Robbie Cumming and his BBC Canal Boat Diaries

Flying off Robbies narrowboat, the Naughty Lass has its own challenges so most of the drone shots were taken from the tow paths with kind permission from The Canal and River Trust.

We based ourselves on Robbies barge most of the time stopping along the way to get stunning drone shots that complimented the ground images.

How long did the filming take?

Each episode taking around 4 weeks to film and in the case of Series 2 filming started at Ellesmere Port and ended in the centre of Birmingham.

Series 3 of Canal Boat Diaries started at Wigan going all the way through Lancashire then into Yorkshire and ending at Ripon in North Yorkshire.

Canal Boat Diaries Series four starting in Sheffield and ending in Braunston. Its a very small crew but produces some stunning work and gives a real inside into the life of a single boater travelling the UK’s waterways.

For those who are interested in the drones used on the shoot there has  been a real mixture of the DJI Inspire 2 with the X5s micro4/3rds camera set up and the DJI Mavic Pro 2. On series 4 we used the DJI Mavic 3 cine filming with the DJI Mavic Mini 3 being used for the tricky locations. 

How hard was it to film on Canal Boat Diaries?

Operating as a drone pilot on Canal Boat Diaries has been incredibly challenging working long days based from Robbie boat, charging kit on the boat and then walking countless miles with the boat to get the general views with occasional flights from the boat itself just to make life a little bit harder.

Robbies new series comes out this summer 2024 on a brand new Chanel for the show. UKTv