A very early Sunday AM

On Sunday I was up at 4.45 and standing outside waiting for my BBC car (oh yes!) as several drunken undergraduates were stumbling back from the Undercroft Bar.

Work starts at 6am on a Sunday and everyone arrives promptly dressed in their Sunday best clutching a goblet of coffee and all the papers. We go straight into a meeting- What stories have broken overnight? Have any angles not been covered? Are the cars ordered for guests... and are the drivers awake? Have we remembered to get soya milk for the foreign secretary?

The three hours before the programme fly past- everything is timed like clockwork and it is truly amazing how the simple things (like forgetting to order soya milk) can be fatal.

I began by meeting the paper reviewers- Kevin Maguire and Sarah Sands. We went through the papers and make sure they had a good balance of stories between them and a light hearted tale to finish with. I then had the incredibly important task of drawing around each story in the trade mark red pen.

I then met David Davies found him some coffee "with as much sugar as will dissolve" and went to check that Lesley Phillips (a lovely man, very warm and funny) had found his way into make-up. I then prepared the dressing room for the arrival of Margaret Beckett and her extensive entourage. There were a lot of bodyguards lurking around in unexpected places carrying very large retro-style mobile phones.

The foreign Secretary arrived once the programme was on air, escorted by her husband Leo. Sunday AM had spent a day last week shadowing Beckett and made a short 'day in the life film' which was aired before her live interview.

At the end of the programme we all went for a big BBC breakfast (which apparently was actually slightly smaller than last week following the license fee settlement). Still, sitting at the breakfast table with the foreign secretary, shadow cabinet member, world famous actor and highly admired journalists as I tucked into a poached egg was quite memorable Sunday morning.

Calling on the bloggers...

I have been asked to research what effect blogs/vlogs are having on Politics and the surge of political internet TV (as in 18 Doughty Street).

It’s possible that we may be making a short film about it next week for Sunday AM and then having a discussion in the studio.

Any ideas? I know that Iain Dale’s blog is a wealth of links.

Any thoughts on interesting things to film- aside from people blogging at a computer?

Creative input most welcome.

The Work Foundation Media Awards

Just been to The Work Foundation Media Awards At BAFTA.

I have to admit that I have never been that hot my business journalism- I tend to read that section of the paper last once I've studied the TV guide and read everybody else's horoscopes. Poor show. But after watching/ listening to the work of the award winning business journalists I am embarrassed to admit that in labelling business journalism 'dull' and 'boring' I have shown prejudice worse than Jade Goody.

There was some really interesting work- including Radio 4's documentary 'Life after Rover' and the impact that redundancy had on its 6000 workers and the expose of corrupt traffic wardens by BBC's Inside Out. Bill Emmott, editor of the Economist, also won the lifetime achievement award.

A very witty Alan Rusbridger gave the opening address and not surprisingly gave his views on the hottest topic for every journalist right now- Where is journalism going and how do we adapt to new media?

In short he said he found the future of journalism "terrifying" (always reassuring to hear this from the Guardian's editor) and emphasised the power of the blog and user generated content. He did however warn of the dangers of citizen journalism and the need for professionals to check sources (see the infamous Bitterroot Forest Fire picture that was circulated under many guises).

It was also said that it was very possible for business journalists to turn their hand to political journalism but almost impossible the other way round. There is no doubt some truth in this and as I sipped my champagne and chewed happily on a canape I vowed to read the entirety f the business supplement on the tube tomorrow.

BBC, BB and BAE

Spent the day chasing Jade Goody's agent and trying to track down specific footage of the BB house- the BBC has started archiving all its footage digitally through a system called Jupiter and nobody seems to know how it works.

Have volunteered to go on a quick training session next week so I can learn how it all works and then pass it on to the producers who's lives are hectic enough.

Researched Sunday's guests- Ken Russell's life and times in the BB house and Campbell's criticism of the decision to drop the BAE arms deal investigation.

Had a snoop around the main newsroom- met Natasha Kaplinsky and saw the News 24 studio. It's right in the middle of a newsroom- people's desks are virtually on the set and I'm amazed that poor unsuspecting people don't inadvertently wander across the screen more often. Apparently the weather person is forever shouting to people to keep the noise down when they're on air and I now see how the infamous interview with Guy Goma the computer expert/ taxi driver was possible!

Meeting the team!

