09·06·09 Week 23 explore.gateway.bbc.co.uk/ariel THE BBC NEWSPAPER
SIX DIRECTORS LINED UP TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTIONS a Page 4 photograph
Spokespeople: National bike bassett : mark ◆week is coming up and journalists Sean Riley and Kylie Pentelow are already on the case Page 7
Reinventing the wheels How did we do Crisis demands Because I’m at being green fast reactions not worth it THREE THOUSAND printers have A NEW BREED of ‘information doers’, FOR HONESTY about abuse of ◆gone missing, except nobody’s ◆shooting pictures with mobile phones, ◆public money, George Orwell would missed them. Making more people share are transforming the news space – but do put Westminster to shame. His self- a printer is one energy-saving winner in a conventional sources of authority know deprecating letter of resignation from the year that’s seen big waste reduction but how to cope with this unconventional BBC is just one intriguing item unearthed modest progress on overall power and reporting. Nik Gowing revisited the G20 by the archives editorial team for their water consumption. Page 3 protests and 7/7 to find out more.Page 10 latest online collection. Page 5 > NEED TO KNOW 2 WEEK AT WORK 8-9 OPINION 10 MAIL 11 JOBS 14 GREEN ROOM 16 < 162 News aa 00·00·0809·06·09
NEED TO KNOW the week’s essentials NEWS BITES
JANA BENNETT has launched a an online directory of disabled Timely takeover by Bradshaw actors, performers and musicians, a nationwide search for new Room 2425, White City u BEN BRADSHAW a former BBC journalist, has disabled talent and announced that replaced Andy Burnham as culture secretary disabled actor David Proud will 201 Wood Lane, London W12 7TS in Gordon Brown’s cabinet reshuffle. Burnham, join the regular cast of EastEnders. who held the job for 14 months, is now health 020 8008 4228 secretary. Radio 1’s Big Weekend in Swindon Bradshaw takes up his post just days before was the most interactive to date, Editor the expected publication of the final version of with 5.3m video requests received Andrew Harvey 02-84222 Digital Britain, a report by broadcasting minister via the dedicated website, compared Deputy editors Stephen Carter about which there is specula- to one million last year. 1.1m people Sally Hillier 02-26877 tion that it might recommend giving licence fee tuned to the red button coverage. Cathy Loughran 02-27360 money directly to help ITV regional news. Features editor If this proves to be an early hot potato for Owenna griffiths is the new Clare Bolt 02-27445 Bradshaw, he is used to feeling the heat. His web editor of CBBC’s Newsround. She is Reporters profile records: ‘My lucky career move was to currently an assistant editor on Carla Parks 02-27630 get the job as the BBC’s Berlin correspondent at Today, in which role she accompanied Laura Scarrott 02-84224 the beginning of 1989,’ just weeks before the John Humphrys to Basra and Peggy Walker 01-43940 fall of the Wall. edited the US election coverage. Production editor After just one Parliament on the back Claire Barrett 02-27368 benches Bradshaw was made a minister in the Graham Norton’s BBC Two Art editor Foreign Office in 2001, becoming deputy leader chat show is transferring to a Ken Sinyard 02-84229 of the Commons and environment minister new 10.35pm slot on BBC One Ariel online before joining the health team in 2007. Earlier this autumn as part of plans to Andy Walker (editor) 02-84227 this year, he was a vocal critic of the BBC’s BBC as market maker in an area where commer- raise the presenter’s profile. Alex Goodey 02-27410 refusal to air the Gaza emergency appeal. cial operators have made, and will continue to Business co-ordinator Bradshaw became the first MP to enter into a make, significant investments, such that the po- CBBC controller Anne Gilchrist Silvana Romana 02-84228 civil partnership when he married BBC journalist tential for distortion of competition is manifest’. is to join the in-house comedy Ariel mail Neal Dalgleish in 2006. BBC management’s additional information, department on attachment for a year [email protected] and a revised timetable to complete the trust’s as creative and business director. She Ariel online ariel.gateway.bbc.co.uk u The BBC Trust’s request for more infor- assessment, will be published in due course. will work across the UK, including mation about Project Canvas has put a tempo- with Comedy North in Manchester. Guest contributors this week rary spoke in the wheel of one of the BBC’s most u Here’s a new name to conjure with: Amy ambitious and, to many people, most attractive Coyte, most recently chief executive of the Bat BBC Worldwide has struck a BEN BROWN on surviving frontline partnership ideas. Conservation Trust, has been appointed director deal to launch BBC Knowledge, war reporting. Page 8 Canvas, announced by Mark Thompson at the of the BBC Wildlife Fund. It’s a post newly cre- BBC Lifestyle and CBeebies to NIK GOWING on the new media end of last year with a view to going live in 2010, ated by the grant-making charity, set up in 2007 500,000 subscribers on StarHub TV, power to the people. Page 10 is a joint initiative between the BBC, BT and ITV on the back of the BBC’s Saving Planet Earth. Singapore’s largest pay tv platform. MARK DUFF on a job share in that will bring catch-up from the pc to the tv set. This special season of programmes from the marvellous, maddening Milan. Page 14 Using a new type of set-top box, connected to natural history unit highlighted how the global BBC Two’s Beautiful People has taken a broadband line, people will be able to access landscape was changing and how conservation the comedy award at the Banff tv all the free tv channels as well as the BBC iPlayer projects could help to provide a more secure festival. BBC Three’s Blood Sweat BBC Jobs 0370 333 1330 and ITV player, plus other interactive content. future for animals and plants. Saving Planet and T-Shirts was named best reality Jobs textphone 028 9032 8478 After a seven-week initial consultation, dur- Earth included a series of films by celebrities format and Titus: The Gorilla King, BBC Jobs John Clarke 02-27143 ing which it received more than 800 submis- like Fiona Bruce, Edith Bowman and Phil Tufnell, by Tigress Productions for the BBC Room 2120, White City, London W12 7TS sions, the trust has decided to delay a decision who appealed for money to save a number of and WNET, won the wildlife award. about the project, scheduled for July 24. When endangered species – crocodiles in Cambodia, Advertise in Ariel it has the additional information, the trust will tigers in India and orang-utans in Borneo. BBC Manchester hopes to have Ten Alps Publishing 020 7878 2314 launch a second period of consultation. Since then almost £2m has been raised, one of its two chillers back in action www.bbcarielads.com The problem is that many of those consulted, enabling the BBC Wildlife Fund to support 50 by Friday and the second shortly who include Google, indie tv companies and international and UK projects. The BBC itself has afterwards. Both are 35 years old and Printing consumer groups, have expressed concern over not donated any finance. As a publicly funded have been out of action, resulting in Garnett Dickinson Group ‘a lack of detail’ in key areas. There is also con- broadcaster that would be against the rules. stifling conditions in Oxford Road. Rotherham 01709 768000 cern over possible market impact. ‘Canvas will During a recent visit to Kenya, Ernestina Craig stifle competition and the development of VOD Hall from BBC Outreach saw the work of the Tusk Listen Here! the BBC Scottish Subscribe to Ariel [video on demand],’ Virgin Media claims, while Trust, which has received a grant of £19,371 from Symphony Orchestra’s second Six months: £26, £36, £40 Sky says the project appears ‘to position the the fund. See her report on Page 14. ‘big weekend’ of free concerts Twelve months: £50, £60, £68 and music-making events from (prices for UK, Europe, rest of world its home in Glasgow City Halls, respectively) ARIEL ONLINE EDITOR’S update will be held between June 18-21. Cheques to: Garnett Dickinson Print, Brookfields Way, Manvers, barry manilow will make his Wath Upon Dearne, Rotherham S63 5DL A few dramas but the launch went well only UK appearance this year at BBC Tel 01709 768199 Proms in the Park, broadcast live on Highs and lows in launch week, but now we’re rated, ears wigged etc), so please make an effort Radio 2 from London’s Hyde Park. He INFORMATION IN AN EMERGENCY back to business as usual. to join the conversation, as many of you have done joins a line-up that includes mezzo- Telephone 0800 0688 159 Last week Ariel online’s redesign finally launched. already. soprano Katherine Jenkins, also Ceefax Page 159 www.bbc.co.uk/159 It was a challenging few days of technical problems, We value feedback, so we’ll be putting letters making her Proms in the Park debut. Ariel is produced by Internal but as those were eventually resolved, we are now back into a prominent position and running regular Communcations for people at the BBC left with a website which complements the colour ‘just for fun’ caption competitions – both sugges- and depth of coverage in the paper – and with around tions from staff. If you’ve got an idea, please let me poetry please five fresh news stories and features every day, and editor Andy Walker know. Our poetry challenge runs until there’s plenty to see, even for the casual reader. Looking forward to next week, there’s going to next Monday June 15. Inspired by Traffic to the Ariel blog, which itself had a fresh be a very special competition, so keep your eyes the poetry season, we’re look- lick of paint last week, has more than doubled firmly glued to Ariel. ing for short poems broadly with and in our inaugural poll, more than 70 percent Finally, I would like to single out a few people to a BBC theme. Haikus are proving PLEASE RECYCLE YOUR COPY OF ARIEL of you thought that the new look online was a big thank for their hard work over the past nine months, popular but you can submit any- improvement on the old. I’d hoped for higher, but without whom this project could have turned out thing up to the length of a sonnet. bearing the gremlins in mind, I’ll accept that the very differently: In FM&T’s Gateway team – Tiina Please send your poem to Clare launch was a little tempestuous. Jaatinen, David Turner and Nikolai Sirenko; Siemens’ Bolt. Prizes for the best poems, More audio and video are on the way, and we’re TAM team; and TUI, the digital agency, charged with judged by Robert Seatter, poet seeking more input from people around the BBC to the web design and software engineering. and head of history. make their voices heard (or comments read, stories Alex Goodey
