I’ve done two years solid! I finished in November, and I’m putting my feet up!’ Scanning through his formidable list of credits once more, that strikes me as fair enough — though it’s hard to imagine he’ll be sat still for long.
Written by Alex MJ Smith, with thanks to Mike O’Regan.
