BJ_C17.qxd 13/04/2007 13:47 Page 404 BBC RADIO FIVE LIVE BBC Five Live is BBC Radio’s 24-hour news and sports channel. It is available on 909 and 693 medium wave, on digital radio and TV and online. Most of the staff are based at Television Centre in West London. Their office space and studios are on the same floor as the rolling news television channel, BBC News 24, making it easy for London-based reporters and correspondents to appear on both channels in the same day. There are two main studios – each with a ‘cubicle’ or control room – which are used for alternate programmes. The channel aims at a younger audience than BBC Radio Four News, and has a more relaxed style. Research shows, though, that the average listener is in their late forties. The audience is predominantly male, because of the emphasis on sport. The channel has commentary rights to Premiership, European and international football. It offers comprehensive coverage of Wimbledon, the Open golf and the Olympic Games. One question for audiences is whether Five Live is a rolling news channel, the radio equivalent of BBC News 24 or Sky News, or is it a news channel only when there is no sport? The channel is complemented by Five Live Sports Extra where commentary on sports fixtures not on the main channel, including Test cricket, can be found. Nicky Campbell and Shelagh Fogarty are approaching the end of another three hours 0845 co-hosting the breakfast show. Nicky, an experienced host of live television shows like Watchdog, is a devotee of Scottish sport. He announces ‘some sad news’ – the death of the former Celtic and Scotland winger Jimmy Johnstone, ‘known as Jinky, one of the Lisbon Lions, Jock Stein’s great side’. Shelagh Fogarty Matt Morris, Five Live’s Head of News, has made his regular early-morning visit to the gym and is about to start the morning editorial meeting, looking at the prospects for the day with programme and planning editors. Matt Morris BJ_C17.qxd 13/04/2007 13:47 Page 405 BBC RADIO FIVE LIVE Nicky links to one of the main stories of the morning. The cue begins: ‘Britain’s most 0848 senior police officer Sir Ian Blair is under more pressure after he admitted secretly taping a private phone conversation with the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith.’ A recorded clip of Shami Chakrabarti, director of the civil rights group Liberty, follows. She says: ‘It is bizarre. I’m speechless, which is not very helpful on the radio. It really does beggar belief.’ After the clip, Nicky interviews Richard Barnes, Tory leader on the Metropolitan Police Authority. Barnes says Sir Ian ‘should certainly be considering his position’. Sir Ian is the main talking point at the editorial meeting. Matt Morris asks if he can survive this latest controversy. Breakfast Editor Richard Jackson points out that what he has done is not illegal, but it is still surprising. Planning Editor Robin Britten says the BBC Home Affairs unit will have an ‘obit’ ready – a brief history of Sir Ian’s career Robin Britten including ‘gaffes’. ‘Obit’ is short for ‘ obituary’, a report prepared prior to the death of a prominent person. In this case it will be ready if Sir Ian resigns. This type of backgrounder is trickier to compile than a true obituary, because there is a risk of defaming someone who is still alive. It’s a Monday morning, so there’s discussion in the meeting of the weekend’s coverage of big events. There’s agreement the death of former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic was well covered, even though it happened during sports programming. But there’s concern that the South Africa–Australia cricket international when the South Africans reached a record one-day target of over 400 should have led the sports bulletins. The morning phone-in with Victoria Derbyshire is underway. Today’s topic: ‘Whose job is 0900 it to talk to children about sex?’ It’s a response to the Prime Minister’s admission in an MTV interview that he was embarrassed teaching his children about sex. A clip of Tony Blair starts the debate. In the meeting, there’s a swift round-up of what today’s programmes have planned. Comedian Johnny Vegas is coming in. Film critic Mark Kermode and the director Spike Lee will be on Simon Mayo’s afternoon show. In news, funeral arrangements for Milosevic will become clearer; political correspondent Mike Sergeant is with the Education Secretary Ruth Kelly ahead of a vote on school reforms; two men have been shot in Salford; Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code, is due in court accused of breaching the copyright of two other authors; there’s an afternoon press conference about the causes of migraine, and a reporter will be trying to ‘doorstep’ Sir Ian Blair. Also, it’s the tenth anniversary of the shooting in Dunblane of 16 schoolchildren and their teacher. Matt Morris advises his editors: ‘We are not going to Dunblane. Do what Victoria Derbyshire you like if you think it’s appropriate but don’t start hassling people in Dunblane.’ Among Victoria’s phone-in guests are a sex education teacher, a mother of three, and 0912 the editor of Cosmogirl magazine. It is important the phone-in remains topical. The subject is pre-planned, but it’s an early morning producer’s job to completely revamp the agenda if a new talking point emerges from the overnight news. Matt Morris attends the BBC Radio News morning meeting. It is usually chaired by 0915 the Head of Radio News, and is attended by senior editors with contributions on a broadband video link from the BBC World Service at Bush House and Radio One’s Newsbeat at Yalding House. Sir Ian Blair again prompts the longest discussion. It’s a ‘good yarn’, ‘a terrific story’. but what he has done is ‘absolutely not illegal’. 405 BJ_C17.qxd 13/04/2007 13:47 Page 406 PART TWO NEWSDAYS The Radio News meeting breaks up. After a brisk run through the day’s news prospects, 0941 the editor of Radio Four’s The World Tonight suggests that the story of the day is the death of Jimmy Johnstone. Victoria previews what’s coming up before 12.00. ‘Ten years after the Dunblane killings, 1000 we investigate whether schools are any safer.’ There’s a ten-second teaser clip, talking about knives, bayonets, machetes and handguns, followed by: ‘How do you sue a suicide bomber?’ There’ll be an interview with a father fighting for compensation. And Victoria asks: ‘Tell us what you think about Britain’s top cop secretly recording phone conversations with a member of the government. Does it matter?’ Andrew Fletcher reads the news. Sir Ian Blair leads. There’s an appeal for calm in Iraq. 1001 Four men are being questioned in connection with the shooting in Greater Manchester: two men are dead and two injured. A British couple have been found dead in Crete, and schools minister Jacquie Smith comments on the Education Bill. Candles are to be lit in Dunblane in commemoration of the tragedy of ten years earlier. The Queen is in Australia ready for the opening of the Commonwealth Games. Rob Stewart reads the sports news. India have beaten England by nine wickets on the 1005 final day of the second test. Jimmy Johnstone’s death is reported. Jose Mourinho, the Chelsea manager, wants to buy Germany’s Michael Ballack. England rugby star Matt Dawson is commenting to Five Live on the performance of coach Andy Robinson. Golfer Luke Donald is in the world’s top ten, and racing at Plumpton is off due to frost. Victoria links to an interview with Billy McNeil, Jinky Johnstone’s captain when Celtic 1007 won the European Cup. Sports presenter Rob joins in. After linking to a clip of captain Andrew Flintoff, Victoria talks to cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew in India. Victoria links to reporter Linda Kennedy in Glasgow, who has been investigating 1010 school safety. Her report includes a recorded insert of a visit to a school in Prestwich, demonstrating how it was possible to walk around the site for 30 minutes despite an eight-foot perimeter fence. The gate was unlocked. In the ‘cubicle’, the control room next to Victoria Derbyshire’s studio, producer Simon 1012 Peeks is trying to find out when the Attorney General will make a statement about Sir Ian Blair. On the talkback unit he liaises with the newsroom. The programme editor tells him: ‘We can’t get an answer. We’ll keep trying out here.’ In the cubicle, they’re trying to line up an interview with Simple Minds singer Jim Kerr, 1018 who recorded a charity single with Jimmy Johnstone for Motor Neurone Disease, the illness which killed Jimmy. Kerr is on his mobile phone. ‘Are you free in ten to 15 minutes? Have you got a landline there?’ 406 BJ_C17.qxd 13/04/2007 13:47 Page 407 BBC RADIO FIVE LIVE Victoria is talking to a primary school governor about the problems of school security. 1020 Linda Kennedy reports that there is no pressure from the government to increase security, and it is not measured in league tables. The reporter links to recorded inserts from experts. Victoria talks to phone-callers on the issue. There’s a landline available in Jim Kerr’s hotel. They’re trying to trace Home Affairs 1023 Correspondent Danny Shaw for the Sir Ian Blair story. Victoria links to Phillip Eden for the weather.