> ARIEL ONLINE: BBC NEWS AS IT HAPPENS – ARIEL.GATEWAY.BBC.CO.UK < a 09·06·09 Environment update 3 photograph: L photograph: Worldwide
Why now A U SC RA
ARR sets itself we love ott the rain higher It took five years to get the system fixed standards but now every time it rains in W12 the water is being collected to by Laura Scarrott flush the lavatories in BBC Worldwide’s Media As well as working to meet wider Centre offices. BBC targets Worldwide has its own Pictured is the ‘engine environmental objectives. room’ of the system in One of these goals is to eliminate carbon emissions and last week on the basement where World Environmental Day, the com- pipes lead to massive pany announced it would be offset- tanks with a total ting its carbon emissions for the last capacity of 222,000 financial year. litres. It is estimated To do this Worldwide will be that Worldwide will investing in a wind farm in Turkey recycle 3m litres of and fuel efficient stoves in Ghana. rainwater a year instead ‘Our priority is to reduce our car- of taking water from the bon emissions as much as we possi- mains supply. bly can but there are still some irre- ducible emissions that we’ve taken the decision to offset,’ says Peter Phippen, Worldwide’s board sponsor for environment and MD magazines. The two projects have been part- funded by money raised from the Me- dia Centre car park which costs driv- One year on, environmental ers £108 a month to use. The car park fee is seen by Phippen as an incentive to get people cycling to work. Throughout the day people were also invited to see the Media Centre’s impact is a little lighter rainwater harvesting system which collects and filters rainwater from the roof of the building and uses it by Cathy Loughran studios where the saving wouldn’t to flush the toilets. affect broadcast quality. UPs and downs Phippen says the water harvesting The good news is that waste levels are Simmonds says the impact of system is one of many environmen- down, recycling is up and carbon emis- replacement – even with initial Making progress Could do better tal projects made possible by World- sions from BBC transport are on the investment – could be enormous. n waste down by 11 percent n energy use only down wide’s move out of Woodlands. slide. Only five percent of energy used (5 year target 25 percent) 1.5 percent (target 20 percent) ‘There are facilities needed to The bad news is that efficiencies by tungsten lighting produces n recycling up to 51 percent n no change in water bring environmental changes about,’ have only managed to shave 1.5 light, while it generates almost (target 75 percent) and all office consumption (target reduction he says. ‘For instance we no longer percent off energy consumption 40 times the carbon emissions of paper now recycled 25 percent) have disposable cups. We wanted to in the last year – as new activity the low energy alternative. Over n transport carbon emissions n building control systems in do this at Woodlands but we didn’t including the work on digital a number of years, tungsten costs down 6 percent (target 20 need of overhaul – investment have washing-up facilities available.’ switchover and the launch of BBC seven times as much as LED spot- percent) in heating/cooling systems will Other recent developments Arabic and BBC Persian put pres- lighting to run, including outlay n flights between London and deliver improvements this year include 90 percent of all paper used sure on net use – and water con- on air conditioning. Manchester down 31 percent n bigger push needed on in Worldwide’s magazines being sumption remained static. ‘I know there are creative con- n 50 percent more video greener programme making FSC certified, which means that it is A year after the BBC set itself cerns about low energy light- conferencing, saving 400,000 sourced from sustainable forests. ambitious green targets, including ing and they wouldn’t be bright miles Worldwide plans to continue look- cutting energy use by 20 percent, enough or stable enough to light n 3000 printers disposed of ing into ways of reducing its envi- Caroline Thomson, chief operating TC1, for instance, but they’re per- n automatic shut-down of all ronmental impact and is fitting dual officer, admits it’s a mixed picture. fectly ok for low ceiling studios non-critical pcs flush systems into toilets in Garden ‘It’s encouraging to see what like in news,’ he told Ariel. House. It is estimated that this will we’ve managed to do on waste Wider use of rechargeable bat- save 800,000 litres of water a year. and recycling, through people teries is another priority, and Sim- David Halford, head of ethical pol- changing their behaviour, and I’m monds will work with the Energy icy, says increased interest in envi- cheered by gains like doing away Saving Trust to develop an indus- ronmental issues has made it easier with 3000 superfluous printers,’ try standard carbon calculator for to implement changes. ‘People have she told Ariel. tv, radio and online production. been incredibly receptive,’ he says. ‘But our energy targets in par- Spend-to-save investment the Media Centre’s rainwater har- aged for all the user groups relat- ‘There are expectations now that this ticular look tough. You soon real- schemes to update building control vesting system will cut water use ed to BBC North – has increased, is how companies should work.’ ise how ungreen an activity broad- systems can’t come soon enough in the year ahead, although the as you’d expect with improved casting really is.’ for staff in older buildings who planned move away from water facilities, but it’s also about good Worldwide’s environment That’s why the year ahead will have been sweating in Manchester dispensers and polystyrene cups to habits. As ever, the impact of indi- strategy objectives: see more resources directed at and chilling in London recently taps and mugs will in itself gener- viduals’ behaviour cannot be over- n Management: Deliver world class finding ways to make the business (Pages 2 and 11). ate extra use. estimated.’ environmental management of making and broadcasting pro- Replacement of inefficient London-Manchester flights There will be fewer but big- n Materials: Achieve environmentally grammes more energy efficient. boilers at White City alone will have been cut by a third in 2008-09 ger green campaigns in the com- -protective product stewardship Charles Simmonds, a director deliver energy savings of 25-30 per- but maintaining that trend will be ing year. And at risk of a blip in n Waste: Minimise waste and avoid in news, who led pilot work last cent when work is completed this another challenge in the run up transport emissions, the 252 green disposal to landfill year on environmentally sustain- autumn, says utilities manager and after the move to Salford, champions will meet in London on n Carbon: Offset unavoidable able production, will investigate Gavin Sturrock. Thomson says. BBC environment day, July 13, to emissions wider use of low energy lighting in The recent reinstatement of ‘Video conferencing – encour- exchange ideas and best practice. n Water: Use water effectively
4 News a 09·06·09 Brown offer World tv by phone Thomson’s repeat honour puts Sugar European iPhone users can now watch BBC World Today reporter Mike Thomson (right) News live on mobiles thanks to a new piece of and producer Edward Main won the software. People in 16 European countries can radio category of the Amnesty media on the spot download the application, which also works on awards for their reports from the Cen- the iPod Touch, from Apple’s online shop. tral African Republic, broadcast last The BBC remained in discussions with The app enables users to view the interna- December. Last year Thomson won The Apprentice host Alan Sugar early this tional news channel over either 3G or Wi-Fi net- the same category for his coverage of week over his new job as government works, with the latter giving the highest quality. Congo. enterprise tsar, following Conservative Launched on June 4, it comes bundled with the Another BBC winner at the Amnesty calls for him to stand down from BBC BBC’s mobile news website and was produced ceremony was Gaza correspondent One’s record breaking show. with online tv specialist Livestation. Aleem Maqbool. He won the Gaby Senior Conservatives, including Global news exec Jim Egan says: ‘Having a Redo award, given in memory of shadow culture secretary Jeremy Hunt, news channel available live on the iPhone at journalist Redo, who was killed while have claimed that the Labour-support- this level of broadcast quality is a world first.’ working in Iraq in 2003. ing businessman’s dual role would compromise the BBC’s political inde- pendence if he returns for series six next year. A BBC statement said: ‘Sir Alan is Two big events will answer a lot of questions Euro poll in discussions with us about his plans and has assured us that he is deter- marathon mined not to do anything that would jeopardise his work at the BBC which is It’s the ‘biggest marathon of all’, reck- something he greatly values.’ Should exec pay be ons weary results editor Lizz Loxam, Sugar, who has been nominated for after the gruelling four day local and a peerage and whose role as enterprise European election operation. ‘Even champion to small businesses is still bigger than the general election,’ she being defined, told Andrew Marr at the frozen for longer? says of the double vote which takes weekend that he was to be an adviser place once every five years. but had not joined the government. Talking to Ariel on Monday morn- A Downing Street spokeswoman Imagine the not too distant future. ITV and streamed live on Gate- ing from a basement bunker in Tele- confirmed that Sugar’s new job would C4 are enjoying economic recovery and bet- way on June 15 in a for- vision Centre, where she’s been holed be subject to approval by the appoint- ter business. How do partnerships with the BBC mat based on Question up since Thursday when the British ments process in the House of Lords work then – what’s in it for us? And how good Time. Nicky Campbell public went to the polls, she says it this week. Whether he would take the are the present partnership ideas anyway? will be in the chair and ‘couldn’t have gone better’. Labour party whip in the Lords would They’re the kind of questions you might the panel will be made By the time BBC tv coverage of the be a matter for him. want answered. up of the director gen- European elections across Britain and Sunday night’s final of The Appren- What about pay? Is there a case for maintaining eral plus Mark Byford, in 26 other EU countries came off air tice, in which restaurateur Yasmina the freeze on executive salaries next year to al- Jana Bennett, Tim Davie, on Monday morning, all 72 GB MEPs Siadatan snatched the title from fa- low others to catch up a bit? Campbell expects to Helen Boaden and Peter had been reported, while full or par- vourite Kate Walsh, averaged a record It’s the kind of question you might want give panel a hard time Salmon. tial results had been given from all 9.8m audience, peaking at 10.4m as answered. It’s live in Studio TC6 at 26 other Euro countries. Local coun- decision time approached. Almost 8m And next Monday anyone can put questions 3.30 for an hour and full details of how to join cil results had been declared in the stayed for The Apprentice: You’re Hired. like these to Mark Thompson and his fellow the audience or send in a question are on the in- previous days. directors when they take part in a q&a session ternal comms website tinyurl.com/bigdebate The fast work is testament to set by the staff of the BBC. The Big Debate will be or go to www.bbc.co.uk/atw Loxam’s network of stringers – one in every GB region and EU country HARDER – who telephoned the results to the THAN IT LOOKS team of 15 inputters in W12. Having Global puts itself on show verified the figures, they added them Maybe it’s not to a computer system which made so easy to spot Just look at the menu. Somali chicken, Indo- hence the affordability – of international news them instantly available to every BBC a winner after nesian noodles, Brazilian snacks, Vietnamese reporting. outlet and which automatically fired all, given the summer rolls and goodies from the Caribbean, The Global News division (World Service, tv graphics and online maps. results of our Middle East and India. World News, BBC Monitoring and World Serv- It may seem old fashioned, but Apprentice They’re putting on a show at Global News Live ice Trust) now has an international audience of Loxam says the human to human competition. Back in March, we on June 17 when international journalism will be 238m and is broadcasting next week not only transmission of results is still the best asked you to pick a winner from on display in a tent encampment at White City to the world but to the BBC as well. It has cho- way to avoid error. ‘You can clarify, ask the line-up of contestants with – and canteen cooks of various nationalities will sen to put on a demonstration of the best of its questions, double check – we’d rather Rocky Andrews emerging as an be feeding the masses. work throughout the day when anyone at the be accurate than fast and wrong.’ overall favourite. But no one chose It’s shaping up to be quite a day, with some BBC can sign up to be either an audience mem- She reflected on a smooth opera- series winner, dark horse Yasmina programmes going out live from the site by ber or a participant in workshops covering top- tion in which even the Greeks obliged, Siadatan, proving you can’t always the Media Centre and others recorded. Fac- ics such as technology for journalism and polit- despite their rather quaint polling go on appearances. Copies of the ing the Hard Talk interrogation is maverick ical trends in Africa. parameters. ‘Last time they delayed ‘best bits’ of The Apprentice will film director Oliver Stone while the World De- Full programme and how to book tinyurl. the closure of their poll because it instead go to the five runners up. bate will examine the issue of the costs – and com/globallive was a hot day and they’d all gone to the beach,’ laughs Loxam. Programme gets its hands dirty by putting today’s science to the test by Adam Bambury Dermot Caulfield, ‘and the idea is to nin and interested layman (and expe- popular science television in a maga- pense with theory entirely and go encourage the audience so they want rienced presenter) Dallas Campbell. zine format, he believes the way peo- the way of Sky’s Brainiac – all explo- A new series begins on BBC One next to take part in science too.’ ‘Every piece of content starts with ple consume both science and televi- sion and no explanation. For one month in an attempt to rejuvenate Based in a Bedfordshire power sta- a question, such as what is dark mat- sion has moved on: thing it’s co-produced by the Open the unglamorous image of popular tion, the magazine show sees the pre- ter?,’ says Caulfield, ‘and the team ‘Rather than simply be a reporting University. science by way of four brainy present- senters travelling the world investi- are on the search for the answers. vehicle on what’s new in the world ‘I wanted it to have strong enter- ers and plenty of entertaining dem- gating developments in science and Often that means us experiment- of science, we want to roll up our tainment values and be a bloody good onstrations. technology and often returning to ing or building something to try and sleeves, stick our hands in the dirty watch,’ says Caulfield. ‘But there is In Bang Goes the Theory the object test out the theories they encounter. come up with that answer.’ gubbins of the engine and find out some learning in there. I’ve got three will be to show science in action, from The onscreen team is evolution- While Caulfield acknowledges the why, what, or where science is hap- kids, and I want them to be inspired fireworks to water-powered jet packs. ary biologist Yan Wong, engineer role the former science strand Tomor- pening,’ he says. so next time they have double physics ‘We take part in science,’ says editor Jem Stansfield, biochemist Liz Bon- row’s World has played in pioneering But Bang Goes the Theory won’t dis- they’ll pay a bit more attention.’ a 09·06·09 Features 5 Orwell uncovered
Details of how the writer ended his BBC career reflect the range of material to be found in the archives
‘I am tendering MY RESIGNATION because for some time I have been conscious that I was wasting my own time and the public’s money on doing work that pro- duced no result,’ typed George Orwell in his resigna- tion letter to the BBC, in September 1943. The writer, whose real name was Eric Blair, was at that time a broadcaster for the BBC’s eastern service. Two years later his satire Animal Farm was published followed by 1984 in which the interrogation Room 101 is thought to have been inspired by an office in Broad- casting House. In resigning, you can’t fault his honesty. ‘You get a sense of him as an incredibly moral person – he was someone who couldn’t tell a lie,’ says Julie Rowbotham, who leads the editorial team in BBC Archives. ‘Although reading the letters, I suspect it would be difficult to be sitting at the next desk to him.’ Editorial lead Kate Wheeler nods. ‘He wouldn’t have shared his Hobnobs.’ Rowbotham’s team has spent a year weaving stories out of the BBC’s vast tv and radio archives and putting them online. The George Orwell collection, published last week, is one of their key pieces and they’re hop- ing it will help raise awareness of the resource. ‘Peo- ple care about Orwell,’ Wheeler says. ‘When we real- ised that he was on the school syllabus we went to have a look at Caversham’s written archive and dug out his staff file. You get a feeling for how he fitted into this big, unwieldy organisation.’
The team is releasing a new collection each week, following a year long trial, in which they opened the archive to 18,000 users. ‘We discovered that people like to be given curated collections,’ Rowbotham says. ‘We try to tell people a story.’ People using the archive can navigate through the material depending on what grabs them. ‘One woman who came in to watch Z-Cars told us she ended up lis- tening to an archive Radio 4 programme on Kashmir,’ by Peggy Walker A new ‘comedy’ written down mansion, a flat, a house, oh, Rowbotham recalls. ‘If people are interested in the and a courtroom of clowns,’ says Cuban missile crisis they can run the gamut of that If you find yourself in the com- by one half of The Plowman. Yes, all coulrophobia experience, from the Cuban revolution to the Bay of pany of a garish one handed clown, sufferers look away now. ‘It’s a Pigs. We’ve got files which werereleased by the KGB...’ a pantomime dwarf with telekinet- League of Gentlemen dream sequence where we find out They’ve moved from clips to streaming entire pro- ic tendencies, a midwife who thinks team is a mix of ‘sheer how the one handed clown char- grammes on the site, where they will be a perma- a doll is her child, or a serial-killer- acter thinks he lost his hand, and nent resource. Behind the scenes, the team is working obsessive with a penchant for mur- invention and original involves 12 clowns of all shapes and with multiplatform commissioners (who used archive der mysteries, you, my poor unfortu- sizes.’ Producer Justin Davies nods. material for the White Season) and keeping one eye on nate soul, are in Psychoville. comic characters’, says ‘I’m sure that some people will have the tv schedules to see if they can support the output Unlike Royston Vasey, Psycho- comedy commissioner nightmares.’ for BBC Two and Four. ville isn’t restricted to one geo- This isn’t comedy for the faint For Andrew Marr’s Britain From Above they found graphical location; the typically Lucy Lumsden. hearted – the fact it’s shot in HD footage of a 1951 south coast air race – the first time outlandish characters are spread But then she’s not makes the face paint and grimaces the BBC tried to do aerial photography, by holding an across England from Bristol to even more intense. ‘We chose a enormous camera out of a freight plane. Ilkley. Psychoville appears to be, if coulrophobic... designer from the world of drama, ‘When we looked at the referrals, we realised the you will, a state of mind. because HD means a huge challenge archive collection was being talked The first episode submitted by email after the first episode from for the design team,’ Davies says. ‘A about on unofficial RAF message- Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pem- a ‘black gloved’ figure asking you show with all these worlds colliding boards,’ Wheeler says. ‘Some- berton was enough to convince questions about characters in the needed that special treatment, but one wrote it was ‘top notch old executive producer Jon Plowman show (to find the answers you need because it’s comedy, we also had to boy’. High praise indeed. of its potential. ‘It was pretty dark to take note of any website URLs do things on a shoestring.’ and very funny,’ he remembers. ‘We you spot in the tv episode). Jon Aird, With the same writers, compari- Orwell in his held the read through in a theatre senior content producer, says the sons with The League of Gentlemen BBC days and 250 people turned up, just from website is tied to the episodes in are expected. ‘It was a fantastic word of mouth. We should have sold order to enhance the viewers’ brand,’ agrees Plowman, who was tickets...’ experience. ‘If you to sign up you also the executive producer on that. Psychoville’s world is enhanced get the full Psychoville experience,’ ‘Fans will recognise some by a large online presence, he says. of the style. It’s nightmarish and designed to take users on an The series was shot around dis- it’s funny.’ ‘interactive journey’. If you sign used army barracks in Mill Hill, up to the website you’ll receive an north London. ‘We created a run Psychoville, BBC Two, June 18
