News
Tune In Or Miss Out
12 March 2009
The Hottest Place on Earth is scheduled for transmission this month on the 19th & 26th of March on BBC 1. In December 2007 Remote Trauma was asked by Lion Television to provide a comprehensive safety and health risk management package for a BBC 1 popular scientific expedition to one of the most extraordinary places on earth, culminating in a descent into a live volcano.
The Danakil depression has the reputation of being one of the most inhospitable places on the planet. It is 120 meters below sea level in many areas, with almost no roads or infrastructure and has the unenviable record of being the hottest place on earth (based on annual averages temperatures) Few Westerners have visited this region since the kidnapping by separatist rebels of 14 people, including five British nationals, in March 2007. Alleged to be the work of the Afar Revolution Democratic Unified Front (ARDUF) this ever present threat coupled with a growing risk of war over a long running border dispute between Ethiopia and Eritrea has kept many would be visitors away.
These risks were just some of the many obstacles the production faced. The actual content of the documentary provided a host of high-risk activities; presenters descending into recently opened fissures full of noxious gases, abseiling in to Erta Alle, one of the most fascinating, dangerous and least explored volcanoes of the world and travelling for days with an Afar salt caravan across arid desert in extreme heat. The series is destined to be an exciting and informative documentary which will keep the audience glued to their seats. As we have already suggested please tune in or you really will miss out on a great television production.