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A minute of inspiration on International Women’s Day

2018-03-08T12:35:00+00:00

Four inspiring women from across the BBC have taken part in 60-second quickfire video interviews for International Women’s Day - discussing their own inspirations and tips for the next generation wanting to follow in their footsteps.

The videos feature television presenter and journalist, Stacey Dooley, BBC Radio 1 DJ and presenter, Clara Amfo, a producer on Blue Planet II, Orla Doherty, and Newsbeat Editor, Debbie Ramsay.

In each one minute clip, the women also discuss their career highlights to date, their most challenging moments and their most valuable advice on how to succeed in their line of work.

Known for her intrepid and tenacious reporting style, television presenter and journalist, Stacey Dooley, has become a household name with a string of gritty and hard-hitting BBC Three documentaries under her belt. In her interview, Stacey reveals the scariest moment of her career so far, the biggest influence in her life and gives her professional advice to aspiring reporters: “Pick projects that you’re passionate about, and don’t feel like you’ve got to conform or behave a certain way.”

This external content is available at its source: https://twitter.com/bbcthree/status/971672009615831040

BBC Radio 1 DJ and presenter Clara Amfo has had a glittering career in the music industry. With a voice that can be recognised across the nation, Clara has a regular presenting slot on the Radio 1 weekday schedule, she has interviewed the biggest names in the music industry, and presented from some of the most prestigious music festivals and awards ceremonies. Watch the clip to discover Clara’s scariest interview, the DJ who inspires her the most, and, most importantly, her top advice for aspiring music presenters and DJs: “Keep creating your own content, don’t wait for the door to knock.”

This external content is available at its source: https://twitter.com/BBC/status/971664316712849408

Fearless, adventurous, and with a lifetime pursuit to unearth and explore the undiscovered secrets of the ocean, Orla Doherty is one of the producers behind the breath-taking Blue Planet II on BBC One. In her interview, Orla shares what inspires her, the best and worst thing about travelling in a submarine, and gives her advice to aspiring film and nature enthusiasts - including why all you need is a smartphone to hone in on your skills.

This external content is available at its source: https://twitter.com/BBCEarth/status/971686966726156289

One of the BBC’s most experienced multi-platform editors, Debbie Ramsay is currently the editor of BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra’s Newsbeat. In her one minute clip, Debbie gives an insight into her job, reveals who inspires her, and offers her top three tips to aspiring editors who have a drive to succeed in the media industry.

This external content is available at its source: https://twitter.com/BBCNewsbeat/status/971724719782166529

And if you are in search of further inspiration look no further than the BBC:

BBC Somali: For the first time, BBC Somali hosts an all-female discussion and tells the stories of women across the region as part of a week of special content to coincide with International Women’s day. Running from the 3-8 March 2018, special content can be heard and seen on BBC Somali TV, Radio and BBCSomali.com.
BBC Radio 6 Music: On BBC Radio 6 Music, in her show this Friday night (midnight-2am), Nemone interviews with The Black Madonna - DJ Marea Stamper - who picks her five favourite tracks by female artists. Singer-songwriter and composer Mary Epworth will be the guest Resident sound-tracking the show. Plus, all the music played during the whole show will be tracks by female artists including: Sounds of Blackness – the pressure (Frankie Knuckles mix), The Black Madonna – He is the Voice I Hear; Robyn – Indestructable (the Black Madonna remix) and Loleata Holloway – We’re Getting Stronger.
More on BBC Radio 6 Music: From Time’s Up to "Step Up?!” - An International Women’s Day Investigation. In recent months the conversation about inequality in the music business has been louder than ever. To mark International Women’s Day, 6 Music’s Georgie Rogers takes a look at representation of females in music: Shirley Manson, Wolf Alice, Royal Blood, Jessie Ware, music writer Jessica Hopper (Pitchfork, Spin, Guardian) and many more chat about the changes afoot in the music business.
Even more of BBC Radio 6 Music: This weekend, 6 Music is celebrating three of Mary Anne’s favourite new female artists as part of a post-International Women’s Day show. There's profiles of Anna Von Hausswolff, Flohio and Aldous Harding, and also a look at an exhibition in Manchester, ‘Suffragette City’, which champions the continued role of influential females in making Manchester world-renowned for melody.

BBC Radio 5 Live: Three young women with cancer are launching a brand new podcast with BBC Radio 5 live. You, Me and The Big C explores life with cancer through the eyes of three friends who are too busy living to worry about dying. Presenters, Rachael Bland, Deborah James and Lauren Mahon are the powerhouses behind the pod, talking about how they all juggle jobs, parenting, and busy social lives with The Big C. You, Me and The Big C is available to download for free via the BBC Radio 5 live website or your usual podcast store.
Technology and Creativity blog: Meanwhile, over on the Technology and Creativity blog Angela Stevenson, Senior Technologist, BBC Design & Engineering describes some of the inspirations for her career choices to mark International Women's Day in Inspiring the next generation.
BBC Radio 4 Extra: R4 Extra presenters introduce the voices of inspirational women from the BBC archives in International Women's Day: Voices of Inspirational Women.

RTS Craft & Design Awards 2016: BBC Winners

2016-11-29T12:08:59+00:00

Last night (Monday 28 November) the winners of this year's Royal Television Society Awards for Craft & Design were announced in a ceremony hosted by Sandi Toksvig. A whole range of production talent was recognised at the event and you can see a full list of the winners on the RTS website.

