2011 Kraysler Report

My perfect trip to London

After hearing rumors that S10 of Spooks would be the last I decided I had to try to get to London to see some filming. As luck would have it, tickets from Boston to London went on sale. I called my husband from work and said, “We’re going to London next weekend to look for Spooks filming.” He said, “OK. But I waited too long and missed the sale! I checked ticket prices for the next few days and luckily they went on sale for the following weekend, so I bought the tickets right away. Somebody up there must like me, because it turned out to be the perfect few days to look for Spooks filming.

My husband told me not to get too disappointed if we didn’t see anything, but I had a really good feeling we would. I put the word out on Twitter that I was flying from Boston just to look for Spooks filming. The day before we left an anonymous Twitter source came forward and told me where to go!

So after sleeping only 3 hours I got up Sunday morning, dragged my husband out of bed, and off we went to the location behind St. Paul’s Cathedral. Well our timing was perfect, because shortly after we got there and watched them filming a car chase, we saw the Great Nicola Walker and Peter Firth together! I think they were with Chris Fry the Producer. I ran up to them and introduced myself and said I’d flown to Boston just to see them. PF was hilarious and just had a glimmer in his eye and a manner about him that exuded humor. He put his arms out and said “You flew all the way from Boston? WHY?” I said “just to see you guys. I love you guys and I love Spooks and you guys are my favorites!” Nicola Walker was so gracious and said “Aw, thank you so much.” She is so gorgeous and her eyes are such a brilliantly beautiful blue that I felt unworthy and had to avert my gaze, so I looked at PF most of the time instead.

Then I went and stood across the street and NW ended up standing just a few feet from me! So I mustered up the courage to ask if I could have my picture taken with her and she said of course! She was such a sweetheart. She asked when I’d gotten in and I told her just last night very late. I told her I’d made my reservations without knowing if I’d actually see anything but I got lucky because someone on Twitter told me where to go. She said she’d heard about that. Then she told me I was really lucky to be seeing filming of an action shoot because normally their outside shots are just the actors walking down the street and talking. She was one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. I can’t say enough good things about her. She was incredibly gracious.

20110606 Kraysler

We stuck around for a while and watched more car chase filming, then the crew broke for lunch and we left for the day. No more Spooks action until the following night when we saw Hermione Norris (Ros) in Blithe Spirit. After the show we went to the stage door and got our picture taken with her. I told her I’d met her friends Nicola Walker and Peter Firth and she got all excited. She said, “So are they still filming then? Good for them and good for you!” She was so nice and of course nothing like her character Ros, which just goes to show you what a great actress she is.

Finally, before our flight home the following Wednesday, we were told about Spooks filming at Waterloo Station. This was also our 2nd wedding anniversary and we couldn’t have had a greater present than to talk to the cast and crew of Spooks! When we got to the station I couldn’t see anything or anyone having to do the Spooks. My husband said “look over there. There’s one camera crew. That’s the secondary crew. The primary crew is over there with the microphone, and there’s Lara Pulver.” What would I do without him?!

Lara Pulver was standing around waiting to shoot her scene, so I went up and introduced myself. We’d corresponded a few times via Twitter, so she knew who I was and was so happy I’d been able to see some Spooks filming. I asked if I could have my picture taken with her and she said of course and then got herself into a pose with her arm out so she could put her arm around me. That was such a nice gesture!!


Then one of the production assistants said, “You’re the one from Boston, right? Our producer Chris would like to have a few words with you.” I felt so special!!! So we met Chris Fry and he’d been reading my tweets. He even knew that my husband had hurt his foot the previous day and asked how his foot was! It turns out he wanted our advice on how to curtail the spread of spoilers on Twitter.

My husband told him to spread some false information. I don’t think he liked any of our ideas, but he was very nice and told us that he was really upset because spoilers ruin the suspense of the show and that Spooks fans are so passionate about the show that it isn’t fair to ruin it for them. Then he told us about what some of the crew do. Lara Pulver joined us and he told us that the BBC will be releasing a Spooks app that will help people find Spooks locations around London. I love this idea, because we tried using the Google map some fans created but we had trouble connecting to the Internet from our phones while we were out and about in London so an app that doesn’t require an internet connection would be perfect.

We hung around Waterloo for a couple of hours and then had to catch our flight home. It was a perfect ending to our perfect trip to London.

Here is @kraysler’s photo album and the videos she took during her short visit to London.


 

Editor’s Note :

The events described in this report took place between 5th and 8th June 2011.

You can read more about filming on Spooks Series 10 HERE.

Check out Close Encounters to see how you too can send us a report of your meeting(s) with Nicola.

 

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