Martin Pailthorpe
After an amazing 30 year career in tv production making films in wild and remote places, from Siberia and Norway at -35, to Zambia and the Australian Outback at over 40 degrees, and from the North Face of Everest to technical dives in the Red Sea and Lake Huron, I am now semi retired, living in North Devon, and making films for charities that need high production values on minimal budgets.
So if you want to find out what I used to get up to in the good old days, browse on - there's lots of information about the places I went to and the programmes I made.
If you think I might have something to offer your charity or organization today, then check out the `Corporate and Charity' pages, or if you would like to book me for a lecture, there's a page for that too.
I also run a fabulous holiday let called Old Inn House, providing a cozy bolt hole for everything from family holidays to romantic getaways.
 Flying to the Falls, GuyanaWorking on Electric Sky's 3d project `Lost Worlds'. We made two films in Guyana, one of them at a remote pair of waterfalls that had first been discovered back in 1938, and never seen by Western eyes since. The planes flew us to this remote airstrip in the idyllic village of Paruima, and from there we flew to our base at the top of the falls by helicopter |  Gunung Mulu National Park, BorneoThe second filming trip for the Discovery UK/Sky 3d series `Lost Worlds', this time to the Gunung Mulu National Park in Borneo, home to the longest cave system in the world. |  Mulu Cave System, BorneoInside one of the longest cave systems in the world. the goal (achieved successfully) was for climber Leo Houlding to reach and climb out of a remote sinkhole called `The Secret Garden', to get a GPS fix that could be used in mapping the caves, and for biologist Monty Halls to survey cave-dwelling wildlife. |
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 Oshi Falls, GuyanaFirst discovered in 1938, then unseen by western eyes until we reached it for one of the Lost World films. |  Tepui Recce, VenezuelaLost Worlds started as a four part series to be filmed in Venezuela, but after my recce of the locations, the worsening political situation in Venezuela lead to the shoot being cancelled. |  Melinau River Gorge, BorneoWildlife hunt on the Melinau River. the Melinau Gorge slices through the Mulu Massif, with massive unclimbed cliffs. Leo Houlding and his team became the first to scale the cliffs from bottom to top. |
 Jungle Camp, BorneoWhile Leo forged his route up the cliffs of the Melinau Gorge, Monty Halls surveyed the wildlife in the dense jungle of the gorge. |  Daily Commute, AlaskaFilming for a Ray Mears programme on the psychology of survival. Each day we would moor up the charter yacht in a bay, and go ashore to tell the story of three teenagers who survived two weeks of Alaskan winter after being shipwrecked. |  Luangwa Valley, ZambiaFilming a sunset for the BBC2 series `Africa 2013 - Countdown to the Rains' - a fast turnaround three parter presented by Kate Humble and Simon King. |
 Blue Hole, Dahab, EgyptWith presenter Monty Halls and sound-recordist Andy Moreton, overlooking the 100 metre deep Blue Hole. As part of the `Monty Halls Dive Mysteries' series, we were looking at why so many divers have died in the depths of the hole. |  Luangwa Valley, ZambiaMore from the Luangwa Valley. At the end of the dry season, limited water brings animals like this family of elephants down to the river, where they are easy prey for predators such as crocodiles and big cats. |  With Dick and James StrawbridgeFilming for the Denhams Productions/ITV series `Hungry Sailors' - meeting food producers in Cornwall and the Channel Islands, and cooking their produce out in the open! |
 At Everest Base CampOn a recce/taster shoot/feasibility study in 2005, for what became `Everest - Beyond the Limit' in 2006 - with subsequent series in '07 and '08 |  With Bear GryllsThe Man, the Myth, the Legend - posing with Bear Grylls. This was on a taster shoot for Diverse, who thought that Bear might have the makings of a presenter. The resulting taster went to Discovery, who agreed. The rest is history! |  On the Yeti Trail, SichuanA trip to the Tibetan highlands of Sichuan, researching yeti myths with Disney Imagineer Joe Rohde- designer of the Expedition Everest ride at Disney's Animal Kingdom. |
 On the Yeti Trail, SichuanAnother picture from the yeti trail! Our route back to Chengdu from the amazing Siguniang Pass took us right past the panda breeding station at Wolong - shame not to..... |  On the Yeti Trail, SichuanDing Guo Shan Monastery. the monks here claim that they yeti is alive and well, and living in the next valley to theirs. they even had a thread of what they claimed to be yeti hair! this was a stunning location ,where we filmed Joe drawing pictures of yeti based on the monks' descriptions. |  On the Yeti Trail.Shanghai, where the yeti trail began and ended. |