Congratulations to all the winners and nominees. We are especially proud of those who were honoured for their work on BBC television programmes, who went home with the top accolade in 20 of the 28 categories:

The Night Manager, BBC One

The Night Manager won three awards:

Make Up Design - Drama: Jenna Wrage
Costume Design - Drama: Signe Sejlund
Music - Original Title: Victor Reyes

War And Peace, BBC One

War And Peace walked away with two awards:

Photography - Drama & Comedy: George Steel
Effects - Special: Jens Doeldissen & Darius Cicenas @ Film Effects

Doctor Foster, BBC One

Editing - Drama: Tom Hemmings

The Voice UK, BBC One

Lighting for Multicamera: Gurdip Mahal, Ross Williams & Rob Bradley

Tracey Ullman's Show, BBC One

Make Up Design - Entertainment & Non Drama: Vanessa White, Floris Schuller & Neill Gorton

imagine. . . Antony Gormley: Being Human, BBC One

Photography - Documentary/Factual & Non Drama: Morag Tinto

A Midsummer Night's Dream, BBC One

Picture Enhancement: Kevin Horsewood

Exodus: Our Journey to Europe, BBC Two

Exodus: Our Journey to Europe won two awards:

Director - Documentary/Factual & Non Drama: James Bluemel
Editing - Documentary/Factual: Simon Sykes, Nick Fenton & Sunshine Jackson

Countdown To Life: The Extraordinary Making Of You, BBC Two

Effects - Digital: BDH Digital Effects Team

Murdered By My Father, BBC Three

Director - Drama: Bruce Goodison

People Just Do Nothing, BBC Three

Director - Comedy Drama/Situation Comedy: Jack Clough

Murder In Successville, BBC Three

Production Design - Entertainment & Non Drama: Antony Cartlidge

Newsround: China - The Left-Behind Children, CBBC

Design - Programme Content Sequences: Made in Colour

BBC Sport

Olympics 2016 (Opening Ceremony Opener)
Editing - Sport: Nicholas Perry, John Nicholson & Simon Livingstone & BBC Sport Production Team

2016 Rio Olympics
Design - Trails & Packaging: Ron Chakraborty, Jonathan Bramley, BBC Sport Marketing Team & RKCR/Y&R

FA Cup 2015-16: First Round – Salford City v Notts County
Multicamera Work - Sport: Andrew Clement, Joe Noonan, Richard Lancaster & Glen Woodcock

The BBC Natural History Unit received the Design & Craft Innovation Award for BBC Two's Springwatch, and the Lifetime Achievement Award went to cinematographer David Odd who has worked on many television shows including The Syndicate, The Village and Marvellous, all for the BBC.

Hospital visit: Behind the scenes of Casualty

2016-09-21T15:30:00+00:00

Casualty is a stalwart of Saturday night TV and it has been a big year for the cast and crew, celebrating their 1000th episode, and 30 years since the drama first aired. Dramas based around the medical profession weren't new in 1986 when the first series was broadcast, the BBC had already produced Dr. Finlay's Casebook, Angels, The District Nurse and A Very Peculiar Practice to mention a few, and others have followed including Doctors which started in 2000, and Cardiac Arrest andBodies - both penned by Jed Mercurio (Line of Duty) but Casualty has outlasted them all.

The programme has always had social conscience. Growing up, Casualty was the first show to introduce me to words like anorexia, homophobia, and euthanasia and although it was fictional, it made me think, not only about the real lives of those who worked in hospitals, but also the real lives of patients, everyday people who sometimes needed more than to just be plastered up and sent home.

Still can't stand hospitals though.

The morning after the night before, the night before being the screening of the 30th anniversary episode of Casualty, I was lucky enough to be shown around the set of the long running BBC One hospital drama:

We all know Casualty is set in Holby, a fictitious city in Wyvern, South West England, yes? Good.

When the show first started filming took place in London and Bristol and continued to do so until series 26. Since 2011 the show has been filmed in a purpose built set in Roath Lock, Cardiff (pictured above) which is also home to Doctor Who, Class and Welsh language continuing drama Pobol Y Cym.

The view of the hospital patients see on arrival. Authentically weather beaten and unnervingly realistic, encompassing both the fear one gets when you or a loved one is in a bad enough state to go to A&E and the reassuring relief that you’re in the best place to be looked after.

The exterior of Holby City Emergency Department where patients and staff come to smoke (we’re looking at you Dr Zoe Hanna).

Looking a lot better than in it did by the end of the 30th anniversary show, those of you who haven’t seen the episode yet definitely don’t watch the behind the scenes video about how the team pulled off such an amazing stunt, with minimal CGI. If you have seen the episode, definitely do. Two words. Gaffer tape.

Not quite the apprentice glass table, this humble boardroom is where none of the staff want to end up, as they are generally on the wrong side of a suspension from work if they’re in here.

More often than not however, staff leave of their own accord, with the show recently saying goodbye to some much loved regulars:

Often with a send off in the pub across the road:

It being a morning tour, both myself and my colleague Ceri, who was kindly showing me around, decided against popping into The Hope and instead made our way to the ED's reception:

Tempting though it was to take a peek in the confidential patient files, we instead went up the staircase, where Charlie Fairhead had his stand off with Jacob Masters in the anniversary episode, to the second floor.

Where we found the Geraint Morris ward

When the set was rebuilt in Cardiff, this ward was created to honour the original producer of Casualty, Geraint Morris. When Ian Bleasedale (Josh Griffiths) accepted the BAFTA for best continuing drama in 2007 on behalf of the cast and crew, he dedicated the award to the much loved co-creator of the show who died in 1997.

Injuries and scenes of surgery require huge attention to detail and fake blood and body parts, some of which are stacked up in these slightly macabre shelves. The show relies on the expertise of medical advisers like Pete Salt who makes sure what we see on screen looks authentic. In the Q & A the night before, Cathy Shipton (Duffy) had said that the original cast spent time in a real hospital shadowing staff to try to get an understanding of what they do, Ceri assures me that this still happens with new cast members when they join the team.

Much of the medical equipment and props used in the show are donated from former hospitals. Other items have to be bought in, and others are made on site for specific episodes.

Dick Jones is in charge of the medical props on the Casualty set, you can find out more about what he does on the BBC iWonder website.

On our way through the corridors between dressing rooms and sets we bumped in to producer Gail Evans, closely guarding the script for the Christmas episodes that were being filmed that day in August.

The filming schedule for some of the 43 episodes of series 31 stretches long into the corridor. The 12 hour days start 7am, with the production crew on set and actors in make up. Cast and crew work hard and to a tight time frame.