a 09·06·09 Features 7
CROSS COUNTY The novice who’s now pedalling confidently in re.cycling pursuit of stories Ariel saddles up for national bike week with your two wheel tales
KYLIE PENTELOW VIDEO JOURNALIST/ Cycle commuters: If your journey TO WORK involves being either PRESENTER, Peter Haywood, fed into an endless traffic jam or crammed in a EAST MIDLANDS Graeme Kay, metal box on the Central line, this is the month to Sally Lovell and take matters into your own hands. ‘You know that old Claire Rawles with June 13 to 21 is officially National Bike Week, and phrase, it’s just like their fold-up bikes organisers are encouraging people to make their riding a bike, well that pedalling a regular habit. June, being summer, is of didn’t work for me… I course a good time to get on the saddle; breezing couldn’t ride a bike. past queues of stationary cars feels all the sweeter When I tell anyone they’re amazed. I missed in the sun. But other incentives can also be con- cycling lessons at school, then as a teenager vincing that it’s two wheels good, four wheels bad. avoided all chances of riding. So at the start of this year I decided to do something about it and Under Bike Week 2009’s lycra banner, they’re I’ll soon be off around the East Midlands on the organising ‘commuter challenges’ around the search for stories with a biking angle. That country. If you live in Greater Manchester and includes a company in Leicester hoping to cycle to work during the week, you’ll be entered revive bike manufacture in the city and a Top into a draw to win £100 of bike shop vouchers, Gear challenge where I’ll race myself to work - by plus there are time trials, picnics, and off-road bike and by car. excursions. National bike week became my target. I roped Not actually owning a bike is less of an excuse in director colleague Sean Riley – an accom- now that the BBC Cycle to Work scheme has opened plished rider – and the bike challenge began. its summer enrolment (it runs until the end of June). Since February I have been learning how to ride. Since April last year, 623 people have bought a No stabilisers – just a technique that helps bal- ance and confidence. bike through the scheme. Participants get to repay We’ve been working on routes which will the cost from their salary over the course of a year, take us across the region over the course of though you do need to solemnly swear it will mainly the week. We’ll be on and off road and meet- be used for commuting. ing various cycling enthusiasts on the way. It’s The scheme – which exempts the buyer from also given us the chance to look at the role this Vat, income tax, and National Insurance on the region still plays in the manufacturing of bikes purchase – can save around 45 percent and – contrary to popular belief, they don’t all come applies to equipment if the total spend is under from Taiwan. £1000. If you travel on BBC business by bike you The ride will be about 150 miles – nothing for get a cool 20p per mile claimable expenses. an experienced rider, but for me it seems epic. n The Cycle to Work scheme is currently n You can follow my journey on twitter.com/ out to tender and the BBC is looking for people kyliebikeride and also see extra content, like to pose as buyers to test potential providers. how to buy the right bike helmet on bbc.co.uk/ Email Anneke Heaton to volunteer. eastmidlandstoday people who say the best place to be is on a bike z COMMUNITY years ago. I used to cycle all over Derbyshire: on wheels NEXT STOP CHILE Castleton, Bakewell, Hathersage and Edale as a KINGSWOOD FINALE Alan ‘AJ’ James, LONDON youngster. Now during the week I cycle to work owing to the sale of Kingswood Warren, the z Cyclists gather at the Bike The head of media planning at MC&A in and do some miles at the weekends. last Midsummer Madness cycle ride organised Shed forum on Gateway to com- White City is putting his cycling skills I started with a Raleigh road bike and by Research and Development will take place on pare routes, trade tips and discuss to the test in a sponsored bike ride then invested (as a present to myself) in June 24. ‘It’s a pleasant ride through woodland, a the issues of the day – from the through Argentina and Chile. He’ll a Specialized Tricross which is a cross vineyard and along ancient pathways,’ says sen- maximum achievable speed for a be covering 342 miles from the between a tourer and a road bike. Last ior technologist Andrew Mason who is organis- bike (around 30mph for a regu- foothills of the Andes in northern year Mike Woodcock (Radio Shef- ing the event. lar road cyclist) to the number of Patagonia to the Chilean Pacific field’s assistant editor) and I did the Anyone wanting to take part will need a lockers available in different parts coast early in 2010. coast to coast over three days from mountain bike as the route also includes ‘a bit of the BBC (which also varies). He hadn’t ‘really ridden’ since Whitehaven to Newcastle, dipping of mud’ and a hill. For more information, contact tinyurl.com/thebikeshed his early teens and has enjoyed front and back wheels into both the Andrew Mason. getting back in action but won- Irish and North Seas. z Transport for London ders ‘if there is enough Vaseline I love cycling now and normally has updated its cycling website, in the world’ to keep him cycling do around 40-45 miles at the week- where Londoners can order free around 50 miles a day at heights of up ends. We’ve just come back from a win a bike and maps, get information about tak- to 1700 metres. four day tour of the Cotswolds trian- cycling gear ing bikes on public transport, and The week-long ride is in aid of Men- gle. It keeps me fit and, although I’m use the cycle-specific journey cap – a charity with personal relevance 51, I don’t look a day over 49. I cycle worth £800 planner. for AJ, who has a son with high function- with friends from Sheffield city coun- tinyurl.com/cyclelondon ing Asperger’s Syndrome. To support him cil and colleagues from Radio Shef- To celebrate National Bike Week, Ariel visit justgiving.com/alanjames63 field – Helen Bailey, Kate Linderholm is giving away a Dahon Vitesse folding z Broadcasting House-based and Steph Barnard as well as Mike bike and a ‘bespoke’ cycling jacket with a environment ambassador and Woodcock. combined value of more than £800. The ‘fanatical’ cyclist Ben Toone has Andy Kershaw is a broadcast journalist compiled a wealth of information RETURN PATH competition runs from June 13-21, entry ANDY KERSHAW, SHEFFIELD (community reporter), Radio Sheffield for BBC bikers into an informative I got back into cycling after a 25 year break details at Ariel online from Friday June 13. webpage: and after losing my driving licence about four Andy Kershaw: back after a break tinyurl.com/toone
> more of your cycling stories next week BBC IN ACTION 8 9
blogbites u MEANWHILE... @ BEN Brown’s new week work novel explores Monday the issues facing An interview with President Obama ronment such as Chechnya in the mid On the eve of the big speech to the Muslim world 1990s was like Stalingrad – you need flak Sandstealers is on Thursday, the White House is plainly serious jacket and helmet. In intense urban war- about five war about outreach - that is the main message to take fare with close house to house fighting, correspondents away from the interview I have just conducted Reporting wars there are no rules. working in Iraq. One of the with Barack Obama in the White House library. characters, Danny, heads off to do an They chose to speak to us now because they want Keep out of the story, be prepared and Make sure you know where the interview with an insurgent leader but to reach the parts of the world the BBC reaches. front line is Driving around in no is ambushed and killed. Questions The nicest sight in our afternoon in the White try to stay alive says Ben Brown 3man’s land can be extremely dan- are then asked about whether any of House – Sasha and Malia coming home from gerous. You have to be with one side or his four ‘friends’ could have prevented school. Jolly laughter as in any happy household the other. In a formal war that means his death. – though men with wires in their ears prevented The BBC news presenter is a former being embedded. If it’s more chaotic, A lot has been written about war but us crossing their path as they skipped down the special correspondent and has you hang out with the rebels or the not about the journalists who report on corridor. We could do with those fellows chez covered wars in Chechnya, the Gulf army. Be clear which side you’re with. them. nous... and former Yugoslavia I thought about writing my mem- Justin Webb, North America editor Remain a detached observer oirs but decided that the issues facing bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/justinwebb/ Work as a team Don’t rush into Never give anyone a lift. Not modern war correspondents could be a situation. If one of you is keen 4 refugees and definitely not more honestly looked at in fiction. Tuesday 1to