30 Years as an Adventure Cameraman.: Book Two - Hanging on a Thred.

ln his years working for Television. multi-award-winning cameraman Sid Perou originated or played a major role in something like 50 television films. This book tells the untold stories behind the making of those films, which are sometimes as entertaining as the films themselves, sometimes precarious, sometimes dangerous, but more often outrageous and funny.

In the mid-sixties, Sid was working as an assistant sound-recordist for the BBC film Unit at Ealing Film Studios, but in his free time was travelling up to Yorkshire where he had become a passionate about the caves and with left-over lengths of l6 mm film from the BBC he had begun experimenting with filming underground. When the BBC decided to make a programme about a cave rescue. Sid found himself seconded to do camerawork. with the delicate task of filming on an actual cave rescue as it happened. The resulting film which tragically ended in the death of the young man concerned has a big impact on Sid. He left the stability of working for the BBC to move into a caving hut in the Yorkshire Dales. He was determined to pursue the techniques of underground filming and wanted to show his chosen sport in a more positive light. It took a year to get his first commission. (The Lost River of Gaping Gill 1970) but his first efforts. using a clockwork Bolex camera and homemade lights. were well received A letter from Chris Braisher, who was controller of BBC2 at the time. says that it - “contained some of the most beautiful footage I have ever seen on television". The most fruitful period. however. came when Sid forged a relationship with Bill Greaves, the Area Manager of BBC North in Leeds. An extremely ambitious 5 part series “Beneath the Pennines" brought the first awards and brought Sid to the notice of a wider public. Sid then found himself having to cast his net wider and turned his attention to climbing, using the rope techniques that he had learned while caving to move up the rock face with the climber. Once again "Rock Athlete" was seen as a landmark series in the sport and attracted awards. Since those days, Sid has brought his always innovative approach to other adventure sports like hot-air ballooning, hang gliding, canoeing, and microlight flying and has filmed in many countries and for prestigious companies like the National Film Board of Canada National Geographic and Nova. Throughout the 8O.s he became one of the best known cameramen in Britain.

The greatest accolade came in 1993 when he won a PRIMETIME EMMY AWARD for the work that he did for National Geographic Television in the USA.