Having spent a couple of days in amongst the show's environment, it became very clear that everyone in the team was very supportive of each other and had the utmost respect for the hospital staff they portray.

As Derek Thompson who plays Charlie Fairhead put it "There is only one star of Casualty, and that's the NHS".

Jen Macro is Digital Content Producer for the About the BBC Website.

Series 31 of Casualty continues Saturday nights on BBC One.
Catch up on previous episodes on BBC iPlayer, including the feature length 30th Anniversary episode 'Too Old for This Shift' which is available until Monday 27 September.
Find out about the programme on the Casualty website.
Read Jen Macro's blog 'Casualty turns 30 with feature length episode'.

Behind the scenes on political programmes at the BBC

2016-06-10T10:45:18+00:00

Adam Fleming, political reporter at Daily Politics and Sunday Politics has investigated some of the guidelines BBC programmes are following during the EU referendum campaign. We've collected his films below. They're also available on the Daily Politics website.

How is the Question Time audience chosen?

In this film, Adam speaks to Question Time chairman David Dimbleby about how the audience for the weekly TV debate have been selected during the referendum campaign. Hundreds apply but only 150 are chosen following questions about gender, voting in the last election, the subject the audience member wants to talk about and where they are on the referendum debate.

Adam also looks forward to the Great EU Referendum debate at Wembley's SSE Arena on Sunday 21 June and explains how the 6000-strong arena audience is selected to ensure it is balanced.

Andrew Marr, John Piennar, and Andrew Neil on interviews

Political presenters talk impartiality

Andrew Marr says that he tries to 'keep it calm' and smile during interviews. Looking at people in the eye and asking the obvious questions the viewer would want asked is crucial for an impartial interview.

Starting from a position that we are impartial is, for John Pienaar, important - everything after that is 'easy', he says. Recognising there is no place for personal prejudices or a personal take on things, then the questions that follow will fall into the necessary category and then make sense.

Referendum Guidelines

What are the BBC's referendum guidelines?

The BBC's Chief Political Adviser Ric Bailey says that guidelines for a referendum detail that the BBC must achieve broad balance. "It’s not about maths, it's about really good judgment and being fair to both sides in a consistent way. The balance we are trying to achieve is that between the arguments - the arguments for remain and the arguments for leave."

Political Panellists

How do political programmes pick their panels

Murdered By My Father: Asking the experts

2016-03-03T11:32:42+00:00

Imagine that you fell in love with a girl. Imagine she fell in love with you too, but her parents didn't approve of you.

Imagine they killed her because of your relationship with her.

The issue of honour, and its transgressions, is a difficult thing for most people to understand. But it’s very easy to imagine that if your girlfriend were killed because she wanted to be with you, you'd feel grief-stricken, and traumatised, and maybe even guilty too. And you might feel scared as well - because the kind of people prepared to kill their own daughter to preserve their sense of honour might well want to do the same to you.

So when the BBC Documentaries department embarked on making a drama about honour killing, we had some very real issues to consider. The sensitivities of some very damaged survivors, for one, and their safety too. We knew for all these reasons we couldn't make a drama based solely on one true story. But we also knew that we wanted our drama to be very powerfully anchored in truth. So what to do?

We turned to the experts - the psychologists who deal with the consequences of honour-based violence; the police who pursue the culprits, and the charities that help the victims. In IKWRO, the Iranian Kurdish Women’s Rights Organisation, and Karma Nirvana, we found patient, supportive and attentive guides into the world of honour-based violence. They provided us with case studies, and put us in contact with women who had themselves been victims of violence, or friends of girls who died at the hands of their own family.

Their own family. The very people they trusted most to protect them. And maybe in some terrible way - some way we could half-glimpse through our research, even as we recoiled from it - these families really did think that they were protecting their daughters. Because in their minds the reputation of their girls - and of the families they supposedly represent - is so crucial, and the disapproval of their communities so crippling, that it really would be better to kill them than to sacrifice their 'honour'.

It's difficult to conceive of, let alone sympathise with, but we were convinced that to make a film about the horror of honour killing, we had to try to get into the mind of the perpetrators in some way – to have any hope of understanding honour killing, we would have to try to understand those who committed these awful crimes.

Parents are controlling the world over, and love is a sometimes scary, rebellious force. But this was control taken beyond any reasonable boundary, into places of horror and tragedy.

As we built up our research, we opened a two-way communication with our writer, the brilliant Vinay Patel, so that what he wrote was informed by what we had learned, and what we asked was prompted by his questions. Was what he wrote inspired by real events? Yes. But it was not a drama based on a real story, it was a drama about honour killing as it happens, and continues to happen, in the real world. The girls who are killed for honour - and the victims are far more likely to be women than men – come from a range of communities, ethnicities and religions. They are our friends, our colleagues, our schoolmates – their deaths concern all of us, and we have to understand why they happen.

And it happens a lot – more than any of us imagined when we embarked on the project. As IKWRO and Karma Nirvana informed us, nearly 12,000 cases of 'honour-based' violence have been reported in the UK since 2010, including abductions, beatings and an estimated 60 murders – only estimated, because many of the victims of honour-based crime simply disappear on ‘holidays’ to distant homelands that they may never even have seen before. We all of us felt a heavy weight of responsibility to those women as we made this film. They were British girls desperate to resolve the contradictions between the morality of their home – the home they grew up in, Britain – and the morality of a place their parents left behind. It’s awful even to try to imagine the anguish and the terror they must have felt in their last moments, as the people they loved most took their lives from them.

The film we've made is for them, and we only hope that it does them some justice.

Marco Crivellari is Development Producer for Murdered By My Father.

Murdered By My Father is due for release on BBC Three online in late March 2016.
Read more about the programme in Damian Kavanagh's announcement of Factual commissions for BBC Three on the BBC Media Centre website.
See a clip from 'Murdered By My Father' in a press release about the programme on the BBC Media Centre website.

