02·02·10 Week 5 explore.gateway.bbc.co.uk/ariel p h otograp h:

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◆ Beat the deadline ◆ Barbara Slater talks ◆ Challenge to bring for disability work Olympics…but will religion back from the placements Page 3 there be snow? Page 7 ‘margins’ Page 10

> NEWS 2-4 WEEK AT WORK 8-9 OPINION 10 MAIL 11 JOBS 14 GREEN ROOM 16 < 162 News aa 00·00·08 02·02·10 Masterstroke at the Thompson a backs Room 2316, White City core of production strong 201 Wood Lane, London W12 7TS 020 8008 4228 Editor by Cathy Loughran in-house Candida Watson 02-84222 Deputy editor THE NEW MASTERS programme launched this week by the BBC Academy and Bournemouth Cathy Loughran 02-27360 base University is the first professional recognition Chief writer of the production management skills at the Sally Hillier 02-26877 very heart of content creation. As he prepares to publish the first Features editor Open to anyone in the industry with several details of his strategic review, Mark Clare Bolt 02-27445 years of production management experience, Thompson has reassured staff that Broadcast Journalist the post graduate programme can be studied the BBC will still need a strong, in- Claire Barrett 02-27368 to certificate, diploma or full masters level. house production base, post 2012. Adam Bambury 02-27410 It offers both online modules and face-to- Interviewed by production re- AV Manager face training at the BBC Academy and Bourne- sources controller Dorothy Prior for Peter Roach 02-24622 mouth University, with units and academic the production management confer- Art editor credits built up towards the different levels. ence, the director general backed the The programme is free to BBC staff on a con- existing mix of in-house and inde- Ken Sinyard 02-84229 tinuing contract and people on a fixed term pendent production. Digital Design Executive contract with nine months to run. Fees for ex- dy North, already a fan of the post grad scheme: Asked what the review might have David Murray 02-27380 ternal applicants are £3000. ‘It’s about time that the backbone of content in store for the BBC production com- Business co-ordinator Production managers, co-ordinators, execu- creation was accorded proper attention and re- munity, he said: ‘It is obvious that Silvana Romana 02-84228 tives and heads of production could all be eligi- spect,’ says Asbury. we should have a strong production ble. An initial 30 places are offered and, despite ‘It has always been the less glamorous side base’, where people could continue Guest contributors this week the title, a first degree is not a prerequisite. of programme-making but it’s even more cru- to ‘learn their trade’. What is required, says BBC college of pro- cial now that we can offer the right levels of He said he believed in ‘the idea en- duction manager Angela Roberts, is ‘signifi- support to our content-making colleagues, at a shrined in the charter of a balanced POLLY SHARPE, broadcast cant operational experience and enthusiasm’. time when they are having to produce content economy’ – a strong BBC production journalist, on leaving Yorkshire for a She might add stamina: each one of the three for Red Button and for online.’ base, independents and competitive sabbatical in Tanzania. Page 14 units to be completed at every level represents Asbury also welcomes the professionalisa- production in the Wocc: ‘It is a model 200 hours of study. The full MA qualification re- tion of production management. In her role to last,’ he told the conference. DENIS NIGHTINGALE, Radio Cornwall quires a substantial piece of research. in Manchester, she says she currently only em- reporter, on tracking Cornish Line manager support is required for anyone ploys freelancers, ‘who have often learned on Public value connections Down Under. Page 15 wanting to take part, she says. And though the the job but received little formal training’. Weekend press reports speculated programme can be stretched over five years, the Nikki Melton, a production co-ordinator in that an option being looked at as time commitment means it’s not for everyone. Bristol factual, is keen to apply: ‘It would be part of the strategic review was to ‘There is a high degree of personal commit- great to have an industry recognised qualifica- commission more programmes out- Ariel mail ment, but we would like to see line managers tion,’ she told Ariel. side and shed BBC production jobs. [email protected] being as supportive as possible,’ Roberts says. Deadline for applications is midnight on The BBC says it will not comment The impetus for a professional industry February 15. Download the application form on the ongoing review. But Thomp- Ariel online explore.gateway.bbc.uk/ariel standard, and a portable qualification with cur- via the Production Uncovered site on Gateway. son said that it was ‘right to focus on BBC Jobs 0370 333 1330 rency in a largely freelance sector, came out of what people do…and what we have Jobs textphone 028 9032 8478 the BBC production review, which sought to de- traditionally done’ to test whether it BBC Jobs John Clarke 02-27143 fine job competencies and required training, as FRONT COVER: Claire Asbury on the set of BBC all added value to the public. Cuts to Room 2120, White City, London W12 7TS well as raise the profile and status of the pro- Comedy North and Baby Cow’s co-venture Ideal central overheads were also likely. Advertise in Ariel duction management community. in NBH Manchester, with colleagues Lindsay Thompson expects to publish his Ten Alps Media 020 7878 2313 That’s something that strikes a chord with Hughes, of Baby Cow (background left), and first recommendations in late Febru- www.bbcarielads.com Claire Asbury, production executive for Come- producer of the Johnny Vegas comedy Gill Isles. ary/early March. Printing Garnett Dickinson Group Rotherham 01709 768000 Subscribe to Ariel Don’t run a mile from supporting Sport Relief Six months: £26, £36, £40 Twelve months: £50, £60, £68 by Claire Barrett Northern Soles, to whip them- (prices for UK, Europe, rest of world selves into shape and to start respectively) u YOU DON’T HAVE TO kayak raising money. The BBC North Cheques to: Garnett Dickinson Print, down the Amazon to play a part leadership team are also on their Brookfields Way, Manvers, in this year’s Sport Relief cam- starting blocks. Wath Upon Dearne, Rotherham S63 5DL paign. But Blue Peter presenter There will also be a repeat of Tel 01709 768199 Helen Skelton’s impressive ef- the BBC Sport Relief Mile on Fri- INFORMATION IN AN EMERGENCY forts to paddle the river’s 2010 day, March 19. West London staff Telephone 0800 0688 159 mile course, battling bugs, heat are encouraged to do a runner and sickness, is surely inspira- from the office and to complete Ceefax Page 159 www.bbc.co.uk/159 tion enough for BBC staff to line a course weaving around the Me- Ariel is produced by Internal up for a measly one mile dash – dia Village. Register for this run Communications for people at the BBC or dawdle – for the charity. with hannah.booth@ A network of champions across bbc. co.uk. the corporation have been tasked with chivvying colleagues into action over the next few weeks, while the BBC North leadership Peter Salmon and the BBC North leadership team get kitted out team is sporting arresting tee- PLEASE RECYCLE YOUR COPY OF ARIEL shirts promoting the 16 flagship Runners can opt to complete in the world’s poorest miles that will take place on Sun- a single mile or challenge them- places. day, March 21, alongside the hun- selves with a three or even six mile BBC people are already lim- dreds of other mile events that trek. All money raised through bering up for the big day, with are being organised across the UK sponsorship will go towards the a group in Manchester having (www.sportrelief.com). most needy here in the UK and set up its own running club,

> ARIEL ONLINE: BBC NEWS AS IT HAPPENS – EXPLORE.GATEWAY.BBC.CO.UK/ARIEL< a 02·02·10 News 3 photograph: H photograph: Baker to open UW john UW Extend an College doors

Jonathan Baker, deputy editor of newsgath- ering, who is to take over from Vin Ray as head invitation of the College of Journalism, hopes to raise the college’s profile. It is ‘a fantastic resource’ that now needs to get itself ‘out there’, he says. ‘We’ve got all this expertise and it’s just a question of unlocking to a new it. Those who know it and use it think it’s great, but a lot of people don’t know much about it.’ So he plans to try to make the college a more regular place for journalists to visit and access. As head of the college Baker, previously world news editor, will lead in all aspects of the colleague design, delivery and evaluation of skills train- ing and development, and will be responsible for ensuring the provision of continuous learn- If you would like to see cured further work at the ing for every BBC journalist. a talented person with a BBC. ‘Vin has done a remarkable job establishing disability working in your Sarah Yorke, who has the college,’ he says. ‘It’s clear that there are department, this is your rheumatoid arthritis, has some really big things coming up like Salford, chance. been working as a broad- W1 and JPT [journalism production tours] and Extend, the BBC-wide cast assistant at 1Xtra and each of these will put a lot of extra demand on work placement scheme has had her placement ex- the system for training.’ for people with disabilities, tended for a further six is on the hunt for a fresh months. ‘It has been per- batch of host departments. fect for me as I wouldn’t Now entering its 13th year, have been able to get this CBeebies the scheme is designed to experience anywhere else,’ enable qualified people she told Ariel. with disabilities to gain Liam Holt, a wheelchair leader leaves paid work experience and user, is currently working to improve their chances of with audience research in CBeebies controller Michael Carrington, getting a job. Cardiff, including on award who has commissioned some of BBC children’s And this year’s deadline ceremonies: ‘It’s been a bril- biggest hits, including Charlie and Lola and In The is fast approaching. Extend liant way to extend my ca- Night Garden, is stepping down. is hoping to offer 25 place- reer opportunities. Initially He will leave on February 26 to become Turn- ments in a range of roles it was just a job but now I’ve er Broadcasting’s chief content officer for Europe, and departments, so pro- a real aspiration to remain Middle East and Africa. His appointment means posals need to be in by Feb- in the BBC. It’s healthy on that he will not join BBC colleagues when they ruary 9. Go to tinyurl.com/ both sides. People coming move to Salford in 2011. Extend-scheme into the workplace bring a Under his leadership, CBeebies has enjoyed In addition to the stand- fresh perspective.’ great success, winning the channel of the year ti- ard grade 4-7 positions, Ex- Extend project co-ordi- tle at the 2007 Bafta Children’s Awards. tend will be inviting man- nator Sarah Hamill says the ‘CBeebies is in great shape,’ he says. ‘I’ve loved agers to submit proposals feedback has been high. every minute of my time working here with a great to recruit more experi- ‘It’s not unusual to blow team of talented people. Now feels like the right enced disabled managers host managers’ preconcep- time for me to return to the commercial sector.’ at grade 8-10 level. tions of disability out of Director of Vision Jana Bennett described Car- While there are no guar- the water,’ she says. ‘Quite rington as an ‘inspirational creative leader’. antees of a permanent po- often managers have com- ‘We will be moving ahead ... to ensure we find sition, the majority of last mented positively on the the right person to continue building the brand year’s Extendees have se- level of talent we attract.’ Cardiff-based Liam Holt thinks the long running BBC placement scheme is winner and to lead the creative team up to Salford.’ Brown delay doesn’t stop first tv debate from Downing Street photograph: jeff overs jeff photograph: by Adam Bambury World News correspondent Shoaib Sharifi found a rep- Doucet. ‘I just thought we resentative sample of both Lyse Doucet may have host- should do something dif- British and Afghan students ed the first ever televised ferent that would show an- (who were studying in the Q&A session from 10 Down- other side of the leaders,’ UK) that was balanced in ing Street, but the event – she said. terms of gender, geography bringing Gordon Brown and Despite difficulties in and political views. Afghan President Hamid the relationship between ‘It finally went ahead,’ Karzai together to take ques- the Afghan government said Doucet. ‘All the re- tions from students – almost and the BBC after last sources were committed, didn’t take place. year’s controversial elec- and we basically moved The presenter told Ari- tion, Doucet says she man- in to part of 10 Downing el that even up to an hour aged to get the President Street. Then we woke up in before the debate, the as- on board relatively quickly. the morning to hear on Ra- sembled BBC team ‘were Downing Street took long- dio 4 that Gordon Brown Next question: views, and that there were plan against criticism from night, domestic radio and still holding their breath er, but eventually agreed. was staying in Ireland…’ Lyse Doucet some ‘tough questions’. Gor- an Afghan student who felt World Service. as to whether it would hap- World Service director Eventually the leaders with Gordon don Brown made headlines it could undermine hard- Mary Hockaday, head of pen’, due to Brown being Peter Horrocks gave the arrived – with 35 minutes Brown and by offering his support to Af- won Afghan freedoms. the newsroom, congratu- delayed in Belfast at North- green light, so debates pro- to spare for the debate rath- President ghanistan’s plan to open dis- The Q&A, edited by lated Doucet for ‘bringing ern Ireland crisis talks. ducer Anna Horsbrugh Por- er than the planned hour.’ Karzai at cussions with non-extrem- Carey Clark, was broadcast to fruition a fantastic first- The session was the ter from the World Serv- Doucet said she was sur- Number 10 ist Taliban, while President on World, Arabic, Persian, ever debate inside Down- idea of World Service and ice and Afghan producer prised by the student’s Karzai had to defend the the News Channel, News- ing Street’.

