Seaside Parish - a second series?

The Bishop was concerned as to whether Christine Musser and the parishes themselves were happy with being in the public eye. Christine did not enjoy publicity, and the parishes recognised the benefits which the programmes were bringing, but there were feelings that essentially the priest had been appointed to the parishes – not as a counsellor to anyone in the British Isles!

However, Christine agreed with the Bishop that through television literally millions could be reached, portraying people living out their calling in community. For that reason, a second series was agreed.
Filming of Series Two began as the transmission of Series One ended in April 2004. A number of village characters were beginning to emerge: the churchwarden who ran an antique shop; the owner of the local museum; those who owned guesthouses, or who were starting new businesses, farmers who were struggling to make a living, or diversifying into tourism, fish farming or holiday accommodation. So a number of gentle storylines developed as spring moved into summer, and Boscastle villagers became entirely used to having Nigel Farrell and the small friendly camera crew as part of life around the harbour, the pub, the shops or the churches.

All that dramatically changed when Boscastle itself became national headlines. On 16th August 2004 a freak storm settled over the Boscastle area and about 75 mm of rainfall (the average for the whole month of August) fell in two hours. The sudden rainfall caused two rivers, including the River Valency, to burst their banks and a wall of water flowed through the main street, washing over 50 cars, walls, and river banks away. About two billion litres of water are estimated to have flowed through Boscastle that day. The national media descended on the village - or would have done so if they could have got through to it. Tiger Aspect was, however, in the parish, and this meant that much of the film which appeared in the subsequent series was a unique insight into how the parishes coped. Boscastle was on the front page of every national newspaper, and the top story on national news for days; The Prince of Wales was flown in to see the devastation for himself; so too was the Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott.

When disaster strikes in any community, the parish priest has a unique role. A priest has immediate access to, and knowledge of, parishioners; a priest is a reliable line of communication and information for the emergency services - police, ambulance, fire brigades, social services, Red Cross, Highways, County Council - all knew that if they wanted a reliable conduit for information, the parish priest, working closely with local parish councillors, would be able to put them in contact with those they needed. So as every emergency service descended on Boscastle, and as the task of mopping up proceeded - and five years later the work is still not totally completed - Tiger Aspect filmed for Series 2 of A Seaside Parish, creating a unique record of a community which national television had already taken to its heart, coping with adversity.

For more go to Seaside Parish Series 2 - The Boscastle Flood

Click on the following links below to find out more about how the floods were reported on the BBC and also some images from the Met Office.

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