You find me sitting on top of the Yorkshire Moors under traditional leaden skies sheltering from the wind which is sweeping across the heather. I'm watching a woman dressed in a sea green gown playing a harp. It's not what you expect to find on top of the Yorkshire Moors but I'm watching the filming of a Symphony for
Yorkshire and it looks spectacular.
Fiona Katie Roberts (Katie to her friends) is a 47 year old woman who has been playing the harp for over twenty years. She now teaches the instrument and, I was amazed to learn, has started making her own. Today she is standing on a natural grey slab holding onto a silver harp (home made) while the wind dramatically grabs her dress and throws it into the air.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_TillThe Composer, Benjamin Till, is looking up to the sky praying for a small patch of blue sky so he can start recording the final shot while our harpist shivers and eats another bar of chocolate for comfort. Suddenly his prayer is answered (this is God's own county), the clouds part and the shot is captured. It's
Yorkshire, it's the Symphony and it's breathtaking.
Next stop is Haworth main street where it's teeming with tourists discovering the Brontes. There we meet a lady from Keighley who plays a tambourine, a student from Hull with a mandolin and a music historian who lives in Leeds who is learning the viola. The street provides the perfect backdrop and the team is in high spirits - everything is going so well. That changed when we returned to the now infamous Haworth car park to find our composer's vehicle clamped. I have to admit we were eight minutes late so beware eager clampers in Howarth.
Then we got lost, very lost.We were looking for a tiny village on a hill with a row of cottages. We have quite a lot of tiny villages on a hill with a row of cottages in Yorkshire so finding the right one was a challenge. An hour later we entered the village from opposite directions (not sure how we managed to do that) and there waiting for us was our student from Sheffield with her cello - this was a huge bonus.
An hour later I left Benjamin (not in a great mood following the clamping and the getting lost thing) clambering to the top of a hill to get the right shot of a wind farm where he wanted to film a wind orchestra. Everyone, except Benjamin, looked a bit cold and weary but, as he waved his arms from the top of a hill I instantly knew he had found the perfect spot. I'm left wondering how they managed to get the orchestra up there but a text I received late last night told me they had and the team had left the moors smiling.
Helen Thomas is Head of BBC Yorkshire
