Essex Bees on an Infamous Essex TV Show

I was born and raised in Essex and have lived here all-but-one year of my life, I was married here and am proud to call it my home but I’ve also had to put up with the face pulling and remarks when people find out the county I’m from, when I was younger it was questions asking where my white stilettos were hiding and was I going to dance around my handbag, in later life the questions are fewer but I often preface being from Essex with being from North Essex to stop them (although many can’t help themselves and hair dye is often mentioned!)

You see I grew up in the countryside, I don’t have a strong Essex accent and I’m not particularly flamboyant or very good at my make up (a bit of mascara and I’m done!) so when my bees and I had the opportunity to be on The Only Way Is Essex (aka TOWIE) my answer was…

Yes!

Why not!

It was an average August day when I received an email from our local Beekeeping Association to say they’d been contacted by Lime Pictures requesting a bee experience course for the filming of their next series of The Only Way is Essex. With COVID-19 continuing to cause issues in meeting up, the Braintree association had made the decision not to continue with any in-person meetings or activities this year, so the email was passed to me to see if I’d like to accommodate them instead.

After speaking to a member of the production team there was some back and forth with formalities, legalities and logistics. The initial filming date had to be moved as Mother Nature decided to blow a gale instead and eventually we landed on a date and time.

I have a confession, I went to full-time drama school when I was 20, I used to love acting but I found that I really loved the creativity and putting together of a production, rather than being in front of the camera. I’m very shy and a massive introvert so being on screen fills me with fear - even after nearly 20 years not on a stage I still have those dreams where I’ve been cast last minute for a role and I don’t know my lines, can’t fit into the costume and get lost on the way to the theatre, all whilst needing the loo! I’ve used the knowledge and skills gained at drama school in my marketing career and they stood me in good stead when it came to managing celebrity endorsement, creating adverts for TV and photo shoots etc so all wasn’t a waste of time.

So I was about to get an opportunity to be on TV, on a programme with a massive following - eek! Surprisingly the nerves didn’t kick in like I thought they would, I was a complete stress monkey on the few days before the shoot, getting everything in order so the apiary looked good and the bees were calm. I travelled the countryside collecting up bee suits from very good friends to add to my own collection for the talent and crew to wear and when the day finally arrived the sun was shining and the clouds few.

My niece, Kira (who’s 13 and a half) was staying with us for the weekend and the night before everyone arrived we found out that it would be Chloe Sims and Diags as the talent portion of the 20 strong filming team. Kira found this terribly exciting as, with her mum, she’s a big fan of the show and Chloe is one of her favourite ‘characters’. I must admit I don’t watch it, I’m more of a Countryfile girl, so we popped You Tube on the TV and started watching clips of them both to get a feel for who I’d be talking to, that was a great help as when they arrived I knew who to make a bee-line for ;-)!

I mentioned I wasn’t particularly nervous, I suspect it was because I was on my own patch with my own bees (who tend to make me feel calm anyway), I like to think I have a good feel for a colony and my knowledge, although always learning, is pretty good - particularly when talking to complete novices.

I met and was introduced to the majority of the crew, had a discussion with the producer and director about their objectives and then the cameramen, director and some other crew members all got suited up and we went down to the hives to check out the set up and take some initial footage of the bees before the talent did their bit. The idea was that Diags is turning 30 in February and so is completing a bucket list of things before his birthday, with beekeeping as one of them.

Standing at the hive, I was faced with three cameras and multiple people in bee suits. It never fails to amuse me how silly people look in the suits and when you have them en masse it’s even more amusing. A friend popped over to watch from the sidelines and when she arrived she said she thought everyone was wearing hazmat suits and wondered what was going on!

It didn’t take long to achieve the footage they wanted. My overwhelming memory will be the Director calling out for “Stacy can you move back out of shot” or “Stacy can you shut up” ha!

Some more filming with just the talent and some of my honey, a few pictures, and then they were gone. I think they were here for 3 hours in total; like a whirlwind they came, they filmed, they left.

At the time of writing I haven’t seen the final edit, I hope that the business comes across well and that it drums up more interest for me. I also hope that people understand that a bee experience with me is usually a lot more relaxed and there’s no honey thrown around. I enjoyed being part of the filming and proud to be an Essex girl - just not your typical one!