 Aussie OutbackRecceing for Britain'sToughest Family. The final, between the Gecks and Creber families, took placeover four days in this hostile but stunning landscape. |  Everest 2015The journey from Kathmandu to Everest takes over a week. there are three days spent acclimatising in Lhasa, followed by a four day road journey to Base Camp. this picture is taken at the top of the Pang La pass, which provides the most stunning view of the mountain and its approaches. |  EverestThe final day's acclimatisation before heading up to Base Camp is spent at Shegar. Climbing to the fortress stronghold above the town provides a good workout at altitude, and ome great views over the valley |
 The FalklandsA fantastic opportunity to go to Steeple Jason, one of the outlying and most remote of the Falkland Islands, looking at the sustainability of albatross colonies with Carol Thatcher. |  Perfect PredatorsTo Hawaii to film sharks as pat of a 2 hour special for Discovery Shark Week, looking at their sensing abilities. We spent three days looking for Oceanic White Tips, only to find a lone specimen in our last hour of searching. This cave dive was laid on so we could film the reactions of a life-long shark-phobe when confronted with Galapagos Sharks. Needless to say she loved it, and we couldn't resist jumping for a look as well. |  Great Escapesthree of the best years, making three series of Great escapes s of Great Escapes with Monty Halls. This was on the West Coast, near Applecross, looking (sucessfully!!) for otters. |
 Great EscapesMore Great Escapes - this time season 2, in the Outer Hebrides - here with a seal pup on the Monach islands. |  Great EscapesSeries 3 - about to fly with the Irish Air Force on a Fisheries Protection flight doubling as a whale and dolphin population census. |  Great EscapesThe series 3 team - with me are James Hemming (sound and 2nd PD), Monty, and researcher Lorna Hill, with Gurteen Beach, scene of the first (and only??) Roundstone Diving festival. |
 Great EscapesAbout to film Monty competing in an iron man-style event. It started with a 1k hurdles race on this beach (hurdling straw bales!), 10k on a bike, an assault course and ascent of the highest mountain for miles. An epic of logistics to film, and because Monty failed to s film himself on the top section of the mountain, I made him go back and do it again. In the end, the whole event failed to make it into the final cut! |  Great EscapesSeries 3 - where we spent much of our time - offshore, looking for sharks and dolphins. |  Great EscapesSeries 3 - on the beach on the now-deserted Inishlacken Island. Turned out Dominic West had been staying in the island's renovated school house the week before. |
 Great EscapesYer will yer will yer will...Outside Father Ted's house! Monty had gone off on business one weekend, so we held on to his landrover to get up and pasts. We tracked down Father Ted's house, and got surreal shots of the landy driving past - they made it into the final cut! |  Wild Case FilesTracking the route of migrating salmon up the Fraser River in British Columbia |  Wild Case FilesAt the studios of KATV in Little Rock Arkansas. They had amazing weather radar images of a flock of starlings that died mysteriously on New Years' Eve. |
 Alone in the WildWith `127 Hours' legend Aron Ralston. Aron gamely agreed to be stranded on a desert island in Beize for 127 hours, to put his powers of survival to the test. |  Alone in the WildRecceing desert islands in Belize to find the best place to abandon a couple of celebs, which monitoring them from a neighbouring island - harder than you think! |  Alone in the WildWith Jason `Dancing on Ice' Gardiner - the second of the two celebs I marooned in Belize. Jason's biggest problem initially was with the state of the island - suffering from OCDs, his first task was to give the island a good old spring clean! When he finally managed to catch himself some food, he revealed that he had smuggled a dinner jacket onto the island. |
 Hunting Chris RyanOn the Honduras shoot, with cameraman Alan Duxberry, a veteran of many a Ray Mears shoot. |  Hunting Chris RyanThis time in Siberia - a chilly -35, before factoring in the wind chill!!! |  Everest 2005A high (or possible low!!) point - at Interim Camp, at 19500 feet, half way to ABC. This was as far as I got before altitude took its toll - 3 days feeling like s**t before beating a retreat to the comparative lowlands of Base camp at 16500 |
Some TV Highlights
In Brief
I am a television producer and director with over 25 years' experience of making challenging programmes in remote and testing environments.
