Man with a Van by Drew Pritchard

Author:Drew Pritchard [Pritchard, Drew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781473577732
Publisher: Ebury Publishing

It had been placed by a TV production company with a number to call and, as soon as I read it, I knew I fitted the bill exactly. I’d already done The Reclaimers and remembered the director telling me I was pretty good and should do more TV if the opportunity ever presented itself. I’d enjoyed it; a piece of piss. I didn’t have to impress anybody. I was just talking to camera about something I love.

I cut the advert out and pinned it on the blackboard but it was Saturday and nobody would be at the production company, so I decided to give them a ring on Monday. Of course, things cropped up, it went out of my mind and the advert remained on the board for weeks. Business picked up a little and I was out and about, then a dealer showed up at the warehouse.

‘Drew,’ he said, as he opened his wallet and brought out a copy of the same advert, ‘have you seen this?’

I pointed to the one pinned on my board. ‘Saw it weeks ago,’ I said. ‘Never got around to phoning.’

‘You should. “A man with a van” – that’s you.’

Again, it was Saturday, but after he left, I did pick up the phone. There was no one in the office to take the call so I left a message on the answer machine. When I got home, I told Rebecca and she said, if anything came of it, she’d back me.

I went into work on Monday and the production company was on the phone right away. ‘Mr Pritchard,’ the woman said, ‘we’d like to film with you. I want to send a crew. Is tomorrow OK?’

‘Sure,’ I said. ‘OK.’

They turned up early and I did a bit to camera outside the warehouse and they left again. Christmas came and went, then early in the new year I got a call from the office asking me if I would be interested in a series to be broadcast on the History Channel. Of course, I would; but nothing happened and I just carried on with my business. A year went by and it was the following Christmas Eve before I heard anything from the production company. I’d shut the shop and was on my way home when the phone rang.

‘Hi, Drew. This is Izzy from the production company in London. Sorry it’s been so long since we were in touch, but that’s how it is in the television business. Anyway, I’m calling with good news. Congratulations, you’ve got a ten-part series with the History Channel.’

I wasn’t in the least bit surprised. Despite the amount of time that had passed, when the film crew left, everything had felt right and I knew I was going to get it.

We started filming the following March. The money wasn’t much but it would only take a few months and I thought it would be the easiest bit of cash I’d ever earn. As it turned out, it was actually the hardest work I’d done in years and that was down to the travelling.

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