4 News a 02·02·10 NEWS BITES

For the first time, every Six Nations Presenters to the fore in match will be broadcast in high definition, starting with Ireland versus Italy on February 6 on BBC One and BBC HD. Every game is live on BBC One apart from France BBC World News refresh v Italy, which will be broadcast on BBC Two on March 14. In addition, all matches will be streamed live by Sally Hillier 12.00-13.00 GMT) is aimed out that: ‘News is still the on the Sport website and will at people watching in the Rearranging spine of the schedule.’ be available on the iPlayer. Eighteen months after evening across Asia Pacific the furniture: The new look follows being renamed, BBC World and on the east coast of the Richard Porter two surveys that produced Staff pension contributions will News has had a further US at breakfast time, while good results for BBC World increase on April 1 from 6.75 percent refresh, rebranding some of Impact Asia with Mishal Hu- News, which is now broad- to 7.50 percent of pensionable salary. its programmes and intro- sain (Mon-Thurs 13.00-14.30 cast in more than 200 coun- Since 2003, the BBC has seen its ducing a more feature-driv- GMT) also has the Asia Pa- tries to an estimated week- contribution rise from 4.5 percent en schedule at weekends. cific audience in mind. ly audience of 76 million. to its current level of more than18 Most significantly, the The Hub with Nik Gow- The Synovate PAX survey percent of pensionable salaries, to commercially funded in- ing (Mon-Fri16.00-17.30 shows that, year on year, reflect increased life expectancy ternational 24 hour news GMT) will serve as a news the channel has gained and lower investment returns. and information channel, ‘nerve centre’ for South 230,000 viewers a month previously known as BBC Asia, providing both head- in the Asia Pacific region The BBC Performing Arts Fund, in World, has changed its lines and detailed analysis (an increase of 25 percent), association with Making Music, flagship World News Today, of key issues. Gowing is the while the EMS survey re- which supports amateur musicians, which goes out at various channel’s longest serving from around the world, is to make the best use of veals that the BBC service has awarded more than £200,000 times each weekday. presenter. in development and will their presenters and play has overtaken CNN in Eu- to choirs and singing groups Zeinab Badawi will con- Business Edition with join the line-up later this to their strengths.’ rope in peak breakfast and through its Choral Ambition tinue to present an edi- Tanya Beckett (Mon-Fri month. Porter describes the evening slots. scheme. Almost 100 choirs – with tion called World News To- 22.00-22.45 GMT) will ‘Each of these new pro- changes, which include ‘If you look back at our around 6000 members between day but other editions have examine the inner workings grammes is built more a new viewers’ feedback viewing figures ten or 12 them – will receive funding. been renamed and tailored of business and translate authentically around the show and more documen- years ago, we were no- to suit viewers in different complex financial stories. presenter,’ explains Rich- tary/lifestyle content at where near CNN, so this is Top Gear won the international parts of the world. A further programme, to ard Porter, the channel’s weekends, as a ‘re-arrang- an astonishing – and deep- programme sales category in the For example, GMT with be fronted by Lyse Doucet, director of news content. ing of the furniture, rather ly symbolic – result,’ says Broadcast Awards. Other BBC George Alagiah (Mon-Fri featuring ‘untold’ stories ‘These programmes want than a relaunch’, and points Porter. winners included A Short Stay in Switzerland (best single drama), Later Live…with Jools Holland (best music programme) and Land Girls Trust resists NAO report on big events (best daytime programme). The first ever midweek chart topslicing for update is to be launched by Radio 1 and the Official Charts is good result, says Mosey Company, starting on March 10. It broadband will be the focus of Greg James’s by Sally Hillier ‘Crucially, they don’t say we fail to deliver Wednesday afternoon show. The BBC Trust is reserving judgement value for money. They do say we need to show on Conservative proposals to use li- The BBC spent £250,000 on a studio in Vienna that more clearly.’ BBC Worldwide and National cence fee money to fund superfast for Euro 2008 and £90,000 a day on talent and The main conclusion of the National Audit Geographic Channel have announced broadband, although it remains op- staff at that year’s Glastonbury music festival. Office, Mosey points out in his blog, is the im- a co-production, Space Dive, about posed to topslicing. It also sent more than 400 people to cover the provements it believes the BBC could make in an attempt by base jumper Felix The Tories’ broadband policy, an- Beijing Olympics. planning and monitoring high profile OBs. Baumgartner to freefall from nounced at the weekend, would be Even so, speculation that a review of the Delivering the report to the BBC Trust, Am- 125,000 feet. The documentary will to end BT’s local loop monopoly by corporation’s handling of big sport and yas Morse, head of the NAO, said: ‘When the be shown on National Geographic allowing other operators to use their music events would identify large scale waste BBC decides it wants to cover a major event, Channel and the BBC and globally ducts and poles, so encouraging com- and extravagance has ‘turned out to be way off it should carefully explore a range of options, distributed by Worldwide. petition in the superfast market. the mark’, says Roger Mosey. and set down clear objectives against which it Where the market doesn’t deliv- A review by the National Audit Office of six can measure its achievements after the event.’ Music writer and producer er, perhaps in rural areas, the party BBC events in 2008 – The Beijing Olympics, Euro However, he acknowledged that ‘millions of Pete Waterman is to produce the would consider using the £3.5m of 2008, The Proms, Glastonbury, Radio 1’s Big people’ enjoy the service provided by the BBC. UK entry for the Eurovision Song the licence fee that currently goes to- Weekend and Wimbledon – found that all but The report found, for example, that more than Contest, to be held in Oslo in May. wards digital switchover to pay for su- one finished either under budget or no more 70 percent of people rated the quality of cover- perfast broadband roll out, creating a than one percent over budget. age of Euro 2008, for which the England team An extended lunchtime magazine £130m a year ‘digital fund’. Wimbledon was the exception, coming in at didn’t qualify, at least eight out of ten, and programme, a new afternoon The trust said it awaited more de- £0.7 million over the original budget of £2.5m. around 80 percent of the population watched entertainment show and more tail but added: ‘We are opposed to top ‘There is not a single criticism of our staff- at least three minutes of the Beijing Olympics. shared content with Radio Ulster slicing if it means licence fee funds ing or of our overall expenditure, and after all BBC trustee Jeremy Peat said: ‘The report are part of a ‘refresh’ announced moving away from the BBC and pub- those months of investigation there is noth- finds the BBC has succeeded in coming in close by Radio Foyle. The changes lic purposes for which they were in- ing that suggests these major events don’t to or under budget for all but one of the events will be phased in over time. tended.’ deliver what our audiences expect and require,’ considered. But it is also clear there are areas Trustees remained open to discus- says Mosey, former director of sport and now in for improvement, particularly with regard to Kevin Burch of Look East was sions about how the licence fee might charge of the BBC’s 2012 Olympics operation. approval and post-event review processes.’ named tv journalist of the year at be used to support universal broad- the EDF Energy East of England band access in the way it had the dig- Media Awards. The Ray Clark ital switchover help scheme. breakfast show at BBC Essex was ‘However, we must be able to dem- Lyons and trustees claim fewer expenses radio news programme of the year onstrate that this is what audiences and Nikki Fox from Radio Norfolk want and we must be careful not to Michael Lyons has cut his he put in for £16,111 for the £78,567 to £63,045. was radio journalist of the year compromise either the BBC’s inde- expenses claims by 15 percent, six months ending Sep 2009. Lyons’s hospitality bill in- pendence or its ability to fulfil its re- the latest report into BBC Trust Lyons claimed £8484 on ac- cluded £6415 on events for Radio Manchester is seeking mit, by setting a precedent for longer- expenses shows. commodation, £1025 on cars but stakeholders and guests at the 100 couples to ‘celebrate their love’ term diversion of licence fee income Compared with the previous nothing on flights – running up party conferences. A BBC pass in a mass public show of affection away from the BBC and towards oth- period, from October 2008 to a rail bill of £5540 instead. for Glastonbury and Test match in a Valentine’s Day event in the er government policy objectives,’ a March 2009, when the trust The trust’s total expenses bill tickets were among hospitality city centre, hosted by ex-Coronation spokesperson said. chairman claimed £19,116, was down by 20 percent, from perks the chairman enjoyed. Street actress Sally Lindsay. a 02·02·10 Features 5

The essence of the place: Is the Foreign Cockerell in Downing Street How to deal Office really like with Haw-Haw? Hogwarts? Clare Bolt meets a man All is revealed who knows... by Adam Bambury