Our School 2

2015-12-31T10:00:00+00:00

Staff and pupils from Greenwood Academy, Birmingham

Ahead of the second series of CBBC's fly-on-the-wall documentary series Our School, we find out a little bit more about the trials and tribulations of filming the pupils in a secondary school for a year and how the hard work paid off.

So – where do you start when it comes to making a fixed rig series in a secondary school?

We’ve all seen One Born Every Minute, 24 Hours in A&E, and various other fly-on-the-wall documentaries where fixed rigs are used to capture the majority of the content.

For the epic 15-part production that is Our School 2 we had 24 remote control cameras fixed in place around the school.

Luckily TwoFour Productions come with a huge amount of expertise from making the successful Educating... brand for Channel 4. We don’t have big budgets at CBBC and we are telling a rather different story.

We make this programme in order to show Year 6 students that everything will be OK when they make the move to ‘big school’.

We also wanted to empower the Year 7s that we worked with – they’re the little ones in their new school, and through their involvement in Our School, they grew in confidence. It’s the students who are at the centre of this series, not the teachers.

For this series we worked with a school in the Castle Vale area of Birmingham. We immediately fell in love with Greenwood Academy and the head teacher, Mr French, was hugely supportive of the project.

Headteacher Mr French (centre)

It’s a smaller school than Conyers which featured in the first series, which was an advantage in terms of filming and there is a real sense of community across the school from the moment you step inside. For the first series, we filmed the Conyers pupils from September through to December so this time we thought we’d do something different.

We ‘embedded’ two producers in with the Year 7s for the first term with no fixed cameras. The producer/directors did some shooting but were primarily there to get to know everyone and to work out which storylines to follow. Just as importantly they were also there for the parents, teachers and students alike to ask any questions or air any misgivings. There were a few, there always are, but as everyone came to understand our aim for the series, they soon came on board.

The fixed rig was installed in the winter half term. We set up 24 cameras in three classrooms, two canteens, a ‘pastoral’ space, and various corridors and exterior entrance areas.Despite making 15 episodes, we used the rig for just three weeks – it’s the most expensive part of the process. A very tall order!

The entire team was really prepared. They knew who they were following and why. Four streams were recorded at any one time during a day’s filming and they were being logged as they went along. We also had roaming cameras to pick up certain events where we knew there were no fixed rigs.

There were people from the production team all over the school swapping mics from one student to another at a moment’s notice, all working off an enormously complex schedule.

Across those three weeks there were 30 people involved from TwoFour Productions – all working flat out. The ‘gallery’ was a porta-cabin hidden out of sight and the children’s interviews were done in a small room in the school building.

Those three weeks were the most intense of the entire production as 25% of the series needed to be shot using the fixed rig. During this time the story meetings went on well into the night.
Filming continued until July, culminating in the end of term talent show – which forms most of episode 15 and is a viewing must; but do have a hanky handy!

All of the staff and key children that featured in each episode watched the footage with their families and the students really enjoyed their Our School 2 experience.

They’re a feisty, eloquent and very funny bunch who ooze enthusiasm and get up to some great stuff across the series so please do make the time to get to know them.

Kez Margrie is Executive Producer of CBBC independents

Our School 2 launches on CBBC at 5pm on 5 January 2016.

Why not? Creating drama on BBC Radio Gloucestershire

2015-09-04T09:34:12+00:00

Next week (Monday 7-Friday 11 September, 2015) mystery drama 'Visitors' will be broadcast on BBC Radio Gloucestershire. The production involved local actors alongside well known faces from TV, including Emma Samms who makes her radio drama debut as writer and director. The series was also a first for established presenter Claire Carter, who took the opportunity to fulfil a long term goal of producing a radio drama. Here she gives an insight into her experience:

There I was sitting next to Emma Samms in a studio that’s become my second home. She shouts: “Ok, can we go for a rehearsal take, please?” This is my cue. Jon Culshaw smiles at me: “Ready for the scene, Claire?” He cracks a joke in one of his many voices. Ready? More like ‘how on earth did I get here?’

For a long time I’ve wanted to produce a radio drama. Many people have asked me why and maybe I was silly for thinking that the answer was fairly obvious. Millions tune into The Archers every day and we can all remember powerful items on the radio we’ve heard over the years, but above everything else, is it not fun and entertaining to lose ourselves in a story that takes us away from our own reality? Is it not even better to say you’ve been the one to create it? I've always loved radio and seen entertaining others as a passion; radio drama has always been a goal.

Jon Culshaw and Emma Samms enjoy a joke whilst recording

Now, had you said Emma Samms would be involved in this master plan I’d have laughed you out the studio. (Yes, yes of Dynasty fame but can I please draw your attention to the evil scientist Adrianna in season two of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, my all-time favourite show. Call me young but I’m working with a lady who has shot the world’s most famous superhero with a kryptonite bullet so I really don’t care.) I’m not sure what I was expecting working with Emma. A diva? Someone who would just see me for the novice I am, get the job done and go? Nothing has come close to this. Emma is a talented, true professional who above everything else cares. Cares about her writing, the characters and how they lift off the page. Cares about her actors and how she can help them, about the audience and how she can entertain them. Beyond that, I don’t think Emma will ever realise just how much I’ve learnt from her.

When she asked me to play Eve Harris in Visitors I applied the same rule I’ve used since the start of my career: when a great opportunity arises say yes and then panic about how to do it later. But she was so patient in talking me through my lines and directing me in exactly the same way she did Jon and I can’t tell you how much that means to an amateur. I was cast as a tree in my school nativity, for heaven’s sake.

Then there’s Lisa Maxwell. If you’ve not seen her on Loose Women then know that all you need to do is spend five minutes with her to feel like you’re ready to invite her round for Christmas. “If you want me on your Lunchtime show, Claire, just drop me a line. Anything you need, hun.” She treated me like a friend so it was definitely less awkward when I asked her for a selfie.

The celebrity element is one thing but do you want to know what I feel the secret has been to this project? Comradery. At times I was in a local radio studio surrounded by stars of television, actors with a dream, Gloucestershire estate agents and NHS workers who act because it’s the hobby they love and BBC colleagues I am proud to call my friends. We pulled together under Radio Gloucestershire’s roof and raised it.

