The inside story as to how Fairey and their Professional Conductor, Garry Cutt became this years Saddleworth & Oldham District Whit Friday Champions is set to be screened across the UK airwaves on BBC1 HD in a couple of weeks time.

Filmed

A film crew from the BBC magazine programme, 'Inside Out' in the North West followed the Stockport-based band in the lead up to their challenge for the title and subsequently travelled around the Pennine villages on Friday 29th May with the North West Regional champion.

The following day as the results of the Whit Friday contests started to appear on 4BR, Garry Cutt was able to give feedback on where his band was expected to feature before the added twist to the night became apparent.

This year's Saddleworth title wasn't decided upon until Sunday 31st May after a meeting had taken place at Delph Contest after formal objections had been made as to whether Black Dyke (who had initially been declared the winner at that venue) had broken contest rules on the night itself.

Objections delayed result

With those objections being upheld and Black Dyke disqualified at Delph, it meant Fairey had taken the Saddleworth crown for the first time in nearly twenty years after a trio of victories and runners-up prizes and as the Executive Producer of the programme, Dominic Callaghan told 4BR, Whit Friday was an experience every member of his team certainly enjoyed:

"The one thing I can say for certain is that the Whit Friday march contest experience was very enjoyable from start to finish even though the weather tried to put a dampner on things", before Dominic highlighted the point that everybody in brass banding knows, but perhaps some viewers wont.

"The events of the evening and of the subsequent weekend means that a story unfolds as it goes along that nobody expected at all. Obviously the brass band community at large will know what happens, but I can promise viewers a fascinating nine minutes that will give anybody who has never experienced Whit Friday, let alone, those who have a real insight into what goes on before and during the night itself".

Around Saddleworth

The Inside Out film crew based itself in and around Saddleworth on a cold spring evening with cameras doing interviews with people involved in the contests and as Dominic told 4BR, the biggest challenge was condensing everything into nine minutes around the sounds of Fairey's contest march, 'Knight Templar'.

"All of the footage was great, but because of the time constraints for the feature, the biggest challenge was what to use and unfortunately what we weren't able to utilise, but it was great fun pulling everything together to tell the story".

Dominic also thanked once again Fairey's and Garry Cutt for their professionalism and hospitality before during and after the evening in addition to those who had contributed in any way to make not just their night, but the Whit Friday experience a memorable one.

Regional to national

4BR was initially informed that the feature was due to be going out to North West viewers only on Monday 28th September, although through various digital platforms and the BBCiplayer, it could have been seen at a later date, but this has subsequently been changed.

I can promise viewers a fascinating nine minutes that will give anybody who has never experienced Whit Friday, let alone, those who have, a real insight into what goes on before and during the night itself ~ Dominic Callaghan

The feature is now set to be shown two days after Fairey will compete for the National title at the Royal Albert Hall on Monday 12th October on BBC1 HD where one Inside Out programme is selected to go out nationwide as well as regionally.

4BR was informed of the initial plan last weekend and understands that the feature is now in the schedule to be shown on 12th October although as a BBC spokesperson told us:

'It doesn't matter whether its your professional or personal life, sometimes things happen that mean last minute changes have to be made but the North West Inside Out team is delighted that the feature that will be a little different is scheduled to be seen nationally and if there are any changes to the schedule, we can only apologise".