You are a British citizen in late 1939. Germany invaded Poland To quote The Sunday Telegraph, in September, Europe is officially in a state of war, but still an ‘you’re nobody in politics until you’ve uneasy calm prevails in the West, with neither side willing to been Cockerelled’. commit to a major offensive. This ‘Phoney War’ will last until Journalist Michael Cockerell has 1941 and at home tensions are running high. made an art of political portraiture, You reach for the wireless (tv services have ceased) look- producing 20 in as many years: from ing for some news, or at least a distraction. All you find are Ted (Heath) to Tony (Blair), he special- bland government-censored bulletins, or even blander organ ises in teasing out the ‘human side’ muzak – which you’ve heard three times today already. Your of politicians. favourite programmes, the entertainment classified as Vari- But this time around, it’s not just ety, has been deemed ‘non-essential’ and cancelled. the ministers who are wrenched into The cry goes up from your partner in the chair opposite: daylight. In his series The Great Offic- ‘Let’s see what Hamburg has to say.’ With a twinge of for- es of State, Cockerell slips behind the bidden excitement you reach for the dial and twist, cutting scenes at the Treasury, the Excheq- through the fuzz until you hear the familiar nasal tones of the uer and the Foreign Office to discover English-speaking announcer from Nazi Germany. who wields the real power. You are uncertain who he is, but The Express has tagged Originally commissioned by Janice him Lord Haw-Haw on account of his bizarre upper-class Hadlow to make a programme about accent and the name has stuck. What you do know is that Whitehall and Westminster politics what he says – mocking Winston Churchill, assuring that Ger- since the war, his remit changed when many mean no harm, twisting events to make the British and Richard Klein arrived at BBC Four: he French sound foolish – is scandalous, frightening and very wanted a slightly different twist – a exciting. Certainly he seems to reveal more than the BBC … ‘Hogwartian’ series that would delve Haw-Haw, who came to be identified as former British Un- into the dark and hidden secret cor- ion of Fascists member William Joyce, is now the subject of ridors of the institutions and ‘get the the latest collection from BBC Archives. It tells the story of essence of the place’. the Nazi propagandist’s broadcasts and influence through radio programmes and documents from 1939 to 2008. While many at the time viewed Haw-Haw as harmless, ‘The permanent when more and more people began tuning in – six million at peak times – the authorities became concerned about his in- secretaries are fluence. As the state broadcaster, it was up to the BBC to see off this sinister media rival. professionally The collection from BBC Archives includes previously confidential documents sent between the military and the discreet’ BBC discussing just how to do this. One suggestion was to employ a counter Haw-Haw played by someone with a similar ‘I knew it wasn’t going to be easy,’ voice, who would broadcast immediately after the original Cockerell recalls over lunch. ‘But this and repudiate his claims with ‘wit and intelligence’. is not an observational documentary, The then dg Frederick Ogilvie rebuffed this idea, arguing it’s more a sense of the three great it was impractical and would draw attention to the original offices – their history, their specific broadcast. ‘Rather than stoop to his level they decided to culture and ethos. I wanted to look inside the secret counter Haw-Haw with comedy, entertainment and intelli- at the kinds of people who choose to gent discussion about propaganda,’ says Emma Papworth, become Foreign Office diplomats or assistant content producer in the Archive Collections team. Treasury mandarins.’ William Joyce was captured by British forces in Germany The working title, The Chamber of as the war ended, and hanged for treason a year later. Secrets, was particularly apt, given the corridors of The Archive team has obtained his final recording before camera-shy nature of mandarins. the German surrender, which was probably never broadcast. Take the permanent secretar- In it, he slurs his words and sounds drunk, though still ies who inhabit a world behind the repeats his unreal platitudes even as the Third Reich crum- scenes. ‘They’re the people for whom bles around him. This time, nobody was listening. discretion is like calcium in their bbc.co.uk/archive bones,’ Cockerell says. ‘They are pro- fessionally discreet. What I try to do is to get people to speak candidly; if Sinister: you talk to anyone about the place Lord they work they will have a view.’ POWER Haw-Haw Is it true that ministers get mould- nance: the Home Office, for instance, was found a role. The story of the FO is the sto- ed by their permanent civil servants? formed in 1782 on the back of the Gordon ry of how successive diplomats and am- ‘One diplomat said to me that the For- Riots. ‘It came out of the barrel of a gun bassadors have come to terms with that.’ eign Office tends to view the arrival and hasn’t really changed’ – while the FO The programme takes us to the present of a new Foreign Secretary as an oys- was built in Victorian times, an edifice day, where Cockerell gets a lucky break. ter regards the intrusion of a piece of which expressed Britain’s status at the ‘I knew that Jacqui Smith was standing grit,’ he smiles. ‘Likely to prove an ir- height of its imperial power. down and a reshuffle was pending,’ he re- ritant and of little lasting value.’ The FO, he says, traditionally saw itself calls. ‘So I rang Alan Johnson and said, I Roy Jenkins told him that at the as the Queen’s representative abroad and hear you might be in the frame for getting Home Office ‘things come at you out liked to think that it recruited the clever- one of the great offices – could we be with of a clear blue sky’, while the Treas- est people in the country, more often from you when you go to your new office? ury more closely resembles ‘a long a more narrow social class than the other ‘He said, ‘Not for the first time Michael, winter’. What he learned was that civil services (the old public schools like you seem to know more about it than me. each office has a different history and Eton and Winchester were favourites). But yes, you can be put on alert.’ We were different characteristics: each has to ‘The interesting question for the For- there filming when he arrived and when deal with a different set of problems, eign Office is how Britain comes to terms he was introduced to his permanent sec- which in turn causes them to behave with our reduced circumstances,’ Cock- retary, Sir David Normington.’ in distinct ways. erell says. ‘One US Secretary of State said The Great Offices of State, The series also takes in their prove- the British had lost an empire, but not yet BBC Four, February 11

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All our music is covered by the BBC’s blanket licence a 02·02·10 Features 7 Things are hotting up for the Winter Olympics from Vancouver with the BBC promising ‘the most comprehensive and compelling coverage ever’. Get set, go: Sally Hillier reports skeleton, bobsleigh. skiing. snowboarding, speed skating

It’sIt helps, when involved SNOW with This time round, viewers and lis- website. TIME, And the idea of using your lion viewers used it toFOLKS access coverage. for the BBC.’ covering winter sports, to know the teners are promised ‘the most compre- mobile to access content wasn’t even Although we’d provided a red button In some, cases of course, it speaks difference between a salchow and a hensive and compelling Winter Olym- conceived.’ interactive service for Wimbledon, the volumes for people’s concern that if lutz – and Barbara Slater does. pic experience ever’ with around 160 ‘Four years later it was Athens, and Athens Olympics marked a phenome- they don’t move, they will find them- Many years ago, as a trainee assist- hours on BBC Two and 2000 hours of that was where the red button start- nal advance. selves without work, although Slat- ant producer with Sport, she worked interactive coverage on the red button. ed to make an impact when ten mil- ‘Then at Beijing the whole video er points out that these days there at a figure skating event where her ‘There will be more hours of terres- on the web idea started to take off, are plenty of other opportunities in commentator colleague couldn’t tell trial coverage, all in HD, and the red and that journey will continue at the broadcast sport. ‘There has been a one jump from another. button will have a selection of extra live Winter Games.’ proliferation of providers.’ Slater, herself a former Olympic action, all of which will be streamed on Slater hopes to make a brief vis- Indeed, a recent disappointment gymnast, promptly went to London’s the sport website,’ says Slater. ‘In addi- it to Vancouver but these are busy for her division is losing out to Chan- famous Queensway ice rink where an tion 5 live and the News Channel will times for the director of sport. The nel 4 for the contract to cover the instructor explained the intricacies of provide the latest stories.’ first woman to hold the post, she London Paralympics. the salchow, lutz, axel and toe loop (in The big change in Vancouver, com- took up the job in April 2009 and de- ‘They are rights we would love to case you’re wondering, it’s all to do pared to Turin four years ago, is the scribes the last ten months as ‘chal- have had, and we were very ambi- with the edge on which you take off). scale of the multiplatform opera- lenging but exhilarating’. tious in the bid we put on the table, At the next skating OB, the newly- tion. As well as live streaming of con- The division’s move to Salford – but we didn’t get it,’ she notes. ‘That informed Slater scribbled the jumps tent, bbc.co.uk/winterolympics will in 2011 although a core team will re- said, the contract has gone to a free- on a piece of paper which she flashed have text commentary featuring text main in London to plan the 2012 Ol- to-air broadcaster, which is impor- before the clueless commentator. and emails from readers and catch-up ympics – is the focus of much activity. tant for disability sport.’ Glide forward to 2010 and, as di- video highlights. ‘Migration planning involves a lot Ahead of the London Olympics is rector of sport, she is presiding over The site will also include blogs, pho- ‘Video on the of work,’ Slater explains. ‘The move this year’s World Cup from South Af- the coverage of the Winter Olympics tos, medal tables, competitor biogra- north will happen in phases, fitting rica, the coverage of which will be which start in Vancouver on February phies and behind-the-scenes audio and web took off in with the sporting calendar and the shared, as is customary, with ITV. 12 (early evening local time). video footage. events we have to cover.’ The daughter of former Blackpool Get set for 17 days of high speed BBC Mobile will provide live stream- Around 57 percent of Sport staff and Wolves player Bill Slater, the di- competition with bobsleigh, luge, ing of network tv along with a selec- in Beijing and have signed up for Salford among rector of sport has both a professional skeleton, skiing and snowboarding, as tion of the best on-demand clips. which, she says, is ‘a core of talented and personal interest in football and is well as the not so high speed, although ‘It’s fascinating to look at the step that journey and experienced people’. looking forward to bringing what she not necessarily unexciting, curling change in multiplatform,’ Slater ob- She continues: ‘The industry aver- predicts will be ‘a huge global celebra- (remember Rhona Martin who ‘threw serves. ‘At the Sydney Olympics in continues’ age for relocating is around 23 per- tion from Africa’ to UK living rooms. the stone of destiny’ to claim gold for 2000, for instance, there was nothing cent, so 57 percent speaks volumes For now though it’s on with the Great Britain in 2002?). – we didn’t even have a proper sports BARBARA SLATER about people’s passion for working snow show.

Scenic spot: thrills GALORE but WHAT ABOUT THE WEATHER? Jonny Bramley in Vancouver

Jonny BRAMLEY, executive producer of the tv covering the Winter Olympics was Lillehammer in coverage, arrived in Vancouver two weeks ago to find Norway in 1994. a decidedly unsnowy landscape. The eight-hour time difference with Vancouver ‘Not only is this the largest city to host the Winter means that some of the most popular events, such Olympics, it’s also the warmest,’ he says. ‘It was ten as figure skating, will be in the middle of the Brit- degrees when I got here.’ ish night, although downhill skiing takes place early Problem is, while the main Olympic ski events will evening UK time. be held in the famous winter sports resort of Whistler, Despite limited medal prospects for Team GB, two hours’ drive away, the snowboard and freestyle whose best chances are in the bobsleigh and skel- competitions are due to take place on Cypress Moun- eton, Bramall expects plenty of viewer interest. tain just outside Vancouver. ‘Some winter sports are televised only once every ‘The weather is a big concern for the organisers and, four years, so there’s a curiosity about them. And of if conditions don’t change, they might have to bring course some events are visually stunning.’ snow in from the mountains, which would be a huge lo- Not to say exciting, dangerous and unpredictable. gistical challenge,’ Bramley explains. Who can forget the women’s snowboard cross race There are no such difficulties at Whistler, which has in Turin in 2006 when Lindsey Jacobellis of the US, had record snowfall this season and where it is possi- with what seemed an unassailable lead, fell and was ble that further dumps will upset the schedule. overtaken in the last few metres. ‘We will be incredibly lucky to get through the This time there’s an addition to the Winter Olym- fortnight without some kind of delay due to bad pic line-up: ski cross which, Bramley believes, will weather,’ says Bramley, whose first experience of have plenty of thrills and spills of its own. 8 9

