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The weather in the Philippines was extremely hot and humid and doing anything but lying down was tough.

The athletes joined us in the town of Baras about 45mins on unfinished roads from the village and training school.

They made that journey in a local Jeepney.

This is essentially an old US-style army Jeep with a roof and stretched like a limousine.

The locals use them like buses, and they were a ubiquitous sight, together with pedal-powered tuk-tuks.

The Philippines was easily the most openly friendly place that I've ever filmed in. And because Sikaran really is a massive part of the lives of our trainers, their enthusiasm was infectious both for the boys and for us.

But the brutality of the sport was hammered home before we even started filming, as Chris, a local heavy-weight champion (and amazing karaoke singer), broke his arm whilst doing a demonstration for us.

He was distraught at having to miss the final competition against our guys, but soon cheered up when we asked him to help Randy tutor Joey and Ed.

Training generally took place in the early mornings, followed by a 3-4 hour siesta and then a late afternoon session. For the crew this meant rising early to film the sunrise, and going to bed late to get the sun setting.

The shoot itself was fairly straight forward from a logistics perspective, but that didn't stop it carrying real risks.

Close medical support proved critical when Jarvis broke his fingers, Murray's knee continued to cause him problems, and almost all the athletes' feet suffered from constant training, barefoot, on hard ground.

The hard work and skills of our local crew, led by our fixer Inky allowed us to cope with all these unexpected problems without too much fuss.

My friends often ask me just how real the Last Man Standing experience is for the athletes, and whether we as crew ever slip them some extra food.
                                                   
Before every location all the athletes' bags are checked for food.

All the extravagant trappings of western life are removed - mp3 players, phones, hair gel, even mirrors.  We deliberated for a long time before deciding to allow them to keep toothbrushes.

In the Philippines, I guess after being driven to distraction by eating nothing but reindeer in Kamchatka, the boys tried to smuggle in a bag of goodies.

But the goodies were spotted and confiscated before they reached the village.

At the end of the week, having enjoyed their time with their hosts so much, the athletes were happy for us to pass on this contraband to their surrogate mothers.

Tim Pyke , Production Co-ordinator

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