HUGH MILES AND JOHN WILSON... A PERSONAL TRIBUTE
World-renowned wildlife camaraman Hugh Miles – creator of ‘A Passion For Angling’ – has paid tribute to John Wilson, recalling fond memories of three very special days on the bank…
IT IS always sad when one of the greats of angling leaves the
river bank for ever, and the loss of John is such a shock because he was still so young.
Dick Walker, Bernard Venables, Peter Stone, Terry Lampard, Fred J Taylor, B.B, Rod Hutchinson are just a few of those special people who have made our pastime so memorable and, alarmingly, all of them have departed during my own lifetime.
Reflecting on the loss of John, I thought it might be of interest to describe the pressures of filming with him – it goes to show what a consummate professional he was.
He loved the surprise of the catch, even if he shouldn’t have been surprised because he had prepared the swim so well. He left little to chance but on one occasion when filming him I was sure that he had overdone the prebaiting.
I was shooting the Channel 4 series ‘Catching the Impossible’ with Martin Bowler and John had kindly agreed to help us out with a couple of sequences, including assisting our co-star Bernard Cribbins to catch a carp on a fly rod and floater.
John had invited us up to his delightful Norfolk home and lakes – his wife Jo’s glorious garden was worth the journey alone – and he’d baited up all his favourite spots with a Cruft’s worth of dog biscuits. Despite the weather being favourable, the carp weren’t remotely interested in eating or being caught.
Bernard presented the bait perfectly while John and Martin watched intently, then exasperatingly, as the carp investigated the floaters dozens of times but always turned away. Day one ended in a big fat blank so I pleaded with John not to put in any more freebies.
He did, of course, though only a few, he said – but next day, following miss after miss, the tension rose and time started to run out. Bernard had to return to London to continue filming Dr Who, so extending the