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week@work ETCHER What we’ve found while trawling the ENVIRONMENT team focuses on travel blogs this week

BBC Environment has Inside the Iraq inquiry launched a campaign that His face was stretched taut with nerves. His focuses on reducing CO2 top lip appeared to be locked solid. As the emissions and transport costs Iraq inquiry’s chairman, Sir John Chilcot, by encouraging staff to say told the world that this was not a trial, the ‘no’ to travelling to meetings Should witness’s hands opened a bottle of water, and to say ‘yes’ to conference his hands visibly shaking. calls or video conferencing Tony Blair clasped both hands together in instead. Called ‘Should I stay front of him to steady himself as Sir John or should I go?’ it’s part of I stay or expressed the hope that the inquiry could the goal to reduce the carbon go about its business in an orderly way footprint of every member of without disruption. A burly security guard staff by 20 percent. sat in the room just in case. The former There are already approxi- prime minister stared straight ahead, mately 50 video conferenc- barely blinking. Whatever gets you ing facilities set up around Should Nick Robinson, political editor the BBC. In addition to these, http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ through the week Workplace, FM&T and Siemens nickrobinson/2010/01/ have been working together to inside_the_iraq.html Ryan Morrison, New Media Producer on set up dedicated rooms in nine bbc.co.uk/jersey and presenter BBC Jersey hub buildings (TVC, BC, HWH, Listeners opposing the opposition Introducing Manchester Oxford Rd, PQ, of Obama Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Usually listeners to Over To You get in Social Media before coming into work Cardiff). These rooms (due to touch after they’ve heard a programme Twitter has to be might not sound like a launch in March) will be used I go? – but over the past few days we’ve 1 the first item on my hard thing, but when solely for video conferencing, had a number of emails from people list of things that get me you couple that with a with a simplified booking BBC international development cor complaining on the basis of what they’ve - where possible, to avoid the airport where through the week. I know Nintendo Wii/Civilization process via Outlook. BBC respondent Mark Doyle (pictured right) much time as we could with ordinary heard in a trail. the American troops were arriving, and Affairs] allowed us to roam and I believe it it doesn’t do much to IV addiction you soon Worldwide has already man- and Washington-based producer James Haitians,’ says D Opposing Obama is a two-part series, the United Nations base where most aid oyle. led to some original reportage.’ dispel the myth of a BBC see the need for caffeine aged to cut long haul travel by Fletcher were part of the radio crew within He adds that they went into shattered presented by Gary Younge, which will run workers were. T B Twitter addiction but I and eating at my desk. 50 percent since it launched its the wider BBC team in Haiti. Fletcher hey guessed other report - areas in Port-au-Prince, filing despatch ack at their bases in Washington and in the Monday documentary slot on the ers and agencies would follow those an - London, the duo turned round a feature can’t help it. It is a tool ‘Travel Less, Travel Light’ policy arrived the day after the earthquake, with - es and packages for domestic radio and World Service on 1 and 8 February. gles and that they should focus elsewhere. called Ten D that truly and instantly My iPod a year ago, and by investing in Doyle joining him a day later. World Service. ‘Every day we ended up ays in Haiti. It was a mixture of But the title of the programme – and the ‘We thought the best way to reflect new, unused radio actuality and some of shows just how small This goes Gold Standard carbon offset- swap it for a first class return and PMA Charlotte Lee, who One early decision they made was, finding something amazing and original. on-air trails – have been enough to get the reality of the disaster was to spend as the best of the packages used by Radio 4 the world is now we’re everywhere with ting projects it has been car- trip on Virgin trains – free! also works in Vision, have pro- Our producer N people leaping to the defence of the 4 ick Springate [from World all connected by the me; I choose my clothing bon neutral for buildings and BBC Environment has also duced a short film called Green and World Service. American president. internet. Along with local based on whether the top travel since May 2009. set targets for transport Encounter as part of the joint Cathy Packe, producer, Over To You message boards, Facebook has a pocket I can put my If you can’t avoid travel- suppliers to cut their carbon drama/factual and environ- http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ and blogs, Twitter is iPod into easily. It’s full of ling, then ask yourself whether emissions by 10 percent year- ment training scheme Green overtoyou/2010/01/listeners_opposing_ a great way of finding podcasts and Audiobooks it is possible to opt for trains on-year by using cleaner fuels Shoots. You can watch this on the_opposit.html stories, or insights into that I listen to as I walk to rather than planes and take and investing in hybrid cars. If Ariel online from today. stories I wouldn’t get work and to help me get advantage of some discounted you’re hiring a car through the If you want to find out more SPEECH learning Reporting Afghanistan Casualties in any other way. through the washing up. ticket deals that are available Transport and Travel bookings about reducing your carbon AI scores In our coverage of Afghanistan, we at BBC via Gateway. For example, if site you can make your choice footprint, log on to the Envi- PATTERNS Frank Gardner frontscurv a new onlinee course called News do not generally report the numbers BBC Jersey Spotify you’ve recently flown between based on the carbon emissions ronment pages on Gateway: Disability Confidence, which is designed to challenge How Earth Made Us got off to a great start on BBC Two. of Taliban or insurgent casualties and This is going to Part of my job London and Glasgow and still of the vehicle, too. http://explore.gateway. ‘real-time assumptions that are often made about disabled people Its 3.5m viewers and 13.3 percent share for the first episode fatalities, because there are no reliable or 2 sound cheesy to 5 involves listening have your boarding card (dated Eloisa Noble, team manage- bbc.co.uk/environment/ and enable more informed editorial decisions to be made. made it the highest performing science programme for the verifiable source figures available. an extreme, but this to a lot of new music. up to December 31) you can ment assistant, BBC Vision, environment reviews’ channel in four years. The second episode last Tuesday also Without accurate figures, any estimates or includes the people I Much of it comes via the The new three-part online course focuses on working with had more than a million viewers more than is usual for the reports would be speculative – and likely work with. We’re in brilliant BBC Introducing Reviews, once the arena disabled people, both as colleagues and guests, and the way in timeslot on the channel (Tuesdays, 9pm). And the AI score to be inaccurate. a small office with Upload tool (see bbc. of port-drinking, highly paid which they are portrayed in BBC output – on tv, radio and online. has been high, at 88 for the first episode focusing on deep Caroline Wyatt, BBC defence correspondent online, tv and radio co.uk/introducing), but CHANGING PLACES and bearded critics, are It’s a collaboration between the College of Journalism, Online earth and 87 for the second which examined water’s central http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/ working together on I also discover music everywhere. In the second Learning and the College of Leadership. role in human existence. It is also receiving a large volume stories and sharing through Spotify, which u Helen Blaby (pictured) leaves 5 live, where next 12 months and Roger Bara moves from hand daylight that is the of requests on iPlayer. Nokia’s quiet comeback resources, contacts is a tool that allows you she has been the voice of travel for 13 years, to breakfast to fill Corden’s shows as the new internet, all is there to be rated Although not a mandatory course, it comes highly Who is the biggest noise in the mobile world? and information. It to listen to almost any present the weekday drivetime show on sports producer… or slated in a moment – and recommended, especially for people working in news. ‘Lovely, easy to understand scientific programme – top In what looked like a moment of hubris would be a lot harder song or version of a song Radio Northampton... reviews just got real-time. No of the range professor/presenter,’ said a 50 year- during his iPad keynote on Wednesday, Steve to get anything done that’s ever been recorded u Reporter Sarah Corker leaves Cumbria to longer do theatre producers http://tinyurl.com/disabilityconf old male viewer. Another male viewer, 59, said, ‘My Jobs claimed it was Apple. without this closeness. – legally – streamed. u Midlands Today tv news presenter Satnam begin a new BBC job on the Isle of Man… wait nervously for the first children were enjoying it and were asking loads of That raised eyebrows, because Apple has It’s really useful in Rana is to be the new voice of the English editions – with the advent questions. All the family enjoyed it but why was it on a tiny share of the mobile phone market, Chips and Pepsi a noisy newsroom Regions radio programme Desi u Caroline Meaby and Caroline Ward of Twitter, the audience is so late?’ compared with Nokia. It may have reached Waking up at environment when Download… join the Connect & Create team at the BBC tapping their way through the The third of the five part series on around 2% by now, while Nokia has for 36am to take two trying to write a story – Academy – Meaby comes fresh from Blue performance. And, according February 2 looks at wind. many years had between 30 and 40% of children to school or a list of five things! u Talia Hull and Nicholas Peter and Ward from FM&T… to Trendwatching.com, the For AIs and ratings for all the market. Ah, but Mr Jobs was talking Caley take on strategic process is going to become programmes visit audiencesportal. about more than phones, he was chucking communication roles in Audio u Oliver Ings is the new station sound ever more ubiquitous. One com. in laptops and iPods in his campaign to & Music comms and producer for Radio Devon, replacing mobile app even lets you convince us that Apple is now a mobile FACT OF LIFE Journalism comms David Sheppard who has moved review your airline flight while Confidence: Feeling small: Iain business – and the biggest in the world. respectively… to the drive time programme… you’re on it. It all points to one Frank Gardner Stewart with Buddha But then came the latest figures from the For the first time since its in the week commencing thing: viewers of the future carving at Yungang Finnish company. Nokia’s fourth-quarter launch, BBC iPlayer has December 14. u BBC Jersey’s u BBC Lincolnshire senior will watch 3D tvs, wearing Grottos, China. figures appear to show that the wounded had more than 100 million One in eight of all tv Daniel Corden broadcast journalist Les augmented reality glasses mammoth of the mobile world has come requests within a month, requests now comes from leaves his role as Sheehan is leaving after 35 that overlay instant reviews charging back. with the final Wake up to either a Nintendo Wii or sports producer years at the BBC. onto their field of vision. Rory Cellan-Jones, technology Wogan and the Christmas Sony PS3 console – an to travel the Programme makers – perhaps correspondent Top 40 pushing radio increase of 74 percent world for the it’s time to develop a thick http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ requests to record levels since November 2009. skin? thereporters/rorycellanjones/