Claire (left) with cast members and 'comrades' Lisa Maxwell, Jon Culshaw and Emma Samms

I have no idea what’s next but I know it’s not the end. Emma and I are already thinking about future projects but to be honest we need to make sure this one is finished first (nothing like working to a deadline!) I will never forget the ten months it took to produce Visitors. The table readings, the late nights, recording my office door to create sound effects and the (what sometimes felt like) endless editing sessions.

But most of all I will remember how we gave local radio another chance to stand up and say “Hey!? Look at me and what I can do!” Yes, it’s a part of the BBC that doesn’t have the largest budget so maybe that’s why we don’t hear more drama being done on county stations but sometimes you don’t need the biggest boat in order to make a splash. It’s about creativity and time, willingness and support, working together and having a boss that isn’t afraid to say ‘yes’.

So is there a future for drama being done on local radio? Why not?

Claire Carter is a presenter on BBC Radio Gloucestershire.

Visitors will be broadcast on BBC Radio Gloucestershire on Claire's show at 12.30pm from Monday 7 - Friday 11 September
Read more about BBC Radio Drama on the About the BBC blog

A filming day in the life of Blue Peter

2015-08-26T15:00:00+00:00

Thursdays are sacrosanct in the Blue Peter diary, they’re the day that the live programme is filmed and broadcast each and every week. The About the BBC team were invited by Editor Ewan Vinnicombe to Media City UK in Salford, to take a look around where the show is based, and to document a day in the life of the longest running children's magazine show in the world:

Upon arrival we clock this placard of the unmistakeable iconic Blue Peter logo. Along with bunting and barriers, it helps mark out the performance area in the piazza for the afternoon’s live outdoor show. The logo has stayed the same for the 57 years the show has been on air and is a constant in the lives of many a generation.

Onlookers are left in no doubt what is being filmed here today as a huge screen animates the show's title in front of the Blue Peter Garden. The weather looks a little undecided, but BBC Breakfast weather presenter Carol Kirkwood mentioned the show was outside today and thankfully forecast sunshine for the afternoon.

For the time being however, it's a bit chilly. Having been greeted by our host Ewan, we are then introduced to the show's presenters who are completely charming, explaining that they'll be in their 'proper clothes' after these rehearsals. For now though, it's definitely coats on weather.

Rehearsals with the production crew start at 2pm, but in the meantime a crowd of children start to take an interest in what's going on.

By the time the young audience is on set to film pre-recorded cutaways for the musical performance, the sun is out and everyone’s warmed up and ready to dance, with a little bit of helpful choreography from presenter Lindsey and Floor Manager Carmella and Researcher Portia..

Onlookers are invited to join the audience members, as long as they will still be there when the show goes out live, and their parents are on-site to see their starring role.

Tucked away behind the filming area there is an homage to the Italian sunken garden that stood in Television Centre from 1974-2012. Established by Percy Thrower who was the Blue Peter gardener from 1974-1987, our memory of that garden was of somewhere quite secret, with high walls. The Blue Peter garden in Salford has no such walls and is open to the public, meaning we could get a look at something we remembered, but never thought we'd see...

These hand and foot prints, made by presenters Peter Purves, John Noakes, Simon Groom and a shoeless Lesley Judd in 1978 when the garden was opened, were carefully transferred to the new garden in 2012. The paw prints are from the Blue Peter pets at the time, Shep, Goldie, Jack, Jill and Freda the tortoise. Blue Peter has featured had many pets on the show since 1962.

The current presenters also put their prints in the garden. Barney, Lindsey and Radzi are the 35th, 36th and 37th presenters of Blue Peter respectively. They have a way to go to catch up with the longest serving presenters Konnie Huq (female) and John Noakes (male).

Petra was the first television pet, and this statue was outside TVC until being moved to the Blue Peter garden in 1984, and then on to Salford. Her moniker was recently given to Project Petra, a competition in collaboration with MI5, to search for three ‘CBBC Intelligence Officers’.

The current animals on the show, are Shelley the tortoise and Iggy (pictured) who is continuing a tradition of Blue Peter’s association of working with Guide Dogs UK, a tradition that began with Honey in 1964, whose training was paid for by viewers sending in foil wrappers and milk bottle tops. Iggy is going through her guide dog training at the moment and will graduate in early 2016.

Today, however, is a day off from study and Iggy clearly loves the attention as Lindsey and CBBC presenter Karim (right) make lots of fuss of her.

While nosing around the Blue Peter garden (and resisting the urge to nab some veg from the blooming Blue Peter allotment) we bumped into set designer Emma busy tending to it all.

On this day, the set she designed was empty (because they were filming outside) but we had a look around anyway. It’s a 360 degree design, something Ewan was keen to experiment with.

On entering the studio - aware we were experiencing something few had the chance to do - we immediately wanted to try our hand at standing in front of the desk and presenting. What also struck us was how much smaller and, well, greyer it appeared than on TV, a testament to the magic of cameras and lights, of which there are many.

The ceiling is an extensive lighting rig that every week is tested by the variety of items featured on the show. Lee the lighting director creates a bespoke lighting arrangement for every programme. Over 100 lights including many energy saving LEDs help to make the Blue Peter set shine. The show is environmentally conscientious and uses the albert+ sustainable production rating system.

We were also shown round the ‘Make Room’, where the ‘here’s one I made earlier’ magic happens – sadly there was no sign of the sticky back plastic box.

Then, in a room, usually only accessible by staff, we were shown some of the props from the show, including Blue Peter helmets from the many risky challenges presenters have done over the years, a huge box of Blue Peter badges (although this may have been empty) and Helen Skelton’s vessel with which she kayaked the entire length of the River Amazon for Sport Relief (that’s it in the red wrapping).

This store room is also home to a bit of Blue Peter treasure: Ewan guided us over bags of costumes and other props, and then pointed to something tucked away on a shelf -'do you know what that is?' We did, but were almost too scared to say, in case our hopes were dashed and it wasn't true.