race along a road, others men in uniform because that identi- Sandstealers is set against the back- Bringing old favourites to life should think of the potential dangers. fies you as a combatant. You’re there drop of places I’ve been to and I’ve A while back I posted about why we use Remember Afghanistan: when the Tal- as a reporter, you’re not there to help drawn on the characteristics of some illustrations on iPlayer for key radio iban were toppled, we rushed to wit- victims, which makes you feel helpless of the people I’ve met but the book has programming. In short we want to avoid galleries ness their surrender. But what if it was and a bit shitty. taken on a life of its own. of largely unknown faces which don’t really a trap? Ensure your team know where When I was reporting there would hook the listener as much as a well-executed you are. Don’t go wandering off. Stay alive Younger reporters be a clique of travelling reporters. illustration. When we come to illustrate dramas take more risks, and maturity Although there was a sense of cama- which feature popular and loved characters Take the right equipment Mobile, 5 keeps you alive. Listen to expe- raderie there was also jealousy and we are posed with a dilemma – we want to maps, first-aid kit – I knew a rienced people. The famous slogan is: rivalry. give depth and feeling to the drama without 2 producer who bled to death for no story is worth a life. But then, war personifying the character too much. The mind’s lack of basic bandages. A hostile envi- isn’t a perfect science. People do die. Sandstealers by Ben Brown, eye is a wonderful thing which conjures up its Harper Press, £6.99 own distinct image of how Arthur Dent in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy or Ruth Archer from u A f The Archers look - it’s not the job of the illustration ree indi an head ma WHAT TO WEAR one of the treats on offer for listenersssage was when its teams set off on a to give a face to the characters, its job is to nod to cross-county to in the local area. AI SCORES to the BBC Berkshire’s breakfast show. tour, aboard the borrowed English ‘It was an their characteristics. excuse to The bus will return to BBC Berkshire in Sep- u Aisling Roycroft Reporter Maggie Philbin (above) was regions’ Outreach bus. visit places that we don’t often get out to,’ Ashley Stewart-Noble, senior content producer Inside, listeners tember for further excursions. But first it’s pa, White City Medic One – Life and Death in London people however asked why it was in the village of Thatcham, one of five could take part in taster sessions in says assistant editor Duncan McLarty. ‘We bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/ adult off to BBC Kent where radio teams there jumped six points ahead of the aver- broadcast at 10.35pm, saying they locations the station visited last week, learning, cookery workshops and Span got lots of positive feedback and stumbled Where did you buy the outfit you’re age factual AI, scoring 87 last Monday would have preferred it to have ish lessons – all courses they can sign up - across some good stories through meeting will use it later this month. Wednesday wearing in the photo? night on BBC One. been shown earlier. Last Tuesday’s residents.’ Hey look at the little fella The shoes are from Office and the It had an average audience of 2.4m Crimewatch also scored an AI of 87, Follow the story at bbc.co.uk/berkshire Most babies we know look like Winston Churchill dress is from a vintage shop in Stoke and a share of 18 percent. its highest AI of the year so far. The but Noah has now moved on to the William Hague Newington. I think it’s hand made The one-off documentary fol- episode, which coincided with the stage. As for peeps like William Hague who look from the 1970s. lowed London’s elite trauma team, programme’s 25th birthday, fea- older when they are younger, well then they Medic One, as they attended incidents tured the high-profile disappear- never seem to age after that. Then there are those Have you taken inspiration from across the capital. Viewers said they ance of Claudia Lawrence. changING Places ONE MILE RADIUS people who age gradually and all of a sudden the anywhere? enjoyed the subject matter adding To find out what audiences are saying handbrake goes on and time stands still - Angela My nan. As a child I used to dress up that it was thought-provoking and about BBC programmes visit audienc- Places you can see in your lunch break Rippon has looked like she does for the last half a in her clothes all the time. Luckily for a high quality programme. Some esportal.com. Pacific Quay production editorJo hn McKenzie (pictured below century, Michael Palin - always looked exactly the me she’s kept many of her outfits centre) leaves the BBC after 33 years... Bristol based news editor u Morag Bain, producer, Dumbarton same and I swear Hugh Scully is going backwards. from the 50s, 60s and 70s and I now Charlotte Callen begins a 12 month attachment on the Politics Dumbarton Studios, home to BBC Scotland’s Good for him. wear them. Show... Nick Girdler returns to Radio Solent to present the River City, Hope Springs and PAs, isn’t the most Chris Evans, Radio 2 presenter comING up learning Sunday morning show. He left Solent three years ago after working salubrious of places. Being the town where the bbc.co.uk/blogs/chrisevans/ Are you experimental in your style? at the station for 35 years... Rahul Shrivastava becomes duty Cutty Sark was built is its biggest claim to fame. I spent four years at art college where u Delia Smith is close to signing a deal curve editor, sport interactive, English regions based at the regional hub We are, however, on the doorstep of some of the Thursday I experimented with lots of different that will see her return to BBC Two. A in Birmingham... Darren Waters, assistant technology editor in most beautiful scenery so I would recommend scoot a few miles up the loch to Luss where Trying to get into Tiananmen Square styles. You could get away with planned 5x30 series called 40 Years of The man in charge news, leaves the BBC after ten years. a trip by train (a five minute walk away and well Scottish soap Take The High Road was filmed. 01:08 UTC, 4 JUNE: I have just come back from a wearing anything there. Delia will involve the chef recreating her of not one but two BBC within the one mile radius) to Balloch which sits There you can enjoy the most delicious lunch at tour of the city - on the 20th anniversary of the famous dishes. Commissioned by Janice radio stations has found at the bottom end of Loch Lomond (pictured). the fabulous tearoom, The Coach House, which moment that tanks were sent in to end student Have you ever had any fashion Hadlow, channel controller, and Jo Ball, some time to offer There I would go on a boat trip round the Loch, serves homemade soups, sandwiches the size of protests. The square was sealed off and police nightmares? commissioning editor, it will be made by people an insight into his shop at the Lomond Shores Centre – posh shop a dinner plate and wonderful home baking (their stopped us from filming even from a street across Most of the outfits I wore in the 90s Scarlet Television and exec produced by Lisa career. Jenners of Edinburgh has a branch there – or carrot cake is out of this world). the road. From our own experiences and from were pretty bad. It’s one era I hope Edwards. A tx date is yet to be confirmed. One of training and what we’ve heard the authorities in Beijing have never comes back into fashion. I had development’s ‘never managed to prevent any public commemoration. a couple of lycra dresses which I u Richard Klein, controller BBC Four, stop learning’ events Bob QUICK FIX 14:37 UTC, 4 June: Tried to get into Tiananmen wouldn’t be seen dead in now. and Lucy Lumsden, controller comedy Shennan, controller of Square. But the police stopped us. Plain clothes commissioning, have commissioned a Radio 2 and 6 Music, will Occupational Health the keyboard. If a change in of your knee. There is a slide officers used a novel technique to stop us from Whose wardrobe would you most second series of We Need Answers for the talk about his previous provides tips for seat height leaves your feet mechanism on some of the filming - the umbrella treatment... like to rummage through? channel. The show, in which the public asks roles at Radio 5 Live and improving and dangling, you need a chairs to allow you to adjust James Reynolds, Beijing correspondent Either Audrey Hepburn or Marilyn celebrities questions, will return later this Channel 4 and the chal- maintaining health footrest. this. bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/jamesreynolds/ Monroe. They were both style icons year. It will be produced in-house and exec lenges that lie ahead. at work u The seat pad u The back of the chair should and I love that 1950s glamour. produced by Jo Sargent. There will also be an should support be upright without pushing Friday opportunity to ask Shen- Your Desk your thigh along you forward, and can be locked Friday’s quote of the day What’s the worst outfit you were u BBC One’s Saturday morning cookery nan questions. Chair its length but or free floating. The height of ‘I daresay my mind would wander over a range of made to wear as a child? show Saturday Kitchen Live has been re- The event will be held u You should set you should be the backrest can be adjusted animals remarkable for the extravagance of their My sister’s hand me downs. When commissioned for a further three series by at Broadcasting House on the height of the able to slip two so that the fullest part of the reproductive techniques’ - David Attenborough, she was bought a new shell suit I was controller of daytime Liam Keelan. The first June 25 from 1-2pm. chair so that or three fingers backrest fits into the small of when asked which animal he would like to be. made to wear her old brown corduroy of the new series will tx later this year and For more information your arms fall into between the your back. This will ensure that Magazine Monitor flares. If I had the choice now though will be made by Cactus TV. It will be exec and to book a place visit a comfortable right end of the seat it supports the lower curve of bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/ I’d probably go with the cords. produced by Carla-Maria Lawson. tinyurl.com/bobshennan angle to use pad and the back your spine.