IF YOU HAVE A suggestion FOR who or what should be in WEEK@WORK PLEASE Email kate arkless gray 10 Opinion/Analysis a 02·02·10 Is BBC television pushing religion to the margins? Not on my watch, says Ahmed A Church of England Synod debate that will challenge broadcasters’ commitment to religion on tv, echoes concerns raised at last month’s BBC News Festival. Cathy Loughran reports BBC Four’s acclaimed series, A History of ONE OF Aaqil Ahmed’s earliest com- those about other faiths, were ‘sen- Christianity, mitments as the BBC’s new head of sationalist’ or ‘unduly critical’. By presented religion and ethics, was to deliver contrast, religious content on BBC by Diarmaid ‘one of the most Christian Easters for radio and online was ‘impressive’. MacCulloch a long time’. Six months into the job, Ahmed and now re- It’s too early to unveil the whole insists that, under him, BBC tele- running on schedule, but it will be a mix of vision is ‘committed to providing BBC Two, documentaries, music and worship, high quality religion and ethics pro- was a land- including BBC Two’s new Easter at gramming that really engages our mark contri- King’s. A far cry, Ahmed argues, from audiences’. bution to re- the picture painted by Nigel Holmes, ‘Nigel Holmes does not paint an ligion on BBC a former BBC producer whose motion accurate picture of our output – in television in to the Church of England Synod next hours and programming change the last year week will criticise the decline and from year to year – and there is no ‘marginalisation’ of religion – specifi- downward trend,’ he told Ariel. cally Christianity – on BBC tv. ‘Last year we transmitted 164 The BBC failed to mark Good hours across all our tv channels. That The issue of language and the de- Tehran, for instance, had been en- Friday on television last year and included marking the Christian sig- gree of religious ‘literacy’ among hanced by his ‘considerable’ knowl- scheduled Fern Britton talking to nificance of both Christmas and East- journalists and producers was a key edge of Shia Islam. The churches Tony Blair about his faith to signi- er with a diverse range of content focus of the news festival discussion. might want greater religious liter- fy the Advent season, Holmes says. on tv, radio and online, and also, on Graham James, Bishop of Norwich acy among everyday journalists, he He also claims that overall output BBC Four, showing the critically ac- thought that there needed to be ‘a bit agreed, but the idea that the BBC has fallen from 177 hours to 155 in a claimed six-part landmark series A more religion, sociology and theolo- could alter its ‘news values’ to suit decade. History of Christianity, now being re- gy in newsrooms’, so that stories rel- religious faiths was unthinkable. peated on BBC Two.’ evant to a wide audience would not Lack of religious literacy He adds: ‘We have lots of program- be missed. George Stack, Auxiliary News values can’t change Of the two regular programmes on ming planned for Easter this year, Bishop of Westminster, had specific ‘There is a case for including reli- the main channels (Songs of Praise including the new BBC Two com- concerns about how networks would gion in our international coverage and The Big Questions), the ‘adversari- mission Easter At King’s and two doc- cover the forthcoming visit to the perhaps more than we do, but we al format’ of the Nicky Campbell dis- umentaries on BBC One to mark Holy UK by Pope Benedict – that his words can’t change our news values in or- cussion show treated religion as a Week and Good Friday, special edi- would be ‘trivialised and distorted’. der to incorporate religion, beyond ‘problem’. And when it tackled reli- tions of Songs Of Praise, the documen- Journalist and former cleric Mark it being a legitimate part of the im- gion at all, BBC Three did so ‘from the tary Private Life Of An Easter Master- Vernon identified a ‘fear factor’ on mediate story,’ he told the news angle of a freak show’. Holmes is even piece, and a range of live worship and ‘BBC Three the part of religious people about festival. more critical of ITV’s output, which celebration.’ speaking to the media, and on the In the time-pressured bulletins he said had been re- Holmes, a former Radio tackles media’s part about causing offence. schedule, there was no legitimate duced to ‘next to Cumbria senior producer, does not He cited an article he had written claim for religion to be explored nothing’ and speak for the Church of England, al- religion from for the BBC News website magazine, in detail – something the churches Channel 4’s though his motion, to be discussed about churchgoing at Christmas: found frustrating. ‘But I think our programmes on February 10, has attracted a record the angle of ‘There was a tremendous amount of news values have to be immutable, about Chris- 171 signatures. nervousness about causing offence because our duty is to report news to t i a n i t y , He rehearsed his concerns as a – about whether you go to a high people and not to report religion.’ compared to panellist at the recent BBC News a freak show’ church or a low church. I had to put At the internal debate at least, the Festival, arguing that exceptional the words ‘Anglo Catholic’ in invert- last word went to agnostic ex-Church programmes like BBC One’s NIGEL HOLMES ed commas because it was somehow of England priest Mark Vernon. In The Passion and Around the thought to be an offensive word – a world where looser beliefs exist World in 80 Faiths, on BBC en to the margins’ of BBC broadcast- but putting it in inverted commas is alongside dogmatic faiths, recog- Two, proved that high ing. He criticised use of the words going to cause offence in itself.’ nised ‘labels’ for religion have shift- quality productions, well ‘rebirth of Christ’ in an Easter bulle- BBC religious affairs correspond- ed too, he observed: ‘In our plural scheduled, could at- tin as proof that some BBC journal- ent Robert Pigott believed that ‘liter- world, religion is quite often present tract big audiences. ists had no understanding of the con- acy’ among some colleagues was ‘im- [on the airwaves], it’s just not called The festival de- cept of resurrection. pressive’. Jon Leyne’s reports from religion.’ bate centred on whether the BBC was ignor- ing Christian BBC Two keeps it simple in upcoming series audiences as some critics be- IN ADDITION to the special commissions sex, the in-house series, produced try out the quiet life at a retreat in lieve. for Easter, two major BBC Two series – and directed by Graham Johnson and North Wales. Commissioned by Aaqil Last month, building on the success of The Monastery Rob Cowling, will see Owen-Jones liv- Ahmed, it is exec produced for the Radio 2’s Simon and Around the World in 80 Faiths – are ing without money in ‘voluntary pov- BBC by Maxine Watson. Mayo raised his due later this year. erty’. It will Tx this Spring. And this summer, a new Sunday own concerns, Anglican priest Peter Owen-Jones In Tiger Aspect’s three-part docu- morning religious show, now in de- telling the Daily gives up globe-trotting to get back to mentary series The Silence – devised velopment at BBC Northern Ireland as Telegraph that basics in How To Live a Simple Life. by The Monastery’s Abbott Chris- part of the network tv supply strat- ‘religion is in- Filmed over eight months in Sus- topher Jamison – five volunteers egy, will launch. creasingly driv-

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Epic proportions (Ariel, January 26). Jonathan De Souza (January 26) I’d imagine that most ‘lesser’ peo- misses the point about criticism of Give us a slot when someone might watch ple earning a fraction of an executive our coverage of U2’s launch for No The encouragement that English regions gets evening (though still past most viewers’ bed- salary would have learned this long Line on the Horizon last year. from network schedulers always astounds. For times) following that famous audience grabber, ago. In fact, I would even argue it Of course we should report on was not something that needs to be new material from acts in a way that years Inside Out has been placed against Coro- the Dimbleby Lecture. learnt at all. reflects their status, but U2 virtually nation Street at 7.30pm on a Monday. The Super The nations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ire- What price does common sense colonised chunks of the BBC. League Show in four north of England regions land have their own presentation and schedul- fetch in today’s market? Yet front man Bono was report- has had more slots than a Vegas casino. And ing teams. They have also got into the terrible Paul Brown ed as ‘disappointed’ with sales and monitoring journalist, supra-geographic the latest effort by controllers to prove that re- habit of providing reasonable time slots to local none of the singles released from the album reached the UK top ten. gional programmes cannot garner an audience, programming, and giving these programmes a Never mind the media exaggerating comes with the shabby treatment of the multi- higher profile. Figured it out the popularity of Joe McElderry – the English regional football show, Late Kick Off. One wonders what is the point of English ‘We’ve learned the hard way that BBC certainly exaggerated the popu- For weeks one and two of the programme’s run, regions producing seven bespoke programmes, outsourcing everything is not the larity of U2. solution,’ says chief technology By all means let’s have epic cover- the slot went through the witching hour. The if they are always going to be allocated a trans- officer, John Linwood. age. But let’s save it for those occa- show inherited the audience from a documen- mission time where nobody watches? Shame it took so long for manage- sions for when it’s warranted. tary repeat. This week, Late Kick Off was gra- Neil Morrow and Howard Booth ment to come to this conclusion; it’s Ian Wood ciously granted a slot 15 minutes earlier in the producers, Late Kick Off NW , Manchester been self evident to those who do the Radio WM work for some considerable time. Nick Serpell NEC broadcasting rep, NUJ Keeping us guessing If your correspondent had clicked uously all year round in the same open in the winter and doors to the It was disap- the link, he’d have been told that: building. But no, a completely stand- outside don’t have automatic closer pointing to hear ‘This form is only for serious com- ard gas boiler and electric cooling hinges meaning chilled air simply es- Apple of our eye Nicholas Witch- plaints about specific content that system has been specified instead, capes into the summer breeze. Chatting to a colleague about ell’s final line on breaks the House Rules. The message while all that lovely heat is being- In some areas, as pointed out Apple’s new release they expressed the BBC News you complain about will be sent to a blasted out over White City station by Jeremy Paxman some years ago, confusion about all the fuss sur- (January 27) to moderator, who will decide whether by yet more air conditioning units. there’s the bizarre situation of both rounding the iPad. So imagine trying the effect that, it breaks the House Rules.’ Not a single watt will be re-used, air conditioning and heating pump- to use the Siemens voicemail system. according to a We do not foster a culture that en- even as hot water for the paltry sin- ing away side by side at full tilt. Consider your emotional response to former White courages My Story authors to apolo- gle shower put there as a sop to the Clearly, some very cheap, very sim- it. Now imagine a piece of technology House legal gise for their work; in fact we cel- cyclists who try to reduce their en- ple and very common sense measures that invokes the opposite response. adviser, Lord ebrate the work by publishing it in vironmental impact by using a sus- could be implemented to cut TVC’s They understood. Goldsmith had the first place – that’s the whole My tainable mode of transport. ridiculously high energy bill and Matt Seymour had his mind changed about the Story raison d’être. But we do foster The BBC’s environmental policy needlessly large carbon footprint at Radio York legality of the Iraq War by pressure a culture whereby people who are says that environmental impact a stroke. in Washington. defamed can request a review. And must be a ‘key concern’ in business So, perhaps before preaching to Putting aside the fact that the for that I do not apologise. cases. This was obviously ignored for staff, BBC Workplace should literally False code quote had been denied by the man Mark Elkins Centre House. Meanwhile, BBC En- get their own house in order first? Does anyone know why, when you said to have made it, by ending his editor, adult skills vironment frets about switching off David Larner type in Television Centre’s post code report in this way Witchell was leav- mobile phone chargers and sends audience services W12 7RJ on the Royal Mail online ad- ing viewers with his own pithy little out cotton bags saying ‘I choose to dress and post code finder, the kids spin on what Goldsmith had spent Watt’s going on? make a difference’. Greenwash. programme TMi always comes up as six hours telling the Chilcot Enquiry. You report that managing the envi- Matthew Marks Who knows best the business name? This isn’t news reporting, it’s sur- ronmental impact of ever-increasing Kingswood Warren It was inter- Paul McGrath mising. There’s a difference. amounts of technology is ‘a tricky esting to read project technician, training Ray Connolly one’ (Ariel, January 26). It certainly is Mark Thomp- freelance if those who have the ability to make Carbon crisis son’s contin- a real difference show no inclination BBC staff are constantly being fed ued assertion Home truths to do so. the corporate line on environmen- that execu- Accuracy and impartiality are every- Sorry tale R&D is shortly to move to Cen- tal issues. However, it is BBC Work- tive pay at the thing when the BBC reports on the All user generated content on the tre House Block D, after major re- place themselves who actually have BBC must be Middle East, even for Ariel. So maybe BBC has a facility for users to com- furbishment works. These include the power to act to make drastic kept high in last week’s cover story, West End Girl, plain about a story or post and it’s a large computer room consuming improvements but they appear to order to at- could have done with a second pair especially pertinent for My Story to half a megawatt of power, and choose to ignore the glaringly obvi- tract the ‘best’ of eyes before publication. have it as we are inviting ‘true’, au- replacement of the heating and air- ous solutions. people, in the The writer refers to ‘the forced thored stories from members of the conditioning systems. TVC, for example, is heated to a same article expulsion of an estimated six mil- public (January 26). That leaves us A bit of joined-up thinking would truly epic temperature in the winter as Helen Boaden’s admission that lion Palestinians from their homes’. open to publishing defamatory mate- have resulted in the new heating and air conditioned down to oblivion ‘we are learning the hard way that if Whether hyperbole or ignorance, rial so we have put in place a mecha- and air conditioning being designed in the summer, but all is literally lost you don’t invest in the right infra- that’s a pretty inexcusable error. nism to allow users to easily contact to take advantage of the equivalent because radiators can’t be controlled structure, it all goes go wrong’ with Paul Kirby us if they feel aggrieved. of 150 kettles boiling away contin- meaning windows are wedged fully regard to VOIP phone catastrophe radio newsroom

