We Were On TV!
Behind the scenes of our TV debut
“We were on TV”. These are four words that we never thought we’d say. Partly because we don’t think that we’re special enough (we’re just us!), but mostly because we have absolutely no desire to be on TV. We’ve been approached a number of times in the past by production companies wanting us to take part in various shows, but we’ve always turned them down. You might wonder why, but there are a few reasons… We don’t have much confidence in front of the camera, even when it comes to our YouTube videos, and the fact that we’d have absolutely no editorial control has always put us off. Add to this the bad reputation that caravanners tend to get in the name of television entertainment, and it’s not difficult to see why we try to avoid these things like the plague.
So what changed our minds?
Back in December 2021 we received an email regarding an upcoming tv show. As bad as it sounds, like usual, our initial thoughts were to “just ignore it and hope it goes away”. However, this became difficult as the second and third emails came in… Then by the fourth we were both growing more and more curious. We decided it was time to find out exactly what they wanted and why they specifically chose us, so we arranged a telephone call with the producer, who turned out to be really lovely and understanding. It took some convincing, but by the time the call had ended we had a better idea of the show, and decided that perhaps it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to consider taking part. The producers put a lot of emphasis on wanting to show people that you can enjoy caravanning and motorhoming no matter what abilities you have, and after all, inspiring people to get out and explore is the main reason Adventure Wheels was born! Our segment would only be a few minutes, so how bad could it be?
And so, it was decided… We would participate in Channel 5’s “Today At The Caravan Show”
Fast forward about a month, and everything was starting to feel a lot more real. We’d had multiple conversations with the producers and a date for filming had been set. Thankfully, the lovely people at The Caravan and Motorhome Club allowed us to use their Hunter’s Moon site as our filming location - It would’ve taken a lot to fully settle our nerves, but being on a familiar campsite definitely helped!
Soon enough the day had arrived, and after an introduction with the friendly film crew we got started with gathering footage. It was fascinating to see behind the scenes, and everything went as smoothly as we could’ve hoped for, given it was our TV debut. Unfortunately (or not!) at the time of filming I was still struggling with voice loss, so Stephen had to do all of the talking on camera, with a few prompts from me in between. This worked very well until the cameraman threw a curveball question at him - “So what is it you like most about Karla?”. Like a deer in headlights he turned to me, his mind completely blank, and asked in desperation “What do I like about you?!”. It was a hilariously awkward few minutes of him trying to remember why he’s been with me for the last 15 years, before he settled on “She’s a lovely person”… *facepalm*
Of course as soon as we left the glare of cameras he was able to reel off plenty of reasons, as well as some great answers he could’ve used for other interview questions, but that’s always the way. I think he did a fantastic job of putting across why we love caravanning, and I hope it reaches people who might not know that it’s even an option for them. If we can inspire just one person to live their dreams then it would have all been worth it!
You can catch up with “Today At The Caravan Show” on My5, Channel 5’s on demand service.
The mini-series features a few familiar faces; including our good friends Andrew Ditton, Karina Ingham from Here We Tow, and Martin Dorey. You can catch Stephen and I towards the end of episode 2 (first aired 24/02/22)!