IF YOU HAVE A suggestion FOR who or what should be in WEEK@WORK PLEASE Email clare bolt 10 Opinion/Analysis a 09·06·09 aview How ‘information doers’ have rewritten the rules in a crisis
ANDREW From the G20 protests to Hurricane Katrina, user HARVEY generated content is forcing people in power to What we need rethink their response to the media, says Nik Gowing to know on pay The chance 41 seconds The world we live THE BBC SHOULD NOT be swayed by the shrill of video taken by an invest- in is vastly different to squawks of newspaper columnists and MPs ment banker during April’s the world we think we on the public accounts committee who are G20 protests dramatically live in. It is the same demanding the salaries of presenters (in this swung public perceptions for policy makers with case specifically radio) should be published. of police handling. the new media reali- Commentators like Stephen Glover and Jon The film swiftly exposed ties. Gaunt in the Mail and the Sun flick the switch apparently incomplete Frequently just one of indignation but does anyone think they will police explanations of how ‘information doer’ like reveal what they are paid? and why Ian Tomlinson the G20 investment Ah, the BBC is different, they will tell you, died. It also forced a level banker, will swiftly ex- because it operates on public money forcibly of instant accountability pose the stark reality collected. These days there is transparency at from the police about their of unexpected Black board level where we can see the rewards for orders, behaviour and oper- Swan crisis events. becoming a director are considerable. There’s ation. These are the moments also a freeze on top salaries at the moment and This was the latest con- of acute tension which who’s to say whether that might be extended firmation of a sharp, but are so improbable that beyond August next year? little recognised trend with Video evidence: police approach Ian Tomlinson at the G20 protest few in positions of But in a society where individuals have the enormous implications for the responsibility will have even right to negotiate the best deal they can from credibility of institutions of state Book is having an asymmetric, which a former senior minister considered them a possibility to an employer it remains an important principle and corporate power. negative impact on those struc- described as almost ‘subversive’. prepare for. of good faith that those details remain con- In a moment of major, unex- tures of power. It subverts their Increasingly routinely, a cheap, One senior government cri- fidential from the employer’s side – and that pected crisis those institutions – effectiveness, instantly moulds ‘go-anywhere’ camera or mobile sis manager did claim systems applies to BBC top talent, newspaper editors, whether political, governmental, public perceptions and calls into challenges the credibility of the and reactions in his department lawyers, IT specialists or anyone else. military or commercial – face a question institutional assump- massive human and financial are now ‘shit hot’. But overall, It’s when you look beyond the shouty head- new, acute vulnerability of both tions that as organs of state or resources of a government or cor- institutional assumptions of lines that greeted the PAC report last week on their influence and effectiveness. corporate power they function poration. commanding the information the efficiency of radio production at the BBC They experience policy fragility efficiently and will command One very senior official con- high ground in a crisis remain that there’s interesting financial detail. For and brittleness because of the public confidence. firmed: ‘We are in trouble. from a different era. The instant instance, the cost of a typical hour of music profound impact of the prolifer- The implica- Those working in scrutiny leaves reputations more broadcast on Radio 2 at £1486 is half as much ating and ubiquitous breed, not tions are two- government are vulnerable than ever and does so again as it costs on Radio 1. The cost of an hour of ‘citizen reporters’ but of what fold. First, this People in living in a differ- with breathtaking speed. of Wake Up to Wogan on Radio 2 is double the I label ‘information doers’. new technical ent age.’ Another cost of the most expensive breakfast show on As all of us in the BBC multi- reality has dra- said: ‘Officials are Pace of events and disclosure commercial radio. media news environment now matically fore- power still living on a differ- My study is the latest since I The MPs say these disparities are ‘largely take for granted, these hundreds shortened the ent planet if they started monitoring this dynamic because of payments to presenters’. They go of millions of people around the news and infor- don’t realise think they con- at Harvard 15 years ago. I thought on to calculate that for drivetime and breakfast world whose mobiles and digital mation cycle trol the levers of I would be sticking my neck out, shows the BBC is spending three quarters of its cameras are the new electronic from a few policy now and in and I expected it to be cut off by staff costs on the presenters. bearers of witness. Daily, user hours to a few they need the future’ during a barrage of angry voices from Clearly, the broadcasters are the stars and generated content fuels our news minutes. a major crisis. officialdom, resenting my intru- the people most responsible for the popu- coverage with instant images of Second, to react in Extraordinarily, sion. Reactions have been the larity of a programme. They deserve to be an unfolding crisis. We and other those vast num- despite the new opposite. paid according to their success. But the BBC media organisations have the sys- bers of new realities, I discov- One senior official emailed is faced with making savings of 3 percent a tems to handle and validate the ‘information minutes ered how official me: ‘Spot on, I’m sorry to say.’ year to March 2013, which in the case of radio material. doers’ have systems remain Lawrence Freedman, professor means £69m has to be taken out of budgets. swiftly modi- structured to of war studies at Kings College, When rates of presenter pay at the BBC have New democracy in action fied and broadened the assumed assume a six to 12 hour response wrote: ‘This [study] should be been shown to be considerably higher than the Yet remarkably, most major definitions of who the media time frame, not the six to 12 mandated reading for anyone commercial radio equivalents (the PAC insists institutions of power, and those really are, in a crisis. The new minutes demanded by these new who might have to deal with a the BBC is paying ‘more than the market price’), working for them, still don’t ubiquitous transparency they realities. The long-held conven- major crisis and still believes there is scope for significant reductions as appreciate the full scale and create sheds light where it is tional wisdom of a gulf in time that they will be able to control part of any cost cutting. We don’t need to know implications of this new trend often still assumed officially and quality between the news the pace of events and disclo- precisely what presenters are paid but we do in the real-time media land- there will be darkness. that signals an event and the sure of information.’ need to know that what they get is not wildly scape. Their internal sys- In a two year study for the whole truth eventually emerg- Based on reaction to a presen- out of step with those around them. It’s appar- tems continue to be framed by Reuters Institute, I analysed a ing is fast being eliminated. tation of my findings last week ent that in radio, where staffing is already tight, largely traditional mindsets and host of examples from Burma, to My study is called Skyful of to crisis managers in official savings comfortably in excess of 3 percent can assumptions about the media. China during the Tibet and earth- Lies and Black Swans. ‘Skyful positions, I have for the first be trimmed off the fat without fear of reducing They fail to get how exponen- quake crises, Hurricane Katrina, of lies’ is the way the Burmese time a degree of cautious opti- output quality or losing the big names. tial changes in technology are 7/7 and the De Menezes shoot- junta dismissed the extraordi- mism that my message about We are told that managers have already redefining, broadening and frag- ing in London, plus military inci- nary flow of digital reporting the new media might get a hear- warned top talent in radio and television that menting the media matrix. This dents in Iraq and Afghanistan. and imagery that confirmed ing, and even be acted upon. their rates will come down and that’s quite right. is why the profound new impact It included brainstormings the street protests in Rangoon It would be intolerable for cuts to be inflicted on on their credibility in a moment and interviews with senior offi- in September 2007. And Black Nik Gowing is BBC World people who are needed to put the flagship pro- of crisis continues to be a shock. cial figures who have been pitch- Swans? The description by News anchor and visit- grammes on air if the presenters were insulated The new surge of civilian forked into handling many of trader-turned-author Nassim ing fellow at the Reuters from the economic chill. information by way of UGC mate- these sudden crises. Together Nicholas Taleb of why the finan- Institute for the Study Andrew Harvey is editor of Ariel rial sent to us, along with blogs, and individually they confirmed cial system failed: the impact of of Journalism. and material of social media sites there is a new democratisa- unexpected events, as rare as Full report at tinyurl.com/reuters like YouTube, Twitter and Face tion of policy-making in crises black swans. publications
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Ring any bells? our internal communications, and it In the olden days, I remember, makes sense. But why isn’t the same phones were terrible things. To place Give us some support in the 24/7 culture care applied to other, greater sources a call, one was required to lift the of waste and environmental damage? handset and dial the number. An interesting letters page (June 2), juxtapos- us the same facilities as our colleagues who do Here are some examples. The new Voip phones thankfully ing Richard Walsh’s letter from 2002 with let- NOT work shifts. Our team, Radio 3 interactive, come with a double-lock on my ters from Becky Branford, Bryan Harris and Ian Finally, for those bemused by the lack of avail- works in Henry Wood House. Every decision making. Firstly, I pick up morning we find the lights on our Shoesmith. ability of out-of-hours sustenance, the watch- the handset; then I dial the number; floor turned on, even during the sum- finally I am required to press ‘ok’ to What all these correspondents have failed to word here is ‘privatisation’. (These people are mer, when it has been light since 4am. approve my consciously-taken deci- realise is that those of us who do not work the running a business, and what they care about is We’ve pointed out the problem sev- sion to make a call. standard 0930 to 1730, Monday to Friday are profit. Check out the other letter about licence eral times and nothing ever happens. If I’m unsure what I’m doing, (an obviously seen by the senior management as fee collection for its reference to ‘rude and During the winter the heating is on everyday occurrence), Siemens have high. We have asked for it to be low- provided a five-second cooling-off being of no importance; to be (at best) tolerated unfriendly communication’; squares up well to ered. Sometimes it is for a few days period before actually making the or (as has happened) sold off. This is, of course, another firm who won’t even give their employ- and then we are back to roasting. So connection. I typically use those five happening at a time when the BBC’s managers, ees a chair to sit on during a long day). we keep the windows open in winter. seconds to contemplate the full exis- from Mark Thompson down, bang on about 24/7 Face it, people. Privatisation is a vile thing. When the good season comes the tential gravity of speaking to some- air conditioning makes it freezing and at the drop of a hat. Simon Calkin one I cannot actually see. On other we have to ask for it to be switched off. news production facilities occasions I muse whether the BBC You want us to work these hours? Fine, now give We succeed for a few days and then it’s can ever do anything the simple way, back to freezing and we have to wear when a more complicated option is jumpers and keep the windows open available. for such things, you may well come computer look and feel the same no director general if he stays on a pay to let some warmth in. Dominic Casciani across someone’s personal files matter where you log in. They include freeze. I appreciate we are at the mercy of home affairs, TVC through the C:\ of your machine if things such as your internet shortcuts Richard Moss an old, and inflexible, heating system, they’ve logged on to it in the past. and anything on your Windows desk- BBC news but couldn’t we avoid extremes of tem- If you’ve got job applications, top screen. perature? It’s unhealthy and against Call for help appraisal documents or any other We believe that it is these desktop environmental commonsense. It must In what way is it logical to install personal data saved on your F:\ and items and favourites that your col- Rowdy relic also cost the BBC a lot of money. new phones, linked to the computer you use another machine, it’s ap- league was able to see. Not everyone I was looking forward to watching Several people have complained system, so that if the network crashes, parently possible that the next per- in the BBC can do this, again there is a David Attenborough’s new documen- about these issues over the last two so do the phones? son logging on to that machine will controlled group of people who have tary. A revolutionary fossil called Ida years or so. It seems odd that no one Yesterday in Western House, we be able to access them. I find this a been given ‘elevated’ access to com- told a fascinating story. takes any notice. suffered a frustrating few hours shocking security breach, but you puters at the request of the BBC and Nice facts: shame about the music. Roberto Battista when the network went down – our learn something every day. based upon a need to do so in order to Haven’t the producers heard of light Radio 3 interactive only means of contact for help or Andrew Dickson do their job. Anyone approved for this and shade? During numerous talk- technical support being our private researcher, FM&T internet group access is briefed on, and signs up to, ing head interviews there was the un- Yogesh Chauhan, environment team, mobiles. Ridiculous! conditions and restrictions as to what necessary music again. It spoilt the replies: Thank you for highlighting Katharine Cracknell Nick Leach, principal service manager, they are allowed to do with it. unfolding narrative, and it drove me these concerns. Unfortunately, no bj, radio newsroom Siemens IT Solutions and Services nuts. I wanted to turn it off. records for calls logged via 047 – which Ltd, replies: Documents stored within Please, no more wall to wall allows problems to be tracked – in the ‘F: drive’ are on a central computer Gap years music. Fifty odd minutes is too relation to heating, air conditioning or Drive carefully and are secure. Only the owner and a I read with interest (Ariel, June 2) much. The viewers hate this, so why lighting issues at Henry Wood House Today, one of my colleagues discov- controlled group of technical support that the flat rise of £450 that the do we continue to do it? can be found, so BBC Workplace can- ered they were able to access my staff can access them, and technical staff are being offered is designed to Greg Wade not respond fully. We will continue personal files through the c:\ on support staff are prohibited from doing ‘bridge the gap between the highest vj, Plymouth to work with colleagues in facilities their machine, which I’ve logged so without your permission. earners and those at the bottom of management for HWH to make sure into on occasion. I always thought When you log on to a computer the scale’. any issues are addressed appropriately. that personal files and folders, saved some files are copied to the machine Well, my earnings at band 7 are Mild-goose chase Security staff do turn off lights in the on to the F:\ were protected, but the from a location other than your F: not at the bottom of the scale. How- ‘Please consider the environment evening, but as the building is cleaned technology service advisor informed drive and remain after you log off. ever, it is going to take around 1700 before printing this email – help in the early morning, lights can be me that, if you were to go looking These files are all required to make the years for my pay to reach that of the save our planet.’ So we are told in all turned on again for safety reasons.