that technical standards were para- early for his shifts, spotting a prob- ensure that problems could be most experiments often involving huge OBITUARY mount. lem and sorting it out before anyone efficiently resolved. voltages and explosions. He worked to the standards set else ever knew about it. There was He was enthusiastic about ama- He worked extensively on the alistair black by the BBC which he joined, and never a problem Alistair couldn’t teur radio and had extensive knowl- development of broadcasting sys- didn’t have much time for what may solve, nor a fault he could not explain. edge of the subject, but moved on to tems in the Pacific Quay studios Alistair joined the BBC in 1968 as a be described as the compromised Alistair was a gentleman in every amateur television, often recounting which will be a robust legacy for technical operator and in the subse- practices which have emerged over sense of the word. He would always stories to colleagues of his visits to many years to come. quent 42 years worked in a range of the years. Alistair was respectful of take the time to explain things to the hills establishing links. This was Alistair epitomised a generation vision engineering roles. He had an rules, except when he had a healthy colleagues and made a point of shar- a pursuit which sat very comfortably of dedicated and hugely knowledgea- excellent work ethic, with a strong disrespect for them. ing his substantial knowledge with with his love of Ayrshire. ble staff who will be sadly missed by sense of responsibility towards It will be forever un-document- anyone needing help and would Electronics were obviously in his many past and present friends and his work, and embodied the estab- ed just how many mini-crises were often be found working co-operative- blood and, with his wry sense of hu- colleagues. lished values of the BBC, believing averted by Alistair turning up hugely ly with maintenance colleagues to mour, he would tell tales of boyhood Bill Ward 12 Classified 020 7878 2313 a 02.02.10 a 02.02.10 www.bbcarielads.com Classified 13

A lovely large studio flat in Ealing Cosy cottage near Padstow. Large, 2 bedroomed maisonette. New loft in house share Twickenham- Short let 4 bedroom house in Exmoor National Park. Beautifully Remote, luxury, Scottish idyll in Gary MacBride carpenter and builder. Common. £750pcm. Please contact Mira Sleeps 5. Website Flat for rent. Attractive West One minute from TVC and Westfield. Richmond. All mod cons. Sharing Wimbledon Park. Available located, secluded Exmoor stone cottage, Ayrshire hills. Aga, log fire, endless ;%28)( Website www.winnlimited.co.uk *366)28 on 07710 040581 www.forgecottagecornwall.co.uk Hampstead bright top floor double £300pw. Call 07922 017373 bathroom, kitchen, garden. Ample 25 January –18 April. £2,200pcm 4634)68= full facilities, sleeps 5. Website walks from front door. Sleeps 6 adults + Reliable and experienced. From £290pw bedroom flat. Kitchen, bathroom, storage space. Free parking. 15 minutes inclusive of WiFi, gas, electricity. Email www.venfordcottage.co.uk 4 children. Website Telephone 07932 766170 B&B London/Bucks homes large bedroom and large lounge. Large, newly built and beautifully from Richmond rail/tube. £740pm all [email protected] www:http.theowlhouse-scotland.co.uk Working holiday as a volunteer 2 beds, 2 bathrooms, garage and 3,000+ sq ft. Executive home for sale Fabulous Farthing Cottage is a quaint inexpensive, flexible. Telephone Delightful 1 bed Bayswater flat Lovely roof terrace. £252pw. Station furnished 1 bed flat split over inclusive. Contact. Telephone Telephone 07985 218926 3 mornings per week in Bali, teaching Independent financial advisers for all garden flat. 5 minutes walk from TVC. in a very private part of Cheshire, easy 2 bedroom stone property in idyllic 020 8840 1071. Email available now. £1,400pcm 2mins, TVC 17 minutes, 2 levels. W6 9NH. On the doorstep are 020 8892 5050. Email Romantic cottage in SW France sleeps visual communication to local adults who your financial needs. Website Available immediately short/long term commute to Manchester. For photos Corfe Castle, Dorset, and is the ultimate [email protected] See alanpearce.com/flat BH 20 minutes, Elstree 22 minutes. Riverside, St Peter’s Square, local shops [email protected] 4 adults. Outstanding guestbook, bargain speak English. A great opportunity to www.tjal.co.uk. Email [email protected] rent. Contact oaklandsgrove2@gmail. Single room to let in Shepherd’s Bush. and details visit www.hatched.co.uk/ country, coastal break. Dogs welcome. Details + photos and restaurants, Ravenscourt Park and Bergerac flights. Website de-stress, lots of sunshine and good Telephone 01923 333199 com 2 bedroom flat, sunny Ideal for a female professional. £380pm. property_details.asp?id=2151 or call Telephone: 07517 238629. Website Barnes/Mortlake Double room for rent. Shepherd’s [email protected] 07973 632348 Stamford Brook station. Rent £1,150pcm. Newly decorated 1 bed flat in Belsize www.maison-bb.com cultural experience. For further details. garden. Close river, train, buses to All bills incl. Please call Alice on 07788 564865 www.farthingcottage.com Bush. 5 minutes to BBC. Share w/3 Telephone 07733 186642 Park. 3 tube stations within 5 minute Website www.media-courses/bali Quality Copywriting: press releases, 2 double bedroom apartment. Hammersmith. £200pw. Telephone 07931 863930 girls 20-25. All work in music. Must walking distance, Available now. £375pw. Three Valleys. 2 cosy apartments Ski train tickets. 4 return tickets for website content, etc. Shepherd’s Bush/Hammersmith 020 8789 3334 Manchester. Lovely house for sale in France. border. Sharing with 1 female be reliable, tidy, aged 23-30. Available Greenford flatshare. Very spacious and Large room in shared first floor flat in Call Pat 07875 413085 in converted barn, idyllic hamlet near ski train Ashford/Moutiers, departing Sat www.copywritingspark.com 5 minutes walk to Central heart of Chorlton. Telephone 13 Feb, returning Sat 20 Feb overnight. professional. Available immediately. 7 February. £509pcm + bills. Email beautifully decorated maisonette in quiet West Acton. St Martinde Belleville, slopes only Sapphire painters & decorators BBC house share Perivale tube nearby, Spacious and light one-bed flat in 07941 741194 £1,196. Contact jowillett@devoniaroad. 7)6:-')7 Telephone 07887 512078. Only £530pm [email protected] residential street. Very large bedrooms and Piccadilly/District lines. Sharing Percy Road W12. Single room. Monday 5 minutes away - sleeps 6/8 &10/12. 020 8239 1148. See website for full 12 minutes White City. BBC housemates. Lawford Road NW5. Pics here: http:// co.uk. Telephone 07703 648282 with fitted wardrobes and brand new with two other girls. Approx £420pcm to Friday. N/S F. £350pcm incl. Website www.chaletmarmotton.com details. Website Small bedroom £295pcm. Telephone excluding bills. Available now Telephone 07912 476536 matthewwells.typepad.com/photos/ Wandsworth 3 double bedroom flat, 3 bedroom semi detached semi 01895 634610 Double room in light maisonette, W11. stylish furniture. Unusually large kitchen Telephone 07711 898723 Adrian Silk Solicitor. Specialist in family www.decoratorsouthlondon.com 07917 698982/07957 578796 london_nw5/index.html. £1,200pcm. period conversion. 1000+ sq ft of living Welsh border self-catering heaven furnished property in Edgware, Nearest tubes. Latimer Road, Shepherd’s with all mod cons. Wood flooring law. Phone 020 7266 5070. Website Rooms available Manchester. Large Available mid or end February. Ideal for a space, huge garden. Good location for FREE week in a cosy Suffolk cottage, Offa’s Dyke and vintage car fun. Website consisting of spacious rooms, lounge Big, bright, furnished garden flat. Bush. Shared accommodation comprises throughout. Private garden. Parking. www.adriansilksolicitor.co.uk couple. Email [email protected] amenities and schools. 07734 466137 wood fires, farm walks, health spa a www.nash-hall.co.uk. TRANSCRIPTION & PPS for and dining area, fitted kitchen, front and 2 double bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen/ reception with integral kitchen and £110pw plus share of gas and electric London Bridge. Furnished double room luxury house. Walled grounds, secure available for up to 3 months. Excellent parking, large communal dining, sitting, minute away in return for cat sitting. Telephone 01544 267359 £9.50/per thousand words. Contact rear gardens, off street parking. Double dining and living area. Close to White bathroom. Sharing with owner. £650pcm bills which are very low. 07767 446197 A tax return to complete? Let us help! transport links. £600pm including bills. utility areas. Heaton Moor, all amenities. 25 February–6 March possibly longer. [email protected] or on glazing, gas central heating. 8 minutes City/TVC (ten minutes by bus) and inclusive. Contact Lubna – in flatshare in For all taxation and accounting services [email protected] Train station 2 minutes. MCR centre/ Spacious room to rent Eileen 07712 674040 Villas. Holiday villas and apartments in 020 3318 0880 walk to 2 tube stations. £1,100pm. Bakerloo line (20 minutes to Oxford 07980 589828 Greenford, Monday to Friday - lovely, contact Anthony, Wells and Co, Chartered Telephone 07903 141845 airport 10 minutes, near motorways. Kensal Rise. £596pcm, excl bills. France and Italy, Website Contact Nasrin on 07801 917255 Circus). £1,280pcm including utility bills. bright double bedroom to let. Suit N/S Contact Tal 07852 485415 ,30-(%=7 Accountants. For free initial consultation Rent £500pcm viewing email Iceland. The fly drive of your life... www.deckchairvillas.com Jan 07834 845524 female professional. 12 minute tube call Alan Wells on 020 8455 7733. Double room in lovely flat, White City. Lovely big room in glamorous, [email protected] ATOL protected 6190. Telephone 01773 850111 Acton Lane, Chiswick. Light and airy journey to White City. £350pm inclusive. Email [email protected] £650pcm including bills. Telephone spacious garden flat. 2 minutes walk Telephone 01773 853300. modern one bedroom ground floor flat. Birmingham. Large double room [email protected] 07939 495813 Two bed with great furnishings, pretty in terraced house, sharing with one 07950 263285 to Canonbury train station, 15 minutes to Room to rent in beautiful E1 flat Algarve sunshine @£25 per night for up Website www.icelandholidays.com Winter breaks on north Wales coast. £1,100pcm. Available 1 February Details white cottage for rent in Walthamstow to 4! http://cli.gs/pMLBHX Lovely barn conversion, fully furnished Camilla. Transcription service. Website and pictures at http://web.me.com/ other. £340pm inclusive except phone. Highbury and Islington tube. Share with 1 minute to Whitechapel tube station with back garden and shed. £215pw. Ealing flat single room available. Hammersmith Grove W6. Spacious, with all mod cons (including broadband) www.transcription4uinlondon.com rfgibb/234/ActonLane.html or call Telephone 07779 821659 one other. Non-smoking 35+. £750pcm 1 minute to Sainsbury’s close to Brick 20 minutes on tube to Oxford Street. Idyllic lakeside Devon cottage; £354pcm plus shared bills. Sharing with fully furnished studio flat, mezzanine stunning Dartmoor view, indoor heated to let a mile from Abersoch on the 07778 198106 or £450pcm Monday-Friday + bills. Lane/Spitalfields/Liverpool St. Communal Please contact Maxine on Beach house featured in Coast Charming double room Hampstead two other BBC employees. Clean and level bedroom area, separate kitchen, pool, sandy beaches nearby. Sleeps beautiful Llyn Peninsula. Set in a quiet Available March. 07932 972624 roof-terrace non-smoking. £140pw. [email protected] or look online magazine. Beach 100 yards. Sleeps 6. Damian Segal Property Renovations: Heath. £600pcm. See quiet. Off street parking. Email built in wardrobes. 10 minute walk Contact Owen on 07877 613192 or Winchelsea Beach, East Sussex. Email 5. Website www.southtrew.co.uk/ location overlooking fields in a former Quality renovations & extensions Acton. Lovely room to rent in a house www.central-estates.co.uk farm complex a mile from the sea. www.spareroom.co.uk ad 1031082. [email protected] to TVC, Hammersmith/Goldhawk Lovely double room available close [email protected] [email protected]. Telephone Telephone 01527 575954 carried out by reliable, tidy and friendly close to transport, local amenities Walking, fishing, surfing and golf nearby. [email protected] Road tubes. £825pcm excluding sharing with married 07880 702959 professionals. All trades in-house. Free and easy access to TVC. Available to Blackheath, Italy, Le Marche. Restored 200 year old East Acton. Cosy 2 bedroom flat, plenty bills. Available immediately. Email: Share eccentric flat in Shepherd’s Sleeps up to 8. Available now. Call estimates. References on request. now. Long or short term £500pcm. couple. WiFi/satellite etc. London Bridge Walthamstow. Furnished one bedroom farmhouse. rural setting, pool, sleeps 8+ Chiswick. Lovely, light double room in storage. Easy access to TVC. Available [email protected] Bush with two relaxed creatives. Large Beautiful Tuscan farmhouse near Barga 01444 482677 email [email protected] Contact Damian. Telephone: (nr A40, Chiswick, Ealing). Email 12 minutes by train. Charing Cross flat close to tube/BR. £600pcm excluding 50 minutes from airport. Website friendly flatshare by Stamford Brook now. Minimum 6 months let. airy room, charming Edwardian terrace. (sleeps 8). Private pool. Spectacular 020 7727 7575 or 07961 357119 or [email protected] tube. 2 professional flatmates (one BBC). 20 minutes. £128pw/£550pcm. Mobile bills. Off street parking. Telephone www.villagelsi.com Winter sun. Small charming bush £1,200pcm ono, excl bills. Holland Road studio, 5 minutes walk Outdoor space. 8 minutes to BBC. views. Website www.montate.co.uk Email us at [email protected] £620pm plus bills. Available immediately. 00 234 803 403 0132. Email 01688 302558 camp in southern Gambia, just 15 Vanessa 07595 585572 to Shepherd’s Bush station (Central line). £650pcm. Telephone 07896 159350 Acton. Warm, sunny, 2-3 bedroom flat, Emily [email protected]. [email protected] Lake District. Pullwood Bay, Ambleside, minutes stroll to lovely secluded Separate kitchen. £900pcm including furnished W/M+GCH. £1,170pcm Studio Telephone 07808 268202 Shepherd’s Bush. Walk to work. Cornwall. Helford River. Creekside Windermere’s exclusive lakeside 5 star beach. Safari style tents with proper Film archiving course with Skillset loft, self-contained W/M+GCH. £750pcm. East Putney beautiful 2 bedroom flexible bills. Telephone 07810 400926 Maida Vale W9 3SP. Room to let in Unfurnished room available in charming Willesden Green. Room in family house. organic farm cottages. Early season apartments and woodland cottages. Low beds. Birdwatchers paradise. and Huntleys. Intensive and hands on, East Acton zone 2 Central line Chiswick single room to let in shared term minimum 3 months from 1 March . family house. Suit pied-à-terre. Doors to terrace house, sharing with 1 other. Wet room ensuite. Suit short term. photos discounts. Website season rates apply. Book online or call Great value, unforgettable holiday. preservation, evaluation, exploitation Email [email protected] house with garden. £400pcm inclusive. £1,375pcm Deposit. References. Hunt Close 2 bed/bath flat. £400pw. patio, kitchen, bathroom. £105pw incl. Large kitchen fully kitted. Available available. Email [email protected] or www.goongillings.co.uk 01539 433333. Email info@pullwoodbay. thegambianhideaway.com For more information 01981 241580 Telephone 07821 908664 Call 07774 692864 Telephone 020 8785 2153 End January. Telephone 07976 209351 Telephone 020 7289 3082 immediately. Contact Una 07834 763721 phone 07932 078964 £130pw incl bills Telephone 01326 340630 com. Website www.pullwoodbay.com Call 07758 223312 [email protected]