Recent jobs (see `latest') have involved using my bank of experience to take on complex shoots at very short notice.
2014 was spent working as location producer in Guyana, Borneo and Venzuela on an ambitious four part Discovery UK/Sky 3D Channel series, Lost Worlds, fronted by Monty Halls and Leo Houlding, and featuring extreme climbing and wildlife exploration.
In late 2013, I was in Zambia for five weeks, to make three `as it happens' programmes about the transition between dry and wet season, and the effect that has on the animals of the Luangwa River Valley
Early 2013 saw me team up with Monty Halls again to produce and shoot two episodes in the C5 series `Monty Halls' Dive Mysteries' - first at the legendary Blue Hole, in Dahab, Egypt, then on the wreck of the Cornelia B Windiate in Lake Huron.
In 2012 I worked with Dick and James Strawbridge, directing and and editing on series 2 of ITV's `Hungry Sailors'. 2012 included a brief trip to the USA to film for Nat Geo's `Family Guns', and a stint edit producing `Body Invaders' for Discovery UK.
In 2011, I PD'd on a couple of productions for Tigress in Bristol (Wild Case Files and Alone in the Wild).
Prior to that, I spent three years as series producer, self-shooting PD and editor on 3 series of `Monty Halls' Great Escape'
Previous projects include working with Ray Mears, Chris Ryan and Bear Grylls, supervising two production teams climbing to the top of Everest, filming with wildlife as diverse as sharks and albatross , and working in temperatures from -35 in Siberia to 110 degrees in the Australian Outback.
From Tibet and China to Australia and New Zealand, from Alaska to the Falkland Islands, I have taken thousands of photographs of the people and places I have visited, and many of them are displayed on this website.
My films can regularly be seen on the BBC, ITV and C5, as well as on the Discovery Networks and Nat Geo.
I can also be booked for talks and lectures.
Latest
A very busy year!
I completed four shoots for Bristol-based Plimsoll Productions series `Life of Dogs'.
In all cases I was brought in at very short notice to take over the shoots for producers tied to their edits.
The first involved finding out the selection and training that goes into the US Military Working Dog programme in Texas.
The second took me to the Canadian Arctic to film an Inut sled dog team on a seal hunt.
The third shoot was in South Africa, and featured the work of the K9 dog team working with ani-poaching patrols in the Kruger National Park.
The fourth - somewhat closer to home - was in Southend, filming an 8 year old diabetic and his medical detection dog.
On a similar `Last Minute' theme, I was called in at 2 days notice to film a sequence in South Africa for the Tigress/ITV series Wild Animal Reunions - featuring an English vet and the two orphaned rhinos she helped to bring up at a private game reserve in Kwazulu Natal.
Most recently, on the tv front, I have just returned from the Pyrenees where I was helping Monty Halls (and his newly-formed Seadog Productions) to make a taster for a series looking at the Escape Lines of World War 2 - the routes by which Allied airmen and others trapped behind enemy lines made it to safety with the help of local resistance cells. the series has been commissioned by C4.
On the corporate front, I have been helping the trekking company `Mountain Kingdoms' to revamp their website by updating all their videos and shooting/editing new ones - including one in which Managing Director Steve Berry talks through his discovery of what he believes are Yeti Tracks on a remote mountain slope at nearly 18,000 feet in the far North of Bhutan.
I have also been using any spare time to help local charities (including the North Devon hospice, and the Plough Arts Centre) by shooting and editing videos for their web and social media sites and for fund and awareness raising campaigns.