OBITUARY He took his work in their develop- have an office’ and he was right. ment seriously, and the audiences in Legacy is an overused word these from the vault Scotland have John to thank for the days, but John has left behind a leg- john smart best studio seating in the UK (well, acy which will affect the way pro- When the news about the sudden certainly north of Watford). grammes are made in BBC Scotland’s June, 1987 and premature death of John Smart, His colleague Susan Allman tells studios for many years to come. studio and scenic operations manager, of his determination to procure the John was only half of the BBC Re Ariel item (June 3): ‘Scot- reached BBC Scotland, the feeling of hover-seating, which he pursued story, however. Catherine is also a land spreads the net – Scot- shock and sadness was palpable. from Wiltshire to Belgium. long serving colleague and, latterly, land is to open an unmanned Many messages of condolence Socially, John was a great lover a member of staff with Johnson Con- studio in Stanraer before the have also been received from sup- of karaoke and was always happy trols, and a key member of our facili- end of the year.’ pliers, contractors and producers – to take the mic. No one was safe if ties management team. They were to John will be hugely missed by a large John’s pride and joy. He ruled with HIS songs were being played. At one be married in Zante in September. As I was going on the air number of us working across the crea- a rod of iron and woe betide anyone wrap party, John took the mic from However much we like our work, I met a man who wasn’t there tive industry in Scotland and beyond. who tried to do anything he did not a dazed Ewan McGregor who was it’s the people you meet and work I got to know him initially when approve of. Worse still if you turned starting to sing Mac the Knife, tell- with on a daily basis that really mat- He wasn’t there again today he worked in the house and office up in the studio with open-toed ing the actor it was HIS song. Typical ter and colleagues like John are spe- I wonder... services team, where at one point shoes, or a tea or coffee in hand. John! One of the UK’s biggest stars cial and leave a lasting impression. Can I put in to claim his pay? he was house foreman (only the BBC Not that he was inflexible. If he knocked to the side in an instant by That was illustrated at his funeral could think of that title). He pro- saw the need for doing something, the BBC Club’s karaoke champion. when hundreds of workmates and ... with apologies to A.A. Milne gressed to scenic services both in Glas- he’d interpret the health and safety John was also proud of the fact colleagues, from all levels, past and gow and TVC, working up to supervi- guidelines to achieve the necessary that he was the only person in PQ to present, paid their warmest respects BW Campbell sor then scenic operations manager. outcome. He always wanted the best have an office. He was often heard to a man we will all miss dearly. Brookmans Park The studios at Pacific Quay were possible product from ‘his’ studios. to say ‘even Ken MacQuarrie disnae Donald-Iain Brown
a 09.06.09 14 Jobs See Attachment
Call of the wild Ernestina Craig Hall went from London for two weeks in Nairobi You’ve got to be in it to win it, I thought, as I filled in the short application form – I’ve had to answer more questions to order a mouse mat at the BBC before. But I soon forgot about the placement, presuming that my chances of getting it were slim. Two weeks later when an email popped up in my inbox offering me a placement with BBC Monitor- ing in Nairobi there were several gasps, yelps and a moment of panic, before I started making plans for a departure date only three weeks away. Part of my job at BBC Outreach is about commu- nicating to the outside world that the BBC is more than a broadcaster. As I spend a lot of time telling people how the BBC ‘reflects the world to the UK and the UK to the world’ the placement seemed like a good fit. I was also keen to find out more about other BBC work in Africa, so with help from the BBC Mon- itoring team I arranged meetings with the World Service Trust, local schools and an organisation that has received funding from the BBC Wildlife Fund. While I was in Nairobi, I was able to report back on how the Tusk Trust had spent the grant of £19,371 that the BBC WF gave them back in 2007. The grant has created jobs, Application resources for teachers and is was much changing the destiny of peo- easier than ple’s lives. I have to admit I was I expected amazed by the wildlife in Kenya – life teems across every inch of land – I saw giraffe, wild dogs, zebras and even rhinos. If you ever need convincing what a unique place it is and how im- portant protecting it is – just go there. Thanks to the team at BBC Monitoring I got an insight into global politics and current affairs. Eve- ryone who works there is incredibly knowledgeable and I realised that my understanding of Africa was quite naïve. Watching the Kenyan news gave me a different perspective on the world and I’ve kept up a more active interest in African current affairs ever since. I feel privileged to have been given the opportu- nity to spend two weeks with the teams in Nairobi. I will certainly never again whinge about how slow my internet in London is (or at least not with quite so much indignation), as the daily technology chal- lenges they face made me realise how easy we have it here. Read the BBC Wildlife Fund report at www.bbc. co.uk/bbcwildlifefund/diary
Have you been anywhere nice? Send your attachment stories to Clare Bolt
14 OCTOBER 08 ARIEL a 09·06·09 What am I doing here 15 richard else Adventure foreign film-maker bureau
MARK DUFF milan Correspondent
Milan – you either like it or lump it. It isn’t pretty. In summer it’s stifling; in winter, damp and cold. Apart from the duomo; some of the coolest shopping oppor- tunities in the world; and – if you like that sort of thing Richard Else knows all about – La Scala, or the San Siro (delete as applicable), it can pass you by, self-deprecating in its understatement… taking risks – from starting his Milan keeps its real self concealed: old monaster- ies, for example, that hide astonishing works of art own production company to behind unremarkable facades. Guilty secrets too: like filming under some of the most the subterranean platforms at the massive stazione centrale from where thousands of Italian Jews were extreme conditions in the world deported to Nazi death camps – still there, unseen, below the commuters bustling to work. You could argue, though, that the real Milan is on You are known for producing films are then seen by the char- primetime. It’s something that we had to camp there. We the edge of town where new housing, industry and extreme adventure shows. Have ity’s supporters and are used BBC Scotland has nurtured have to be prepared for any- shopping malls encroach year-by-year on the sur- you ever been in danger? to lobby governments, both and supported and we’re grate- thing and have the best safety rounding farmland. The dynamism is ugly, brutish – Many years ago a helicop- in Britain and in Europe. ful. In each programme there officers in the business. but somehow invigorating too, a reminder that not all ter pilot lost his nerve while I’m also a university profes- will be an adventure race of Italy is a tourist relic. They still make things here. we were filming halfway up a sor and I do quite a bit of aca- some sort, but we also have life- What advice would you give to Twenty minutes drive through this low density mountain in the French Alps. demic work. One of the mis- style features such as where people wanting to set up their industrial sprawl lies the old city of Bergamo. This is He took off while a colleague sions of St Chad’s at Durham, to eat and what to see, as well own production company? my Milan – Ryanair-Milan, if you like. I still work, part- and I were hanging under- where I work, is social justice, as environmental stories. I’d think carefully before set- time, in London, on a job-share with my wife. Milan neath. We were on the skids so it’s partly through the col- ting up a production com- itself is too expensive (it always was, even before the and had to crawl in as this guy lege that I work with Traid- What’s your most memora- pany, as it’s a very crowded pound’s suicidal dive against the euro). It lacks open was flying away. It was like craft. I’m also involved in a ble experience to date? marketplace. I think you space and can be horridly polluted – so Bergamo was something out of James Bond, report that the Joseph Rown- The one that sticks in my mind need something special. For always going to be a bet- but also a very frightening, tree Foundation will publish was when we took the famous us that’s adventure and re- ter bet with two young sobering experience. You real- in July, looking at how people American mountaineer Charles mote film-making and the Not all Italy children in tow. ise just how easy it is to have in poverty can be given a voice Houston, who was instrumen- specialist knowledge that The wonders of mod- an accident. For us safety is key. through the media. goes with it, but we also is a tourist ern technology have work across other media. hardly touched our old You took the brave deci- I’ve recently started a pub- relic – they rented home high on a hill sion of leaving the BBC richard else lishing company with col- outside Bergamo. I have a to set up Triple Echo CV leagues and we have a book still make pc, unreliable broadband Productions. Why? coming out in September. and a minidisc. The view’s Education: St David’s University College, Lampeter, BA, English; I’d been at the BBC in New- It helps that I’m inspired things here not bad, though – and castle for 20 years, pro- Open University, educational research methodology. by an office in the Scot- constantly changing. On ducing programmes for Persuading reclusive fell walker Alfred Wainwright to tish Highlands with one of a clear day you can see Career Landmarks: ’s award network television. When appear on tv; winning a Scottish Bafta for The Edge; receiving this year the best views in Europe. Monte Rosa 200 km away, in Switzerland; when it’s I made The Climbers with cloudy you can barely see the end of your nose. for excellence in mountain culture; travelling the world fell walker Alfred Wain- How does an adrenalin Work-wise, my bread and butter tends to be the wright and mountaineer Family: Married to film-maker and adventure traveller