One of Hird’s mini cranes has been seen by millions of viewers on the BBC One Show – with TV and radio celebrity Paul O’Grady at the controls lifting a ferry across the Mersey.
The show’s producers asked Hird to help them give Paul a celebrity mini crane lifting challenge live on air after they featured an item about giant construction cranes.
Hird Director John Wilding said:
- “We were delighted to be asked to help in this tongue-in-cheek challenge which ended the show.
“We provided a UNIC 506 tracked spider crane plus a full support team to make sure everything went smoothly and safely, and Paul enjoyed the experience of operating a mini cranes.”
With the studio audience watching from behind safety barriers outside the front entrance of the new One Show Studio at BBC Portland Place in Central London. The show’s presenters Matt Baker and Alex Jones invited Liverpudlian Paul to lift a 100kg weight mocked up to look like a ferry.
John stood beside Paul offering advice and guidance, as he then swung the load across a blue sheet, representing the Mersey River, and dropped it into the centre of a model of the Albert Docks, prompting loud cheers from the crowd.
The One Show is the UK’s most popular live TV magazine show, with up to 4.5 million viewers every weekday evening.
John said:
- “It went very well and made quite a spectacle. We set up and rehearsed the item in the afternoon. Paul said he enjoyed his brief moment as a mini crane operator and the audience loved it too.
“The presenters, Matt Baker and Alex Jones, Paul O’Grady and everyone associated with the One Show were great to work with.
“It was a slightly unusual way to demonstrate the capabilities of one of our mini cranes, but it was an ideal one because the space we had to work in was limited and the site was surrounded by high buildings. So it showed, perfectly, how mini cranes can operated in confined spaces.”
Other members of the Hird team supporting the lift included business development manager Tony Bains and mini crane sales advisor Carl Cooper.
It was the second time in recent months that equipment supplied by Hird has appeared on prime-time television. In November, Channel 4’s Grand Designs used a Hydraulica 1200 vacuum lifter to install a giant glass sliding door in a converted barn.
