For the first time a film crew has been allowed on to a nuclear combat submarine for a total of 50 days130 men on a submarine for nearly eight months, once permission was granted to shoot a reality show, you just knew there would be stories. Firelight Productions have produced three one hour shows capturing the unique environment of a nuclear submarine. Every thing was fine until the submarine was called up to monitor the unfolding Arab spring rebellions.

Four years ago Firelight Productions produced a reality television series called Ice Patrol about HMS Endurance, the Navy’s only ice breaker. The six part series was shortened to four after the ship unfortunately nearly sunk, no boat no drama. Now the same production company brings us Submarine Patrol a three part series with an embedded crew, embedded in the true meaning of the word as in with the crew 24 hours a day for eight weeks, under the sea for most of it! The brief was similar to Ice Patrol, record the lives of the military personnel on board.

Ten years ago this kind of access to what is known in the Navy as the ‘secret service’ would have been unthinkable but agendas and accountability change. Producer Rosie Kingham was also very keen to unveil the characters and regime of a modern day nuclear submarine.

But what do you film and how do you achieve something for broadcaster National Geographic that holds the interest without resorting to a uniformed version of Big Brother with minicams everywhere? You start with the respect that Producer and crew have for the military and then identify storylines sometimes even before the trip starts. Rosie Kingham describes the environment. “There is no where to go where you can be on your own for a second, but they’re used to that.”

As it turned out the stories weren’t hard to find especially when the Sub was called up to monitor the Arab uprising in Libya. Rosie explains that some of her producer instincts were curtailed as she planned the programme, “The planning and scheduling of the production was by the far the most complicated and challenging of projects I’ve ever had to manage; one you can only master in the sense of being prepared to plan again and again. Submarine’s schedules never stop changing. Complications arose in securing a boat for long enough; tasking and operations moved daily as they were responding to a myriad of government and NATO requests. Managing months of constant change; whilst at sea and dived, no contact with my crew all made for some sleepless times. On occasion my best bet was to turn on the television and watch the news or just wait for communication from the submarine. You always have to be ready to respond and re-schedule.

“Normal shot selection was also a problem because we couldn’t just hire a helicopter and do some aerial shots, we were after all meant to be effectively invisible.”