To place a classified ad in Ariel please telephone 020 7878 2313 or email [email protected]. Alternatively, you may post your ad to: Ariel Advertising, Ten Alps Media, One New Oxford Street, High Holborn, London WC1A 1NU To place an ad online go to www.bbcarielads.com 

14 Jobs See Attachment   Time out

           to teach                      During a career break          from Look North               Polly Sharpe took a            sabbatical in Tanzania         I had spent six years working as an sbj at Look            North in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, and travelling     was aways at the back of my mind. So when my      manager gave me a six month career break, I was       delighted...if extremely apprehensive.       Leaving behind fast-moving stories, deadlines    and technology, I found myself in a remote village      called Milingano in Tanzania, living in a tin-roofed           mud hut with no electricity or running water...or       indeed any mobile phone signal. I arrived there via      a small charity called Village Africa and was one of    four volunteers based at the primary school teach-   ing English. It was hugely different from day to day       life in a newsroom.                                                                                                  Thankfully, not all the 117 children registered      in my class showed up, which meant facing only        around 50 students aged 11-12, all with nothing        but a battered old exercise book and – if they were     lucky – a pen or pencil. Sitting four to a bench, they        looked at me expectantly on my first day. My black-     board was cracked and fading, and when I walked     around their desks I had to remember to step over          the hoes they had brought to school with them. But over the next three months, my class and I         developed a strong relationship. They constantly              pushed my boundaries and I was forever surprised     by what they knew, their way of life, and what was     deemed important or unimportant.     It sounds clichéd, but things we take for granted     can be priceless in a place like Milingano: a tennis          ball (their balls are scrunched up plastic bags tied to-         gether with string), a balloon, a sticker on some work     they’ve done well – all brought such simple joy.      The career break benefitted my work in ways     I could never have predicted, making me more     resourceful and less willing to give up so easily. I       often had to work around significant problems               using the most basic of resources.     I feel I have returned a much better communi- cator – making myself understood by 50 children      who don’t speak English has given me confidence that I can communicate with all types of people,   in all kinds of ways. Overall, I have returned to my job in Hull with a renewed confidence; as with any     challenge, like an attachment or new experience,   this confidence comes when you are pushed out of      your comfort zone – and survive.   Been anywhere nice? Send your attachment stories to Clare Bolt      

14 OCTOBER 08 ARIEL a 02·02·10 What am I doing here 15 p h

Where do you come from? oto

I was brought up in Cornwall g r and my parents still live in the a p house I grew up in. Dad was a Ma h:

fisherman in Newlyn and got r k bass foreign approached to be a fisheries consultant so we went to the Ros ett Bahamas for a couple of years and had a couple of stints in Trinidad. This sparked a huge atkins REPORT interest in other cultures.

