#swimbritain

It might have taken us till Tuesday to shake off our Cake induced comas, but it was just in time for one hell of a week at TVC.

All through the week the British Gas team had been taking to the water for the launch of SwimBritain. There were a few familiar faces at the official launch on Wednesday, David Walliams, Ellie Simmonds and Becky Adlington… who also popped to the TVC studios for a flurry of radio interviews.

Don’t forget to sign your team up at swimbritain.co.uk

Whilst in the getting fit attitude, we also thought it was time to embrace the sunshine and head outside. A farm to be precise. A pop-up Farm in Canary Wharf! 

King.com and Alex James (of Blur) sorted us out at the launch of Farm Hero’s Saga by giving us some handy tips on how to do some desktop gardening.

And of course, there couldn't be a Week That Was, without Lee Bassin. Check out the below when  Lee managed to get a cheeky snap with him....

What a week for Team TVC! It all kicked off on Sunday with half the office taking part in SwimBritain London Fields (and Oli in Edinburgh). I’m sure you know already but SwimBritain is a British Gas campaign to get 500,000 people swimming more regularly by 2015, it’s a relay event where teams of four swim 4000m. Each participant swims 250m four times and at the end you are as exhausted as you are proud of yourself!

TVC’s fastest swimmers were Nicky and Kay with amazing times of 5 minutes 22 seconds and 5 minutes 55 seconds respectively – tremendous times but the real accomplishment was that no matter how hard it was for all the TVC participants, we all finished. Pats on the back all round.

Given the impressive start to the week the social media team decided the in-house theme needed to be heroes, but not any heroes, classic action movie heroes. Quotes have been flying round the office all week and the best have even made it on to the TVC blackboard. #ClassicActionMovieQuotes

In other news, TVC was helping everyone’s favourite baby faced Spice Girl, Emma Bunton, in the fight against maternal and new born tetanus with UNICEF and Pampers. #1view1vaccine You may have caught her on Loose Women, ITV Lunch time news or 5 News. http://bit.ly/19UdY9N 

As the Sir Patrick Moore in all of us awed at the Perseid meteor shower that lit up the this week’s night sky here at TVC we were also Star-Gazing at Olympic Silver Medallist Kerri-anne Payne. KAP took the plunge at Blenheim Palace as she began her training for the upcoming SwimBritain challenge sponsored by British Gas. If you haven’t signed up yet it’s not too late to get involved!

Quick to follow suit and not to be out done Michael Jaimeson kicked off his training at Henworth Grove Leisure Centre by posing topless for his very own photo-shoot for Men’s Fitness magazine. Phwoar!

Up in Glasgow the Dyno-Rod team started their long anticipated 50th anniversary Golden Van Tour that will see the van travel up and down the country. Remember if you spot the golden van take a picture and upload it to the Dyno-Rod facebook app for your chance to win £250 big ones!

TVC teamed up with the Economist to film one of Michael Thomas’s much loved training videos. If you are lucky enough to see it please let us know what you think.

Well it has been a very orange week here at TVC. We have been working with Dyno-Rod to celebrate their 50th anniversary. There was cake (which Neil Fox was very excited about) Mini Dyno vans and of course A LOT of talk about drains!!

We had Sir Tony Robinson in the TVC Studios talking to loads of media about the history of sewage systems… and a few old wives tails about the 'Queen Rat' (you can listen on the iplayer here) Jenna was lucky enough to grab a quick snap with Sir Tony in between interviews. 

Moving away from drains but sticking with water. We were with open water swimmer and Olympic Bronze Medallist Cassie Pattern at Blenheim Palace. Cassie was running an open water swimming masterclass for British Gas employees and local swimming club members who are all preparing for SwimBritain. 

Cassie, along with Kerry Anne Payne and David Walliams will be taking part in the open water SwimBritain event at Blenheim Palace's Great lake. So if you're there keep your eyes peeled!

Now travelling across the pond for a sneak peak of some content to come… We have been working with Nokia and two of the world's most respected photographers… BUT that's enough for now, more to come on this next week!

We don't want you to be upset with us for not dishing out all the goss, so we have put the link to our very special Royal Baby Playlist! Congrats to Will and Kate and a BIG hello to Prince George from us at TVC!!

SwimBritain launch at London Fields Lido