How We Met: Brian Woods And Kate Blewett

Television producers Brian Woods and Kate Blewett first collaborated in 1995 on Channel 4's award-winning documentary, 'The Dying Rooms', which tackled the horrific conditions in Chinese orphanages. Woods, 34, was born in Lancashire, took a degree in psychology at Cambridge University, and worked briefly in advertising before moving into TV. He lives in London with his wife, Deborah. Blewett, 35, was brought up in Asia, studied at Kent University, and took various film, video and TV jobs before going freelance. She lives in London with her husband, Mike, and their children. Blewett and Woods are currently working on 'Innocents Lost', about the worldwide abuse of children's rights

BRIAN WOODS: It was a lucky accident that Kate happened, through a friend of a friend, to get in touch with me. When we first met, it was very, very fleetingly in London. What I remember is a lot of blonde hair and very long legs approaching me, and Kate saying, "I've got this idea about these Chinese orphanages," and me saying, "It sounds interesting, but I can't talk right now"; we then exchanged e-mails and agreed we'd look into it further. Kate was out in Hong Kong and didn't have any contacts with British broadcasters, I was here and had the contacts with British broadcasters but didn't have the story; it was an obvious thing to try and put the two together.

Channel 4 agreed to commission the programme on condition that we could definitely prove there were these so-called "dying rooms" in the orphanages. So Kate went to China to have a look; then I went out to Hong Kong. Initially I wasn't entirely sure about it all: I thought sneaking about illegally filming in China sounded a bit dubious. But then Kate got hold of photographs, and that was it - we were off for three weeks going round China, not really knowing anything about each other.

We got on tremendously well, that was the joy of it, and that's why we're still working together now. It could have been an absolute nightmare: it was very stressful, we were snooping about where we weren't exactly welcome. We went in illegally - in the sense that we didn't have journalist visas, just tourist visas - and if we'd been caught the least they probably would have done was to throw us out. We had business cards and a couple of letters in Mandarin stating that we were from a charity: China Welfare for Children, or something like that. The irony of saying we were from a charity was that it eventually became a reality - the response to the programme was so great that we set up the Dying Rooms Trust.

Because we knew that what we were doing would upset the Chinese authorities, we were very tense; under those circumstances you could really get on each other's nerves. Also, just being in China is hard work. It isn't a very pleasant place to spend time: the hotels are awful, the food is awful and just getting around such a vast country is hard work - we had constant hassles. We were lucky that we both had a very black sense of humour, and became friends in adversity. And the friendship has remained, though the adversity's passed.

I either intuitively trust people or I don't; Kate's someone I've always trusted, without any question. There have been situations, not just in China but since, where it's crossed one or both of our minds that we might be getting into something a bit awkward. You know that the other person will do whatever they need to do to support you and help you out. Neither of us are panickers.

People have said to me, "It must be really depressing going on your shoots," but it's not, because we just deal with the pressure of the situation. What we tend to do is go out for a meal and get very drunk. On Innocents Lost we were in Russia, in some really, really unpleasant situations with a captain from Russian military intelligence who was being very threatening; afterwards we just got very drunk on vodka. Another time we were in Eastern Europe, going to an institute where children were tied up and kept in cages; it was one of the hardest things I've filmed and afterwards again we just went out and someone suggested we should snort ouzo instead of drinking it. We just giggled and giggled and got hysterically funny and made lots and lots of terribly bad-taste jokes.

We worked together on the follow-up to The Dying Rooms, Return to the Dying Rooms, and then we went into Innocents Lost, which we've been working on for the last 18 months. Grim things are happening to children all over the world, and what we wanted to do was give them a voice. So we went to west Africa, South America, Russia, Greece, the Gulf, Bangladesh - broadly a circuit of the world. We calculated we did 70,000 miles, and visited 21 countries. And we're still getting on remarkably well. So unless we have a terrible falling-out over work, I'm sure we'll be friends for the foreseeable future.

KATE BLEWETT: Our first meeting was in the UK in 1994, and it was very brief. I was based in Hong Kong, and was on my way back there. I had a train to catch, so I was clock-watching. But our fleeting conference was critical, because everything changed as a result of that 10 minutes. If we hadn't met and there hadn't been that brief meeting of minds, our whole lives would have been different. It's all a bit bizarre, but it changed everything about our lives, for the better. It changed our partners' lives too. I don't know how many husbands and wives would let their other halves go off across China with a complete stranger of the opposite sex.

The first time we really sat down with the project was in Hong Kong. I could feel Brian understood what I was trying to say. Everything felt right about him, and when we met in Hong Kong it was as if we'd known each other for ages. But we still set off on this wild journey across China as strangers, effectively.

Before we started I can remember wondering what was ahead. I knew the subject was going to be difficult. I remember thinking: "Please let this go well. First of all let us get the footage, then let us get out safely." There was a big difference between Brian and I; I'd made a number of films in China and Asia, I grew up there and spent another 10 years there in the film business, and I knew that we were potentially in very big trouble if we got caught. In the back of my mind I knew that we might not get out if we were caught red-handed with secret cameras. So I was scared. Brian, who had never shot in China or Asia, didn't feel the fear. So he was much more comfortable about the whole thing and went in with a smile on his face. He had a much better time, because I was always looking over my shoulder; my heart would go into my mouth. I was very glad when we came out safely with the footage.

We had a mutual respect for each other's work and approach - I don't think we'd have started the journey if we'd thought the other one was not suited for it. I had the gut feeling that we would be all right. It was very strange emotionally, because when we saw some of the sights, the professional button was on and we just had to keep going. A lot of people have said to us: "How could you walk away?"The answer was that we had no choice. After work, sitting in the hotel rooms, playing back the footage we had, there was always a deafening silence as we watched. It wasn't until we got back home and had done the final edit that I realised what we'd got. China then was miles away and we were far removed, but I knew each time we looked at the edit those children were still sitting there and that's when the pain really arrived.

Our relationship has been an extraordinarily natural process. China went well, we got on well, we never argued, we laughed a lot, we developed a very, very black humour. I think that's actually what got us through; we found this communal sense of humour that was really very bad taste in terms of what we were looking at. We saw so many extra ordinary images that the only way of dealing with it was to make jokes. If anyone was listening to us, we must have appeared rather sick, but that's how we got through it.

At work, we never tell each other what to do. One person can start something and the other can finish it; we're even a bit like that with our sentences, he'll start to talk and I'll take over, or vice versa; or he'll start the edit and I'll come in and say I think we should do this or that - there's no bossiness, everything just gets threaded together. It was the same in China - we made mistakes, once we got on the wrong plane and ended up in the wrong destination, things that other people might have panicked or got stroppy about, but it just never happened. That's the vital thing - it's not been an effort to get on. Brian consistently reminds me of my brother. There's a very special relationship between sister and brother: you just put up with stuff - you allow them mistakes, they irritate you enormously but then it goes away and it doesn't matter. That's why we got through it: there's been that acceptance of mistakes, and ups and downs, and there's been no hassle.

For me, Innocents Lost has been a phenomenal project to work on, but it has also been very draining. You see children all the time who are miserable and depressed, who don't have any kind of life or hope. Brian and I sit there silent, time and time again, from the train to the car to the plane. It's soul-destroying and we're not even the ones suffering. There are times when I can't do it, I just have to stop. Then we sit and talk about it. We've developed a very deep understanding. It's been difficult, but I think because of that we've become the best of friends.

'Innocents Lost': 8 and 9 December, 9pm C4. The Dying Rooms Trust can be contacted at 86 Thames Road, London W4 3RE.