Would you call yourself Cornish? I’m very proud of being from presenter Cornwall, which is one of the reasons I’m pleased to be do- world have ing a documentary [to go out denis shortly] that tries to explore your say nightingale the psychological and cul- tural impact of mass tourism radio cornwall BJ goes in the three places I grew up. Each place seems to have re- ON AIR via laptop FROM OZ acted very differently to hav- AS THE RADIO Cornwall jingle sounds in ing hundreds of thousands my ear, a little bit of broadcasting history of people coming into their is being made: the first complete breakfast county or country every year. programme presented for the station from Down Under and all through my laptop. It What exactly is World Have was the idea of station boss Pauline Causey Your Say? who wanted to take advantage of my trip to It’s a news discussion Australia to interview Cornish child migrants programme that tries to take – and who was I to disagree? the topic we think is being It was all made possible by station engineer talked about the most around Jamie Blake who spent a morning fiddling with the world. This week we talked my laptop and then announced I could broad- about Tiger Woods, climate cast from any broadband in the world. So off I change scepticism, the Af- flew, confident that everything would work. ghanistan surge and that I was in Australia with Spotlight reporter An- woman in Glamour maga- drea Ormsby to talk to Cornish child migrants zine in the US with a tiny who thought they were being sent to a para- roll of fat on her tummy. dise but too many found instead beatings and abuse. Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd How do you know these topics recently apologised for what happened but are popular talking points? we were able to prove that Cornwall County We look at stats from the BBC ting on a bench they said, ‘Are We arrived in Mexico to do But you did broadcast from Council continued News website and listener you Ros?’ It’s amazing to have a a programme about the im- President Obama’s inaugura- I wondered sending migrants response to World Service. We relationship with people in plac- pact of the drugs trade just tion. What was that like? long after everyone also use social media and base es we’ve never been to before. as the swine flu story broke. Amazing. We thought it would if the else thought it was our conversation through our We decided to go ahead and be good to do the whole pro- a bad idea. blog, Flickr, YouTube videos, Do you have regular listeners? ended up doing the pro- gramme from the middle of the connection We flew around Twitter and Facebook. We get Yes, lots and some probably gramme on the roof of the ho- crowd so while 5 live and Radio the country, drove quite a few contributions this know more about the show than tel with guests separated by 4 were doing their stuff from to Truro hundreds of miles way and I spend a great deal of we do. When we went to Abuja, about 10 metres and all wear- behind the fence, the World along hot, gum my day communicating with people travelled hundreds of ing masks – including me. Service – traditionally the most would hold lined roads and people around the world. miles over two or three days to conservative producer of news heard some har- attend the show. One afternoon What happened when you came -– was right in the thick of it. rowing tales from people proud of their Cornish Would you say your listeners are I sent an email looking for help home? heritage but still wondering what they had done very involved with the show? with something and got emails We weren’t allowed to come to How did you do it? wrong and why Cornwall had sent them away. Yes. Whenever we’re going on a back from more than 30 coun- work for a week and all started I was on a wireless headset We took a woman called Jan Barby back to the trip I’ll invite listeners to come tries. That’s both exciting and having strange experiences. with a Blackberry reading texts farm where she had spent her childhood with along or suggest where to go humbling in equal measure. My daughter’s nursery want- and emails from all over the hundreds of others. It’s nearly derelict now, with and what to talk about. This ed a doctor’s note to say I was world surrounded by thou- the only sound that of crickets, but for Jan it was helps us in all sorts of ways. For Is it difficult broadcasting to so fine and my wife and parents sands and thousands of peo- a difficult trip. Standing outside the bashed up example, in Uganda we want- many different countries and didn’t want me around so I ple. It sounded very different dining room where public beatings used to take ed to do a programme from cultures? went to live in a motorhome. from anything we’d done be- place, you could hear the anger and pain in her a listener’s house so we went You need to be aware but not fore. It’s frustrating sometimes voice. She is still bewildered by it all. to a guy called Issa’s house let it get in the way of asking What did you do? that we’re doing these wonder- Then I was off to Melbourne to meet two in Kampala, hired a genera- what your listeners want you I spent a week driving around ful things and, despite the fact Cornish bards – Libby and Tom Luke. They let tor and made it happen. to ask. I am forever trying to Kent and Sussex waiting for that we’re completely available me broadcast from their front room and drove imagine what different listen- the incubation period to end in the UK, somehow the aware- me to Bendigo which claims to be the largest Any other colourful examples of ers are thinking and what they and one drizzly Tuesday found ness of us is still quite low. Cornish city in the world and is the centre of the where you’ve been? might want to know. We speak myself parked up near Dunge- gold fields. Certainly there are signs of Corn- We ended up in a pancake house to people who many of our lis- ness power station staring out Where else is on your ‘must wall everywhere with, for example, a statue of in rural Oregon in June. We’d teners might think are pretty to sea and wondering how it visit’ list? a Cornish miner in the main square. There I in- asked for suggestions of where unpleasant, like the Ku Klux came to this. After that we I’d like to visit Harare and terviewed survivors of last year’s terrible bush to go and a guy called Steve said Klan, David Irving, Nick Griffin were allowed back but had to Tokyo. We just don’t get our fires. Male voice choirs in Cornwall are raising go to Mamma Jane’s pancake and The Taliban, but it’s impor- miss going to Indianapolis teeth into Japan as much as money for a monument to the fires and the ef- house because that’s where tant to be polite and treat them for Barack Obama’s 100th day we’d like to, partly because of fects are still there with empty, blackened plots everyone goes to sit around a and everyone else respectfully. because it was clear that af- the time difference and part- where houses should be. big table, drink coffee and talk ter Mexico none of the guests ly because of the language. Back in Melbourne I sent my interviews to Tru- about today’s news – so we did. You’ve had some extraordinary would be prepared to speak ro and spent a great three hours with live music, experiences, such as in Mexico to me. Have you got any burning ambitions? lively guests and cups of tea. It was nerve wrack- What sort of response do you I think you have to be careful ing wondering if the broadband connection get in these places? what you wish for and if any- would hold, but it did. The delay was less than We had a lovely moment in CV one had ever said to me that from our sat van in Cornwall and meant I could Portland walking along a tow I would be involved in a show interview people in Truro and on Scilly. Broad- path full of keep fit fanatics. Degree: BA history at Jesus College, Cambridge like WHYS then I would have casting from a laptop has opened up new vistas One of us was wearing a World Family: Wife Sara and three year old daughter Alice signed up for a 20 year contract. for lives and two ways. I’m also hoping that Denis Have Your Say tee shirt and as Career highlight: Being asked to co-present for the I’m pretty happy to be honest. Down Under will become an annual event. we passed a young couple sit- World Service from President Obama’s inauguration. Interview by Sue Llewellyn > CONTACT SUE LLEWELLYN to suggest a colleague for this feature 16 a 02·02·10 green room ▲ THE ARIELAT0R WE HEAR THAT. . . A weekly take on life at the BBC: The BBC’s recent phone problems have ▲ who’s up, who’s down, who’s off prompted a grim determination in the TV Centre newsroom to overcome any further communi- ▲ cation breakdowns. Two plastic cups – linked by a length of thick string – are hanging up by the ▲ production desk of the One O’Clock News. They ▲ bear the bold legend ‘Emergency Telephones’ ... Becky Huxtable (right) is funny – ▲ it’s official. She won the Fun- ▲ UPSIDE A pop music master class last week niest Radio for Newsbeat reporter turned disco diva Sidekick gong ▲ Natalie Jamieson when she interviewed Lady at the Loaded Gaga producer RedOne (pictured above with LAFTA awards ▲ Nat). Red is such a hit machine he made a track last week for while being interviewed, and got Nat to add the her work with ▲ vocals. ‘I was very nervous, considering Kylie Scott Mills. Minogue had been in the same booth working on her new album the day before,’ she admits. Excitement for ▲ ‘In my drunken head I’m amazing at Singstar, Fiona Bruce last week but sober, in the cold light of day, my singing when she linked to the weather report only to ▲ isn’t exactly wonderful.’ Nevertheless the col- find nobody there. After a momentary look of laboration came good, resulting in a surprising- alarm she began filling in: ‘I could tell you about ▲ ly polished end product. A Facebook campaign a very hairy the weather myself, actually, as Louise gets has even been set up to get Nat to number one. ready, but actually I don’t really know what it’s ▼ It had 103 members at the last count. Look out going to be like,’ she improvised. The camera Gaga… tinyurl.com/natsinging eventually cut to weather presenter Louise Lear ▼ revolution buttoning up her jacket. ‘Slowly but surely we DOWNSIDE ’Not ‘til Chiles does’ is the revo- television,’ says the reporter. ‘She was will get there in the end,’ she replied with admi- Sbj Les Sheehan is lutionary slogan currently circulating adamant that he should keep up his rable composure. To be fair, they did – and it was ▼ leaving BBC Lincoln- around the Radio Sheffield under- defiance of the BBC bosses. After this all due to a change in running order caused by JD shire after 30 years ground, thanks to a campaign by the prolonged conversation she ended by Salinger’s death. ▼ of not making the firebrands in the breakfast team (pic- asking, ‘Who is he?’’ tea. ‘He’s the kind of tured). ‘The controversy over Adrian But this tireless campaigner is not A snap poll at Friday’s production management ▼ person you cannot Chiles’s –‘should he or shouldn’t he’ without his sensitive side, confiding conference asked delegates how they would do without on a lo- – beard spurred our team into an act of to Green Room that the whole episode feel about having their expenses published. ‘Not ▼ cal radio station - a solidarity. None of the team are shav- has been something of an embarrass- ecstatic’ got the majority vote and only five per- multiskilled producer ing ‘til Chiles Does’’ explains senior ment for him due to his slow beard cent said ‘definitely not’. Interestingly, among a ▼ who can present a show while planning an OB producer Katrina Bunker. ‘We’ve been growth. ‘Even though it’s more than a mixed gathering from the production commu- and discussing the Christmas schedules,’ says campaigning ever since.’ week since I last shaved, it doesn’t look nity, 12 percent pressed the voting button that managing editor Charlie Partridge. ‘But he is re- On Friday comrade Dan Johnson like I’m taking the campaign seriously,’ said: ‘Don’t care; I never claim’. Come on, you’re ▼ nowned for never, ever making the tea!’ (second from left) was dispatched Dan laments. ‘There has been specula- just not trying… Paul was part of the team that set up Radio Lin- onto the streets of Sheffield with a tion that I’ve been shaving and mock- ▼ colnshire back in 1980 and has never left, apart sandwich board and set of badges, to ery of my lack of face fur, but I’m deter- from brief stints at Radio Training and Radio gather support for the cause. ‘One lady mined to continue to support Adrian in Win a box of ▼ Berkshire. Over the years he has been involved thought Adrian’s beard suited him and my own way. I will not be shaving…not with almost every programme on the station, insisted that he was right to wear it on til Chiles does!’ Vive la revolution! cupcakes ▼ ending up as weekend sbj. Perhaps he’s more of a coffee man… Nothing inspires offices to the heights of produc- crimson tide tivity like the moist EARWIGGING sponge and sweet, Wales is currently forthcoming Six Nations ‘Now every postal de- sweet frosting of an OVERHEARD AT THE BBC resonating to the dis- Championship. It was an livery brings parcels authentic cupcake. tinctive click-clack of idea that proved surpris- and parcels of knitting. So, inspired by the …I prefer machines to knitting needles thanks ingly popular... There was another 45 anonymous cake people. They’re more to the Jamie and Louise ‘Louise started knit- this morning.’ deliveries at BBC consistent… show. The Radio Wales ting on air and appealed At the last count the Surrey last week, we duo had the idea of to listeners to send in scarf was 212 metres thought it was high …I know you’re married challenging listeners to their own examples – long and growing. The time all our read- knit a gigantic collabo- seven inches wide, red team have now set the ers had the chance but can you take me to the rative scarf to support wool, any length,’ says ambitious plan of get- to win some. Cate’s basement and can we go the Wales team in the producer Louise Booker. ting it to reach all the Cupcakes are based way around the Wales in Yorkshire and now please?… Millennium Stadium - a make genuine Amer- …Reporter 1: ‘Hey, good to see you, nice kilometre in length. For ican recipe cupcakes, ‘not fairy cakes trying to now, it’s being wrapped imitate cupcakes’. Cate sells her cupcakes at a tank top.’ Reporter 2: ‘Ditto’… around Welsh celeb- cantina in Harrogate, but also takes orders on rities’ heads for new the website catescupcakes.com and sends them …It sounded like he was in a tunnel and was website feature Scarf through the post to anywhere in the UK. She is going in and out… Face – Who’s backing offering three winners the chance to win a box the Boys?, proving that of 12 cupcakes for them and their team. To enter …It’s amazing one hat can cause so much Louise Elliot (left) knits the scarf is second only to win one, just tell us which New York bakery as the scarf takes over to the towel in terms of was made famous by the tv series Sex and the havoc… the studio (above) extreme usefulness. City? Email ariel competitions by February 8.

> IF YOU HAVE A STORY FOR THE GREEN ROOM, CONTACT ADAM BAMBURY