The Crane Gang follows drivers, technicians and management at Ainscough, the biggest mobile crane hire company in Britain. The show will follow a number of key personnel in a make-or-break year for the business who are involved in countless major construction projects, relocating precious works of art, lifting million pound yachts, carrying enormous wind turbines and moving derailed trains. From key decisions made by senior management, to the day-to-day problems faced by the team on the ground, The Crane Gang introduces the often larger-than-life characters responsible for some of the most impressive feats of lifting we see in and around our town and cities.
Episode one enters the world of the ‘heavies’ – the men and huge machines challenged with carrying out the biggest lifts of all. In the millionaire’s playground of Poole Harbour they’re tasked with lifting a luxury yacht safely into dry dock, and at the former Olympic Park technical problems threaten to throw the dismantling of the Aquatic Centre into disarray… but the biggest challenge of all comes when a freight train derails and the crane riggers DAVE and LEA put their bodies on the line to ensure it is safely lifted from the track. Away from the actual lifting, there’s no let-up in the pressure placed on the heavies team where a life on the road often means sleeping and eating in their vans, conditions which see crane driver TRISTAM complaining to management and new heavies recruit WAYNE struggling to deal with life 200 miles away from his family.
With cameras mounted in and around these giant structures, the series offers a unique perspective on the world of the mobile crane and the driver as they make some of the most technically challenging lifts of their year.
The series was series directed by ROB MCCABE (The Railways and The Choir, both BBC Two), while executive producers are, JAMIE ISAACS and MATTHEW GORDON for Liberty Bell and SAMANTHA ANSTISS and MAXINE WATSON for the BBC.
-ends-
Episode 1/3, Sunday 22nd September, 8pm, BBC Two
For more information please contact:
Dan Lloyd at Avalon on: 020 7598 7222 or email: DanL@avalonuk.com
Notes to editors:
About Liberty Bell
Liberty Bell Productions, formed in autumn 2002, specialises in the production of television documentaries and features, factual entertainment, current affairs, drama-documentary and youth programming. Productions include: Al Murray’s German Adventure (BBC FOUR), Willie’s Wonky Chocolate Factory (BBC TWO) Portillo on Thatcher: The Lady’s Not For Spurning (BBC FOUR), The Alastair Campbell Diaries (BBC TWO), Frank Skinner on George Formby (BBC FOUR), Three Men In A Boat (BBC TWO), The Grumpy Guides to… (BBC TWO), Grumpy Old Men (BBC TWO), Grumpy Old Women (BBC TWO), Why We Went to War (More 4), Real Life: Beating Breast Cancer (ITV1), The Meaning of Life (BBC ONE) and The Widow’s Tale (BBC TWO).
What the press has said about previous Liberty Bell productions:
Portillo on Thatcher: The Lady’s Not For Spurning
“Gordon Brown and David Cameron should watch it. Tony Blair should get a hold of a tape and reflect on what might have been. Media bosses who only commission films if they portray politicians as corrupt and mad should take note also… I know people with only a passing interest in politics who were gripped.”
Steve Richards, The Independent
The Alastair Campbell Diaries
“Just as DVD extras allow you to see the human fallibility that lies behind the polished exterior of the finished film, Campbell’s diary fills in the engrossing trivia of off-stage politics… it is completely engrossing.”
Thomas Sutcliffe, The Independent
The Widow’s Tale
“This complex and moving film is one of the television highlights of the year so far.”
Andrew Male, The Sunday Times
Grumpy Old Men
“The whole programme put me into an uncharacteristically, seethingly good mood… Wonderful stuff”
A.A. Gill, The Sunday Times
Al Murray’s German Adventure
Murray makes a fine TV historian: interested, articulate and knowledgeable…A breathless hour around a stunning, wintery Germany that will probably leave most viewers wanting more on everything…Al Murray would be our man for the job.
Gabrial Tate, Times Out