It was the original Blue Peter time capsule that was buried in 1971, dug up in 2000, along with another capsule buried in 1984. Also in 2000 Katy Hill, Konnie Huq, Simon Thomas and Matt Baker buried another capsule to be dug up in 29 years (2029), the same amount of time as the original was underground for.

Nosing around complete we got back to the show: it’s broadcast live at 5pm and just one hour before that at 4pm, the cast and crew have a ‘dress rehearsal’ run through the episode. Here is a view of the gallery as it begins.

We got an insight into what the presenters hear in their earpieces, how intricate the timing of a live show with VT sections is and just how rhythmical filming a live music performance is as camera cues are called out in time to the song.

Following the dress rehearsal any last minute editorial changes are discussed amongst the team in a whirlwind notes session, including editor (and our host for the day) Ewan Vinnicombe (centre), digital producer Emma (first left), live producer Jamie (second left), series producer Zoe (next to Ewan) director Martin (next to Zoe). We're struck how calm and composed everyone is, even though we are just minutes away from live transmission.

After these last minute tweaks the show goes live at 5pm.

Here, in their 'proper clothes', Barney, Lindsey and Radzi get ready to introduce a section of the show about Seated Volleyball.

Presenters join the GB Seated Volleyball Team to learn how to play the sport.

Musical guest Fuse ODG tweets followers that he is performing live in 10 minutes.

This external content is available at its source: Fuse ODG's Blue Peter Tweet

“Do we get to keep the badges?” Fuse ODG’s backing vocalists proudly display their Blue Peter badges and check on some technical details before they perform.

Then, all too soon it’s 5.30pm, and the end of show is already upon us. The boom camera swoops up as presenters and audience wave to the sky, and like the maritime flag that Blue Peter is named after, we realise 'this vessel is ready to leave'.

The show is over, for another week, the equipment is packed down and put away, Emma has to undress the trees.

Everything is wheeled back inside and the Blue Peter placard makes its way back to the studio. It’s all over … until next week.

Blue Peter is broadcast at 5.30pm every Thursday, and repeated at 9am every Sunday, find out more about the show on the Blue Peter website.

Read also Ewan's blog Blue Peter Project Petra: Making history
And Restored Blue Peter mural to form part of park entrance to Television Centre

Revisiting Srebrenica

2015-07-04T14:16:48+00:00

In the documentary 'A Deadly Warning: Srebrenica Revisited' journalist and British Muslim Myriam François-Cerrah travels to Bosnia, to mark the 20th anniversary of the worst atrocity in Europe since World War II. In a frequently emotional trip, she visits the site of the genocide at Srebrenica, with a group of young people all born in the year of the massacre. Here producer/director Gillian Bancroft talks about the challenges of making a film about a genocide that isn’t well remembered.

In the early 1990s I travelled to the former Yugoslavia with the British Red Cross to make a short film about refugees. They were fleeing the fighting that was tearing apart this popular holiday destination and which eventually led to independence for states like Bosnia. It’s a trip I’ll never forget but I’m ashamed to say that over the years my memory of the wider conflict had faded. I’m not alone. Ask people what they remember about Srebrenica in 1995 and few may have an answer. We needed to find a way to tell the story of a genocide that many had forgotten and convey the importance of events understood by very few.

On the 11th July 1995, General Ratko Mladić led the Bosnian Serb Army into the spa town of Srebrenica, despite its designation as a UN safe area. In the days that followed, around eight thousand Bosnian Muslim men and teenage boys were systematically massacred and buried in mass graves. Women, children and elderly were forcibly deported. Many suffered terrible abuse.

Today a British charity - Remembering Srebrenica - takes small groups to Bosnia to learn the lessons of this genocide. Chatting to the organisers I discovered that they sometimes take young people who know nothing about Srebrenica. Our viewers could discover the story afresh with one of these groups and reflect with them on whether it has any relevance for us here in Britain today. The film would stand or fall on the strength of their three-day visit to Bosnia.

Presenter Myriam François-Cerrah with the group she accompanied to Srebrenica

As soon as I spoke to the young people, some of my natural anxieties eased. The diverse group included Julie, the daughter of Colonel Bob Stewart who was United Nations Commander of the British forces in Bosnia in the early nineties; and medical student Abdul, who said he was astonished that he didn’t hear about the story in school and wondered why “…when Muslim people die you don’t learn about it as much”. Journalist and British Muslim Myriam François-Cerrah would go with them as our presenter. She understood that for a lot of British Muslims Srebrenica is still a very raw issue. This is a genocide that struck Europe’s oldest Muslim community and Europe failed to stop it.

The journey that followed was incredible. We visited the old battery factory just north of Srebrenica where UN peacekeepers were stationed in the 1990s. It’s now a Memorial Centre where we met a survivor of the so-called ‘Column’ of men and boys who had attempted to escape the advancing Bosnian Serb Army by walking to a region under Bosnian Muslim control. But it became a death march. I knew that a key moment for the group would be when they were shown a film detailing the three days that followed the fall of Srebrenica.

Gillian filming for the documentary A Deadly Warning: Srebrenica Revisited

The Bosnian Serb Army filmed its own actions - including the execution of many unarmed men and boys - and some of this footage is used in the film. My job at this point was to record the reactions of the young people. I didn’t actually watch the film myself. Even so the experience left its mark.

The atmosphere in the room was palpable; focusing on the expressions of the young people watching I found myself feeling physically sick. One of young group, Abdul, had to leave. He said the similar ages of the victims left him thinking about himself - ‘ you and your friend and your brother. You’re all together in a van together and you know you are about to die.’ Our presenter Myriam commented that the images are likely to stay in the mind and ‘if something positive can come from learning about that you’ve got to hope it was worth it.’

Gillian filming with the 'Mothers of Srebrenica'

From there the young people went straight to meet the ‘Mothers of Srebrenica’. These women each lost members of their family, husbands and sons, in the massacre. The rain never stopped falling as the group walked arm in arm with the mothers around the memorial cemetery – row upon row of white markers, one for each of the thousands who died.

