BBC Olympic Flame Special at Culdrose with David Beckham
One Show presenter Alex Jones and Olympic gold medallist Sally Gunnell paid a visit to Royal Naval Air Station Culdrose, in Cornwall yesterday and received a very challenging welcome.
The One Show's ‘Olympic Flame Special’ will come live from the end of a runway at the Naval Air Station on Friday 18th May. In preparation for this Friday’s programme, Culdrose put Alex and Sally through an Olympic style challenge including the types of training that Naval personnel go through before being deployed to the frontline. The pair learnt about life in the Fleet Air Arm – the Royal Navy’s Flying Force and found the challenges very tough and very wet. Watch the programme on BBC One at 7pm on Friday to find out who won the competition.
Alex and Sally competed against each other in a series of challenges including:
The Rat Run – used by Royal Navy Sailors for fire incident training. The claustrophobic maze of 75cm square cages represent access into a burning ship, aircraft or building. Aircraft Marshalling – Royal Navy Flight Deck Handlers have to move 15 tonne Merlin and Sea King helicopters onto flight-decks by marshalling pilots with hand signals. The real flight deck operators do this in all types of conditions with the ship pitching and rolling too.Life Raft Challenge - Should an aircraft encounter trouble and the crew be forced to ditch into the ocean – miles from land, they have the equipment onboard to save their lives. Sally and Alex had to use inflatable life rafts and swim to safety.
Chris Evans and Alex Jones will host the special hour long ‘The One Show’ outside broadcast as the Olympic Flame arrives into the country from Athens on a golden aircraft. The programme will ‘simulcast’ with the BBC News Channel from 7:30 pm for the Torch Arrival Ceremony. The Olympic Flame will be accompanied by Lord Coe plus some very special guests. BBC News Channel's Sophie Raworth will interview Lord Coe and the special guests before the flame is transferred to a Cauldron.
The One Show have already started building their studio at the end of the main runway at Royal Naval Air Station Culdrose for this momentous occasion. Presenters Chris and Alex will be joined by a surprise celebrity guest and Lucy Siegle will be in the Culdrose Air Traffic Control Tower as the flame arrives. Also featuring will be some former Olympians, local torchbearers and members of the local community scattered throughout the audience.
David Beckham and a group of lucky children will be aboard the BA2012 aircraft bringing the Olympic flame to RNAS Culdrose. See the announcement at the link below.