Tom Nicholas

My Next Video... | The Friday Update

Added 2024-08-02 15:00:13 +0000 UTC

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Friday Update, in which I give a little insight into what I’ve been up to for the past seven days.

So, I guess it’s time to reveal what my next video is about! And, it’s one which has the potential to be pretty controversial.

So here goes. My next video is about…

...drumroll please...

…Just Stop Oil.

If you’re not in the UK, and perhaps less familiar with their work, Just Stop Oil are an environmental protest group who famously daubed Van Gogh’s Sunflowers with soup.

Since then, they’ve continued to undertake disruptive protests in the UK, throwing powder at Stonehenge, blocking roads and shutting down bridges.

The video is about the theory behind this disruptive form of climate activism and, crucially, whether or not it works.

But, it’s better than that…

When I first started working on this project, I reached out to JSO to see whether anyone might be able to participate in an interview to use in the video.

They offered me one better.

In May, I thus followed along as they conducted a stunt in which they cracked the protective glass surrounding Magna Carta.

It was a pretty adrenaline-fuelled day. I can’t think of another instance in which I knew someone was about to break the law and followed along to film it!

The video thus aims to tell the story of that day, whilst also zooming out to give a bit more context about the group and discuss their tactics.

Alongside this, we’ve ended up with five separate interviews to weave into the piece, from people with various different perspectives on the topic.

As ever, the success of the video will be in how these various parts come together.

It’s once again spiralled out into being a pretty ambitious undertaking.

I’m sure it’s likely to be a little bit controversial; with a non-zero chance it leads to the security services trying to hack into my phone. (Which is only slightly a joke!)

The edit is beginning to come together and I’m really, really pleased with it. We should have an early version of things to share with you soon!

Let me know what you think!

Thanks as ever for your generous support and I’ll look forward to updating you more next week!!