How interesting to see that "Noon's Hole" reconstruction programme once more. It was made in 1987 and I was part of the production team. It took two days to film (I use the word film but in reality it was on video tape). Because it was quite a complicated and slightly dangerous project, planning started several weeks before the event.

The "actors"

Four experienced cavers were to make the descent dressed in 1912 period costume and using climbing equipment of that era including candles in their hats for illumination. They would be accompanied by a BBC video cameraman who was also an experienced caver. He used the modern single-rope technique. His pictures were fed up cables to above ground where they were recoded on video tape.

The ladder

So the first thing was to sort out the safety aspect. To be authentic, we commissioned the construction of a 100-foot long rope ladder by Tedfords the Belfast ships chandlers. Several weeks before recording, two suited BBC London safety officers flew here to see the problems first hand. First stop was the ladder makers where there was much talk of timber strengths, ropes and strain gauges. (Incidentally you can still see part of that ladder which is now hung in the Visitor's Centre at Marble Arch Caves.) Then it was off to Fermanagh to see Noon's Hole itself.

The risks

Here we met up with representatives of the BBC engineers, the Floor Manager (who was the safety officer for the project) the rest of the production team and the cavers who were to make the descent. Plans were drawn up, no-go areas defined, safety harnesses and anchoring points discussed. Once finalised the whole gang of us repaired to a local hostelry where, sitting around the open fire, the safety people did a "risk assessment" and opened a "what if" scenario round-table discussion. Then, when all the talking was done, a local produced a fiddle, the drinks came and went, the chat got noisier, and our two suave safety men discovered the warmth and craic of an evening in an Irish pub as cavers, engineers, costume ladies, et al were taught, amid much laughter, the art of water divining over the stone flagged floor until the wee small hours.

The donkey

So safety was in hand. And as the recording date drew nearer one of the many other tasks was to find a donkey for the opening shot. The cavers lived locally and one volunteered to go searching on our behalf. However, the first couple he approached, who lived in a cottage nearby, said they would love their donkey to be on the Television but unfortunately they used him daily to draw water from the spring. Yes in 1987 people were still using a donkey to carry their water. Perhaps they still do. However, as you'll see from the start of the film, we found another donkey alright.

The nails

Then came the first day of the two-day shoot. We were all staying in Enniskillen and on the way out of the town I nipped into a hardware shop and bought a bag of 2" nails for holding up the safety zebra tape around the hole. Tape to warn the non-cavers to keep away. It was one of those delightful traditional merchants where nails were weighed out into thick brown-paper bags. So, clutching my nails, I drove up into the hills to meet the others at the site where I handed them over to the person who was to lay out the tape. A few minutes later he returned with a puzzled expression, holding the brown paper bag of. sandwiches. Yes somewhere in an Enniskillen hardware store was a confused assistant feverishly searching for his lunch, which he'd wrapped in one of his shop's bags and laid on his counter yet all he could find was a bag of 2" nails.

The food

Well filming got under way and continued on and off throughout the day. The costumed cavers stayed down there for several hours at a time, slowly descending and filming as they went. It was very uncomfortable conditions for them as they were constantly being deluged by the stream that plunged beside them down the same pothole. We lowered flasks and sandwiches down to them. It was only afterwards that we learnt that when the camera was switched off they unearthed their secret store of tins and chocolate bars which they had placed at strategic points down the cave several days before. The tins were the sort that when pierced they chemically heated up the contents. So whilst we worried about their welfare they were sitting around down there eating hot dinners.

The hats

One final story, I've mentioned already the wet conditions underground, so it was inevitable that the costumes became waterlogged. Especially prone were the felt hats which, by the end of the first day were drooping and looking quite sorry for themselves. However by the next day all was well, for the hats had spent a happy hour or so gently steaming in the ovens of the Railway Hotel, Enniskillen - where the costume people were staying.

Yes "Noon's Hole" was a memorable experience and it's nice to see the programme again.