Myriam and the young people went on to confront the current Bosnian Serb President of Srebrenica’s Municipal Assembly, who refuses to accept that what happened here in 1995 should be termed a genocide. Finally we travelled to the mortuary where on-going forensic work is still identifying the victims 20 years later.

It was a very intense few days. We watched the young people learn first-hand how easily prejudice can take hold, even their own, and then realize for themselves why this story has such important lessons for us in multicultural Britain today. Summing up the trip Myriam said:

‘What struck me about the young people on this journey was not only their realisation that they had been blind to what happened in Srebrenica, but in many cases that it made them much more conscious of the danger of divisions much closer to home."

Gillian Bancroft is producer/director, A Deadly Warning: Srebrenica Revisited

A Deadly Warning: Srebrenica Revisited will be broadcast on BBC One on Monday July 6 at 10.35pm and will be available to watch on BBC iPlayer for 30 days thereafter.
Find out about 20th anniversary memorial events around the UK at the Remembering Srebrenica website.

New studio for BBC Scotland

2014-01-24T16:38:35+00:00

As BBC Scotland gears-up for one of the biggest years in its history, with the independence referendum and the Commonwealth Games, journalist and presenter Graham Stewart offers a sneak preview of Pacific Quay’s redesigned news and sports studio, which launches on-screen on Monday.

I recall when we moved to our new purpose-built headquarters on the banks of the River Clyde in Glasgow in 2007, it was hailed as one of the most modern, state-of-the-art digital broadcasting facilities in the world. Since then however, we’ve seen the move of network BBC News to New Broadcasting House (NBH) in London, and BBC Sport to MediaCityUK in Salford, both with their impressively futuristic-looking studios. In juxtaposition with our Scottish output, Studio C at Pacific Quay was in danger of looking a bit dated. So, with a big year ahead of them, the bosses here decided now was the ideal time to bring the visual look of their flagship news and sports programmes up-to-date. No sooner had I finished reading one of our weekend bulletins at the end of the festive period, than the designers and technicians came in to take the old set apart — and for the past three weeks we’ve been decamped from our familiar home.

The old set re-built in Studio B at Pacific Quay, set up for an independence referendum webcast

When you consider that Studio C is in almost constant operation — from our bulletins on BBC Breakfast, through to Politics Scotland on a Wednesday afternoon, the main lunchtime and teatime editions of Reporting Scotland, the 8pm, the 10.25 and Newsnight Scotland, not forgetting Sportscene across the weekend — you get an idea of how potentially disruptive the upgrade could have been.

To make the transition as seamless as possible, the existing set was carefully taken apart piece-by-piece and transported four floors down, where it was re-built in Studio B — normally home to network productions such as Eggheads and Nina and the Neutrons. The idea was that the viewers would be oblivious.

Of course, behind the scenes it was all planned like a military operation; Will Smith, the lead designer, has been working on the logistics for months. "We spent,” he says, “around six weeks off-site making a kit of parts, so that when we came to install it in the studio the turnaround was as tight as physically possible.”

Will was brought in from BDA Creative, the same design company responsible for the new sets at NBH and Salford. In fact, Scotland’s new Studio C is loosely modelled on Studio B at NBH, home to Newsnight, The Andrew Marr Show and Sunday Politics. Like its London counterpart it has two areas — a so-called 'hard set', with the traditional news desk, for programmes like Reporting Scotland; and a more relaxed 'soft set', with comfortable chairs and a coffee table, for sports and discussion programmes. It’s very much like the set used by our colleagues at Wales Today.

The master plan for Studio C with its two separate yet connected sets

Will explained to me his philosophy for the new look: "The idea was to create a set which would be fully flexible for lots of different programmes. It made sense to use the longest wall in the studio and make use of the depth. That way you can create a linking shot from one end to the other, making full use of the available space."

It’s certainly captured the imagination of Andrew Browne, the newly-appointed editor of Reporting Scotland, who’s been thinking about how best to use that space during this week’s intensive rehearsals. “It gives us much more flexibility,” he told me. “So in our forthcoming referendum coverage we could, for example, have a presenter cross from the news set to a specially-branded referendum discussion area."

Attention has also been paid to the visual aesthetics. While Studio C has always been HD-ready - indeed, it was the BBC's first HD news studio -viewers were unable to benefit from the improved picture quality until transmission facilities were upgraded and BBC One Scotland moved to HD in January 2013. According to Will Smith that, in turn, has informed some of the studio's new features:

"The light-boxes we've installed give a deeper, richer saturation of colour, which will hopefully differentiate the various programme brands more successfully. We've replaced the old rear-projection screens, which weren't in HD, with ten high-end 103-inch HD plasma screens. That will make the background pictures and graphics, such as the weather maps, much sharper. In addition, the studio also has a touch-screen monitor which can be used by presenters and reporters."

Reporting Scotland presenter Sally Magnusson rehearses in the new Studio C ahead of the launch

“The screens,” says Browne, “can help us tell stories more clearly to audiences, with improved graphics and the ability to move around the set to make it all more visually interesting. It’s going to be an exciting year for news and sport in Scotland and our new set is only going to add to that. The team here have been really energised, so I think our viewers are going to appreciate the change come Monday.”

Graham Stewart is a broadcaster and journalist with BBC Scotland

Join Jackie Bird for the new-look Reporting Scotland on Monday 27 January at 6.30pm.
Other programmes from Studio C include Newsnight Scotland, Sportscene, Politics Scotland and Sunday Politics Scotland.
Read Graham's blog 40 years of Good Morning Scotland.

The (West) One Show

2014-01-16T17:21:03+00:00

On Monday January 6th, The One Show began broadcasting from it's new home at New Broadcasting House in W1. Producer Barney Newman gives us an insight into the first few shows at street level.

The first full week back at work in January concluded with a six-metre tall animatronic fire-breathing dragon called Elsie, roaming the NBH piazza, entertaining whoever was in her path. But Elsie wasn't the only multi-faceted beast to rock up at W1 in the New Year...