I spent the majority of my 3rd day here attending the BBC News and Sports festival. Apparently it’s all Chatham House rules- so I can’t say much but there were some interesting discussions.

Saw Huw Edwards interviewing David Mannion about the future of ITN and what he really thought of BBC news- David Mannion came across really well he is very committed and enthusiastic about what he does and has big plans to re-brand ITN. However, until they get more resources to raise their game in multimedia I can’t really see them making much of an impact on the BBC or Sky News.

I then listened to a talk on the future of blogging chaired by Evan Davies. It was a very interesting discussion there were many pro-bloggers but it was also clear that there is a strong wave of old school BBC opinion that think it’s a bit of a joke and still only done by a few grey nerds in a windowless room somewhere.

In my opinion this is a dangerous attitude. The internet was started by a small group of ‘nerds’ and look were it is 15 years later. I don’t think it’s wise to make judgements based on such a short term analysis of blogging.

I also listened to some insights into the way Litvinenko was reported and saw Mark Thompson interviewed by Jeremy Vine in front of a disappointed BBC news team following the license fee announcement.

It was vaguely bizarre to be seated amongst Huw Edwards, David Loyn, Alistair Leithead, Frank Gardner, Helen Boaden, Jeremy Bowen and Fergal Keane to name but a few…

"Can you do Andy's make-up?"

I began the morning by researching Menzies Campbell and things that Andrew should ask him about on Saturday- concentrating on the SNP's possible coalition with the Lib Dems. I've never done much in depth political research before and it was really interesting. The difference with working on a programme that airs once a week as that you spent time doing detailed research, reading round the subject area and conducting longer interviews- something that you don't have a chance to do when you are working on an hourly bulletin.

At midday I took a car to the Royal Opera House and set up reading for Andrew's interview with Juan Diego Florez. It's amazing how much time is put into what will be a 4 min interview and short performance by the singer in Sunday's programme. There was a 10 man team and we were all busy doing things through out the day. Its also expensive to film- today cost about £1500.

I stood in as Andrew Marr's body double while they tested the sound and then had to pretend to mime into a microphone whilst one of the world's leading tenors sang just behind me. It was an amazing moment. I had read before that Pavarotti himself has called Florez "the next Pavarotti"- quite an accolade but he didn't disappoint.

Just before we began shooting the director asked me if I'd got any experience in make-up.
"A bit" I replied
"Great... I'm busy setting up the shots so could you make-up Andy? He's a mid-beige"

Fortunately, Andy is fairly confident in making himself up so I did very little!

Andrew had a short briefing and conducted the interview in one take. His professionalism is really inspiring and I learnt a lot from watching him, helping crew and seeing the kinds of shots that the director was setting up.

Tomorrow I'm seeing a talk by Mark Thompson as part of the news festival that is going on at the BBC all week.

Day 1 at Sunday AM

I am just coming to the end of my first day at Sunday AM, BBC Television Centre.
I noticed an internal message to BBC employees that journalists are being encouraged to start a blog- so thought I'd quickly update mine.
I arrived this morning at 9.30 was issued with a big green pass and headed excitedly to the office. It was a laid back start- you'll all be glad to know I made perfect coffee (thanks to last weeks 20 min discussion) - and we began by critiquing last weeks programme and then talked about new angles on stories/ guests that we can get on the show this week.
I then spent the morning researching the issue of forced marriages and putting together a brief for Andrew Marr ready for his interview with Jasvinder Sanghera-an author who has written about her experiences in a forced marriage.
Tomorrow I am heading to The Royal Opera House to meet the man himself. I am going with the producer/crew to film an interview with the singer Florez.
I have been given press tickets to a performance of Twelfth Night tonight at the Old Vic- so I'm just heading there now with a girl called Celine from City University who is also working here.
Can't believe how much I'm having the opportunity to do. No sign or dry cleaners/ car washing!

Red Tape

A month after Blair vowed to cut red tape costs by up to £2bn a year, a mind boggling story of bureaucracy gone mad has made its way into the headlines.

As part of the Lean Programme (undoubtedly run by someone with severe OCD), tape has been put on the desks of civil servants to show them where to place their pens and other stationary items in line with the "workstation ergonomics training" that all our staff receive.

Directors of the Programme would have a heart attack if they saw my desk.

All I can say is why is such training not available at Westminster University?

If only I had discovered the secret of tape before embarking on my law essay.