Blink Films for Channel 5

Editors: Mitch Bannon and Richard ‘Huggy’ Lace

Satusfaction favourite, Ben Fogle heads to China for the first time in this epic travelogue which aims to explore one of the most powerful countries in the world from the inside, and give unprecedented insights into its history and rich culture.

Fogle explores its pivotal place in the modern world, as well as its ancient and recent history – how centuries of Imperial rule gave way to Communist revolution under Chairman Mao and the breakneck economic transformation as the state capitalist China of recent years has emerged.

This project was Mitch Bannon’s first presenter-led travelogue series, and being someone who loves travelling himself was really looking forward to getting his teeth into this.  Mitch thought that this series had everything you could possibly want from a feel-good, fun travelogue, whilst also learning about parts of Chinese culture and giving a very interesting history lesson all in one.

This was Mitch’s first project with Blink Films, and he was really impressed at the clockwork level of organisation required to overcome the challenges that come with filming on location in China. Their collaboration with the local government and production companies provided them with exceptional access. Mitch learnt a lot from co-editing episode 2 but he also had a unique overview of the entire series by cutting a 120min reversion which gave him access to the entirety of the footage.

As for Huggy Lace, who co-edited episode 1, he shared with us that ‘it was fun to work on with a great insight into how a Chinese film studio is producing vertical dramas that are sweeping Tik Tok. They’re incredibly cheesy judging by what was shot!’

China with Ben Fogle premiered last night 6^th April on Channel 5, catch parts 2 and 3 tonight 7^th and tomorrow 8^th April at 9pm.