The new home of The One Show

After years out in the wild wild west of White City – The One Show team arrived, energetic, noisy and ambitious…with a piazza to play with. One thing I noticed when I first stood on that piazza looking at the studio was, it was at street-level. I mean it’s pretty hard not to notice that, but bear with me. It reminded me of someone once explaining how and why televised football changed forever. Why the viewers suddenly got a feeling of deeper interaction and accessibility, getting close up to the raw action. It was because TV cameras became portable and went pitch-side, ground level, giving viewers the perspective of actually being at the event. Which is a similar effect I believe the new location gives us. Filming outside looking in gives the show an identity as a landmark. And being inside shooting out, the public passing through the back of shot (also known as you going home) or stopping by to witness the event live, creates an atmosphere, an experience, a buzz. Exciting. Thanks for bearing with me.

So, myself, assistant producer Ben and researcher Rebecca were the lucky ones who landed the first Monday and Friday shows. Monday was a conundrum in itself - do we go all out jazz hands? Should we make the sofa revolve like a Voice chair to welcome Kylie and will.i.am? Or should we just keep it simple? Maybe we shouldn’t even refer to having moved studio? Matt and Alex did. will.i.am said it was ‘dope’.

Kylie and will.i.am join 14 Japanese Taiko drummers on the piazza

But the launch wasn’t without jeopardy. We should have known better but attempted to work with animals. Those emphatic swans of Swan Lake were lined up to perform, but disaster struck. Three swans injured (THREE!) the Friday before TX. No pirouetting live around the BBC newsroom. Maybe a newsreader told them to break a leg? In hindsight, maybe the unfortunate injuries were a blessing in disguise, but we’ll never know. What we do know is, 14 Japanese Taiko drummers are very loud. And maybe a deafening drum roll is what the opening show needed after all? The first show received five million viewers, a soothing cold flannel to a hot brow.

Throughout the week, the ambitious ideas continued, our Deputy Editor Gareth’s big 14 idea (for 2014) was in full flow… 14 pianos were playing Beethoven, 14 'Elvi' weren’t lonesome at all singing their medley, 14 Strictly dancers danced their way in to the national press and Elsie was PAT tested and breathing fire from 14 orifices. Only on The One Show!

Carrying on the theme with 14 Elvi, getting ready to rock in the studio

All this as well as Tom Cuckson’s Wednesday hour seeing an action man abseiling down the side of the building and an OB linking the studio to an airplane 27,000ft above Norway capturing the aurora borealis! The day and film teams try very hard to wreak havoc on The One Show technical team, like any creative team on a live show worth their salt should. But, it’s 1-0 to the technical gods so far.

The usual rich, factual content continued across the week with a strand of films on three soldiers returning from Afghanistan to their families, the re-creation of a female wooly mammoth from bones dug up from under the North Sea, and not forgetting the intriguing film on how the shape of chocolate can alter the taste. It’s true. We tested it.

As our Director of Television Danny Cohen mentioned in his speech after the first show, on what other TV show in the world do you get such a mix of quality content...

Here’s to many more memories from W1.

Barney Newman is Producer, The One Show.

The One Show is broadcast weekday evenings on BBC One at 7pm.
More photos and behind the scenes news from The One Show is available on their facebook page.

Sharing Albert - supporting sustainability in TV production

2011-05-19T15:48:11+00:00

About six months ago, Albert started working at the BBC. Albert was tasked with helping our programmes become more 'sustainable' and quickly became well known for asking difficult but important questions to which we didn't always have the answer. Albert was available for work 24/7, never slept and never left the BBC.

OK no surprises, Albert's not a person, it's an online tool, a carbon calculator which was built at the BBC specifically to work out the carbon emissions of any TV programme. 'Albert' was a working title that just happened to catch on.

Albert enabled us to quickly and cheaply learn what a typical hour's worth of BBC TV production means in terms of greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases mean climate change - we want our programmes to change the world - but not in that way! So the goal is to drive down emissions and drive up production sustainability...

Up to now, as I say, Albert's never left the BBC - it lives on our intranet site. But in the autumn that will change. We've formed a partnership with BAFTA and we'll be sharing Albert with the rest of the UK TV industry. Channel 4 and ITV have committed to using the new-look Albert along with indies, IMG, Kudos, Shine, TalkbackThames and TwoFour.

This is just the beginning of a great partnership and if you want to be involved, get in touch with BAFTA.

Our aim is for the UK to lead the world in the area of sustainable production and we will meet every month to discuss how we can improve Albert and to share best practice...

Albert's not moving house by magic so the BAFTA group has an equally impressive list of technical partners, all working with us on a charitable basis: AMEE, Aerian Studios, Microsoft, Mason Hardy, Outsourcery, Sharepoint City - all ensuring Albert is a practical tool that speaks the language of programme makers while based on a solid foundation of scientific know-how behind the scenes.

Tracking carbon is a moving target, particularly to an industry like ours that's not used to doing it. So in the words of the founder of AMEE - the people the Department of Energy and Climate Change use to check their sums - Albert is 'a fantastic prototype', not the definitive article. Mike Berners-Lee, author of a book called The Carbon Footprint of Everything, has likened today's carbon footprints to the maps drawn up by the ocean-going pioneers who first explored our world: full of uncertainty, with holes around places where we've not been yet, but essential as a first step towards getting us to the next level of knowledge.

Albert is the UK TV industry's first carbon map, our first step. The BBC will be publishing some Albert data later this year. Through our partnership with BAFTA and all the organisations listed above, the map will become more detailed, a little more complete, pointing us to where we need to go to build a sustainable future for content production.

Sally Debonnaire is Controller, Production Operations at the BBC

Read the BBC's press release about Albert's new departure on the press office web site.
The BBC's Head of Partnerships, Adrian Ruth, wrote about some recent breakthroughs here on the blog on 3 May.
The picture shows a TV camera in use at the BBC. It's from the BBC's picture library.