On location: Bonekickers

BBC1's Bonekickers

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Writer/exec producer Matthew Graham reveals the mysterious locations featured in Bonekickers.

This is a tale of two locations, 144 days apart. Because Bonekickers is a drama about a team of West Country archaeologists uncovering historical mysteries, I now tend to see ancient historical symbolism in almost anything. For example, 144 relates to the 144,000 souls in Revelations saved at the end of the world. It also pertains to the base dimensions of the Sphinx. As you can tell, I have become a crashing bore at dinner parties. But such is the spell of Bonekickers - it unlocks so many doors into how we perceive the past.

On this particular day we were still 36 days away from the start of shooting. I was driving through twisted country roads towards the Herefordshire village of Garway. With me was Professor Mark Horton, our archaeological advisor who is best known as an avuncular presenter on BBC2's Coast. Imagine three Terry Joneses trapped in a jumper and you get Mark. Giggly, excitable, rambling, fascinating and giddy as a schoolboy for history. As we drove he could not stop pointing out battles, betrayals, assassinations, love trysts, papal oppression. All I saw were village churches and stone ruins in farmers' fields.

Garway was pretty but unremarkable. We visited the church which was founded by the Knights Templar in the late 13th century. The Knights form the heart of our opening episode (Dan Brown doesn't hold the copyright on them you know). The knights may have smuggled the Cross of Calvary back from the Crusades and hidden it in one of their country bases. Mark had suggested that Garway's church could be that hidey-hole. But our eyes were drawn to the simple, circular collection of bricks in the garden next door. A Templar dovecote sat in a Garway man's garden plot surrounded by plastic windmills and fishing gnomes. We knocked. Mark beamed at the baffled gentleman: "Yes! That's right! It's me! Mark Horton from TV's Coast! We must see your dovecote, it may be the resting place of the True Cross!" Mark has never uttered a sentence in his life that doesn't end in an exclamation mark.

We were led inside. The curved walls were lined with stone nesting boxes. We counted 666. This time, the number of the Beast. Mark informed me that these were 666 doves to counter the power of Satan. I vowed to give this line to Hugh Bonneville who plays Dr Mark's fictional incarnation: Professor Gregory "Dolly" Parton. What stunned us most was the huge stone block in the middle of the room. Mark was certain it was there to cover a well mouth. Perhaps a well leading down into an underground chamber. And whatever was placed down there, the Knights wanted nobody ever to find it. A shiver scuttled up my spine and I realized I had a new ending for episode one and a new location. We would have to come here and film inside the real dovecote. We had our tonal philosophy for the show - to include as many real places as possible. An audience could watch our team in action, then visit the place where it happened and perhaps have a slightly greater understanding of its significance. Garway would no longer be a dot on the edge of a map. It would be a secret Templar outpost filled with mystery.

And so, after 144 days we had reached the final day of a terrifying, thrilling, unrepeatable 108 days in production. The money was gone. But it was on the screen. In spades. We had made six mini-movies back to back, switching from the American War of Independence to the Roman occupation of Britain to the trenches of World War One.

Our final day had brought us to Ashley Pharoah's garden in a village outside Bath. In his swimming pool, production designer Brian Sykes and his team had secured a false rock shelf which a brave Julie Graham (as Dr Gillian Magwilde) was exploring in an aqualung. It was close to midnight and the water was only 12 degrees. Julie was minutes from a drop in core body temperature that would mean abandoning the scene. And there was no money to come back. I began to wonder if the public would also come to see Ashley's pool as part of a Bonekickers tour of the West Country.

History lies all about us, in our churches, under our town halls, in allotments and gardens. That's also part of the magic of Bonekickers. So much of what you see is real and… you're not listening are you? You're still thinking about the fact that Ashley Pharoah has a swimming pool.

● Bonekickers is a co-production from Monastic Productions and Mammoth Screen for BBC1. It starts on Tuesday 8 July at 9pm

Matthew Graham: My tricks of the trade
Never be scared of your expert. In Bonekickers I would simply tell Professor Mark Horton where I hoped to get to with my story: "Boudicca's death was a Roman cover-up." He would use his skills to find a credible historical hypothesis.

Be wary of on-set rewrites. It can seem like the perfect band-aid to heal a plot-hole or to make a scene work better. But in my experience there was a reason why the scene was written that way.

Be happy! Film-making is arduous, slow, frustrating and often very chilly. The job of the writer/producer is to smile, clap folk on the back and tell them it's looking ruddy marvellous.

Bring a cap. Unless it's August you'll be cold otherwise. You can tip down the peak to avoid making eye-contact with the line producer. It makes you feel like Steven Spielberg and we all need to feel like that once in a while.