Margaret Wicks. junkie relax? stuff that the Rome correspondents are too busy to Chris Bonington, I decided I love ski mountaineering and cover: human interest stories, in the main, that strike Two grown children, one a hospital registrar and the other a composer ’ that I wanted to special- an invaluable experience wilderness travel. What I do a chord but don’t force their way to the mainstream First Job: Recycling tapes at BBC Radio Leicester, ‘ ise in extreme adventure when I’m not working is the news agenda. Italy seems to be full of them – though programmes. I’m based in same as what I do when I’m I sometimes worry that, on their own, they reinforce Scotland but we have an- tal in big Himalayan climbing working. There are some world- our patronising north-European views of the place other office in Cornwall. Where did your interest in in the 30s and 40s, back to the class landscapes in Scotland as an endearing basket case, great for holidays and academia come from? Himalayas for the first time and getting out there, be it on food – but not to be taken too seriously, even if it is But it’s not extreme While I was at the BBC I following a bad accident. It bike, ski or simply walking, the world’s seventh biggest economy. adventure just for the sake worked with academics from was a fantastic experience and is what I really like to do. I’ve As a single dad much of the time (my wife does of an adrenalin fix… different universities to pro- the programme, The Climbers, always found cities really hard. most of our job share), work has to take second place We’ve just made a film with duce a set of tv programmes went on to win a few awards. to the children who've been uprooted from their Lon- a woman paralysed from the that were linked to new Somehow, you’ve don home and have had to make their way in an alien chest down, who we filmed research. It was the Thatcher You’ve won quite a also found the time to state school system and language. kayaking in Patagonia. I know years and the programmes few of those... co-write four books... This can be is frustrating, but it’s a reminder of that when people see this pro- were quite controversial. One I think it’s because of the They tend to be based on my the real pressures with which real people here have gramme it will make them re- of them, The Real Cost of Unem- quality of our stories and our experiences in wilderness to wrestle. For instance: the fact that the school day think how they view disability. ployment, caused a huge fuss audio. The hallmark of most travel. I think a lot of peo- is so fragmented – the bane of my life – helps Our programmes are as much because, for the first time, of our films is that we don’t ple are looking for real ad- explain why women are still so badly represented an exploration of people find- it calculated how much un- know what the outcome is ventures and I want to show on the Italian labour market: too often they’re sim- ing their own limits as they employment cost the UK. going to be, and I think the people that you don’t have ply trapped on a near-constant school run. are about extreme adventure. viewer shares that with us. to go far. People’s jobs have That said, Milan does its best to break down the You now make BBC Scot- A few years back we made become more demanding frustrations. Compared to most other Italian cities, Why have you just come land’s primetime series a trip that one broadcaster and email haunts us all the it’s positively cosmopolitan. It feels connected to the back from India? The Adventure Show... thought was impossible – we time. There’s a demand for heart of Europe – rather than cut off halfway down a I work for a fairtrade char- It’s now in its fifth season and crossed Baffin Island, in north- people to get out there and boot-shaped peninsula. And the signs on the Metro- ity called Traidcraft and I was it is the only adventure pro- ern Canada, during the win- push their own boundaries. politana are in English as well as Italian. You can’t get in India filming some of the gramme on a mainstream ter on dog sledge. The wind much more user-friendly than that. work they’ve been doing. These channel to go out during chill was minus 100c and Interview: Laura Scarrott
> CONTACT carla parks to suggest a colleague for this feature 16 a 09·06·09 green room ▲ THE ARIELAT0R WE HEAR THAT. . . A weekly take on life at the BBC: Green room doesn’t know if it’s the influ- ▲ who’s up, who’s down, who’s off ence of the offspring rising through the ranks UPSIDE It is congratula- – yammer, twitter and the other upstarts – but it ▲ tions to bj Andrew Gor- has noticed that talk.gateway’s list of ‘current’ don and the team at BBC threads on the front page of Gateway hasn’t ▲ Oxford for organising an been updated in weeks. Does anyone look after hour-long euro election SALMON the ageing parent or has it been left to live out ▲ debate that was heard its remaining days in a virtual nursing home? on the six BBC south ▲ east stations. Together wATCH Just wondering if anybody has some Mickey with producer Anna Lindsay, they got all the Mouse ears that they’d be willing to loan to us top MEP candidates together, although the for an away day next Monday,’ says an assist- ▲ programme was almost derailed when three ant in tv management. No matter how you dress of the candidates said they were to appear it up, the BBC is not going to become the most ▲ on Question Time the same day. Hats off to magical place on earth. Richard Townsend and Bob Ledgwidge for ▲ helping move it from Oxford to Millbank. Martin Lewes, bj from Cumbria, travels to Brus- sels ahead of the euro elections and discovers ▲ Downside BBC South that his European colleagues at the BBC bureau Today’s Sean Killick have been keeping mum about this building ▲ bravely battled the ele- across the street (below). Sadly, he didn’t sam- ments for a piece to ple its delights, but we suspect that hacks might camera about repairs to flock to it like pigeons flock to Trafalgar Square. ▲ a collapsed sea wall at west beach, Selsey. Unfortunately, his trou- ▲ sers emerged from the ordeal rather wet. But an elderly couple who live at the top of ▼ the sea wall came to his rescue. When the lady of the house saw the state of Sean’s ▼ trousers, she whipped them off, put them in the tumble dryer and gave him her hus- ▼ band’s dressing gown. The sbj’s one regret Heaven knows I’m not miserable now: Peter Salmon gets into his stride in was that he was wearing less-than-perfect Manchester on a busy second day in his new role as director of BBC North ▼ socks. Peter Salmon likened his first week in the north included an interview on It turns out that fast cars in the job to the first week at a new Radio Manchester, a visit to the orches- ▼ and tv presenters don’t school – though hopefully not as pain- tra and meetings where he was clearly always mix... as F1’s Jake ful. It can be hard making friends. He well briefed as he was carrying a copy ▼ Humphry discovered even put on his best new shirt in antici- of Ariel. ‘All we need to do now is get The On the subject of meetings, Sharon Baylay has in Turkey at the week- pation, he reveals via yammer. ‘There is Smiths to reform…’ Ah, he might have completed her first four weeks as director of ▼ end. Shortly before the optimism, hope and energy here for the hit a bit of a stumbling block there. MC&A. ‘I thought you might like to know that I’ve high speed race began he started his route Big Project. From the BBC Philharmonic had an ‘ironman’ of a meetings schedule this ▼ to the grid by walking and talking across a to local radio – sunny skies ahead,’ adds month – completing 95 meetings in total, phew lane. Fortunately, he was pulled back by col- a chirpy Peter, whose first official day – no wonder I was ready for that bank holiday ▼ league Steve from behind the camera. As weekend,’ she writes bravely in MC&A’s newslet- Jake admitted later, ‘I nearly met the front ter. This equates to nearly 24 meetings a week. nose of a Toyota.’ His near miss can be seen We hope she at least got some biscuits. ▼ on iPlayer. Where pigs we’ve heard of the Gorillaz, Damon Albarn’s alternative rock band, but he’ll need to make ride in the room for another primate on the block. Wel- come the ZingZillas, CBeebies new musical series EARWIGGING front seat for the under-sixes. The zingzilla is the musical sound made by infusing music with a primate OVERHEARD AT THE BBC An actor’s life is not all glamour, twist. Toddlers love music, but let’s hope this especially when you are playing an won’t drive parents to beat their chests in despair. …I would definitely cheat on unattractive oaf-cum-pig. It was an ordinary day’s filming for Steve news bulletins on BBC Essex have amused Les Dennis… Speirs, who stars in BBC Two’s new one of their loyal listeners. ‘Today on the 5pm comedy series, Krod Mandoon And bulletin, Hastings found itself in Kent, then …I don’t chow on cow The Flaming Sword Of Fire, airing moved back to Sussex by 6pm,’ the listener later this week. The make-up was emailed. Green room’s geography is only mar- teats... a particularly evil chore – it would ginally better than its maths, so we can sympa- take 45 minutes just to remove. thise with the person who got a little confused. …Does anyone have the BBC ‘We were filming just outside Buda- Philharmonic Orchestra’s gong pest,’ says Steve, ‘and on our way We know that Peter Salmon has a fondness for from one location to another near The Smiths (see left), but he’s not the only one. rack?... the end of a long day. My make-up Springwatch presenter Chris Packham has been had been on for so long – maybe rumbled trying to drop the band’s song titles …Are you polishing the Catholic?... eight or nine hours – that I had for- into programmes without warning his co-pre- gotten I was wearing it. senter Kate Humble, who appeared bemused …You sound like that senile aunt I ‘I was sitting in the front of the mini- when he started speaking a tad bizarrely. In one never had… bus and we stopped at a bus stop exchange, he tells Kate, ‘you just haven’t earned to ask for directions. There was a it yet, baby’. Other random comments include: …I chose the wrong day to have a weak guy looking at me a bit slack-jawed hand in glove, what difference does it make, and it was only then that I realised handsome devil and frankly Mr Shankly. Frankly, bladder… that I was perched on the front seat it’s a wonder he didn’t give the game away with a dressed up as a pig!’ fit of hysterical giggling.
> IF YOU HAVE A STORY FOR THE GREEN ROOM, CONTACT CARLA parks