IS THIS your idea of a holiday fantasy? You ride a double-decker bus around Britain and then head across the Atlantic to trek from the Big Apple to the very tip of South America. Meanwhile, you are being filmed for a documentary which could propel you to stardom.
Interested? If so, a production company wants to hear from you. The venture is a fundraiser for the War Child charity and Help a London Child, and there is space for six people on the bus. Red Productions want a teacher on board for the ride, partly because the crew will be conducting virtual lessons via the Internet while en route.
The bus is linked to an on-line service called schoolmaster.net, which, it is claimed, is used by 18 per cent of British secondary schools. It will visit schoolsthat have signed for the free service in June and July for an educational lecture tour before departing for New York from Liverpool on September 9. Another tour of UK schools will follow its return from South America in April next year. Participants will have their living expenses paid for during the eight-month trip.
The fly-on-the-wall documentary about the odyssey will follow in September 2001. Red Productions were behind a similar programme that chronicled an overland journey to Hong Kong, first broadcast in 1996.
Teachers interested in getting their ticket can e-mail the organisers at redbus@schoolmaster.net. Other participants will be recruited through a competition to be launched in May.
The website is at: www.schoolmaster.net
