SIMON LUDGATE
Director / Producer / Writer

Massive Speed

This was crazy. 

I was presented with the opportunity of writing and directing two of the episodes in a series on things which go fast for Discovery Channel.

I chose the history of helicopters and motorcycles. I was in bliss til I remembered I had to do it in 30 minutes. That was when the pain started. How do you condense your two favourite subjects into two tv half hours?  

With great difficulty, actually. The stories and machinery we had to leave out were agony! Both subjects could easily run to an 8 part series – and if anyone fancies commissioning anything along those lines I’m there – so I ended up with the Hind, Apache and Lynx helicopters which our host Chris "Rimmer" Barrie was able to familiarise himself with intimately.  

With the bike show we were able to go to the Isle of Man, home of the Manx TT.  Oooh matron! They even closed the really fast part of the 37 mile circuit for us across the mountain section and I had to keep pinching myself.

Chris fell in love with a 1914 Rudge Multigear. In fact he bought one a few months later.  

Manx TT winner Richard “Milky” Quayle became a firm friend while we were staying on the island. He brought along his Ducati and performed a few blistering sequences for the camera and took me for a familiarisation run along the mountain circuit.  

I was following him on something equally sporty and trying fairly hard but he’d disappeared within three corners but I caught him up when he stopped for tea.  

It's fascinating following a racer of Richard's calibre through corners at high speed. He commits his selection of speed, line and gear going into the corner in a blink cos he knows exactly the right combination then stays with it. If you have the doodads to copy him, you get sucked through the corner faster than you thought possible but I challenge anyone to keep it up for the entire 37 mile circuit and not bottle it first time. Very, very exciting trying though.

Richard has decided to retire from racing after a monumental accident when he hit a stone wall at around 150 mph in the TT. He woke up by the roadside wearing his pelvis on his head. He runs around like a jet propelled rabbit today but is very lucky to be alive.  

Lovely guy and I will always be in awe of his end to end  time on the Island in his Citroen Picasso which he uses for cabbing – 11 minutes. It took me 26 minutes no matter how hard I tried.  

And he’s called Milky because he looks like the Milky Bar Kid from the kids advert – he really does!

To watch video click here.

Copyright © 2008 Simon Ludgate