Cameraman based in Edinburgh, employed by ITN, working for ITV's Good Morning Britain covering stories all over the UK and the world. War Zones, World Cups, Royal Tours and many other less exciting assignments, like interviewing current and ex Prime Ministers have kept me busy over the years working in Breakfast Television since GMTV came on the scene back in '93 and regional TV before that. In 2009 I began to record what it is like to work, the often strange and long hours needed to bring the hard news, human interest and fluffy fun to the UK's TV screens in the morning, mostly broadcasting live.

Tuesday 24 November 2009

Cumbria Floods Day 2

Sunday 22nd November 


The flooding had been the big story over the weekend and was still going to be for the coming few days.


The largest amount of rain ever recorded in the UK had fallen in Cumbria.


The damage was quite unbelievable. There appeared to be collapsed bridges all over the place.


Workington was worst hit with Its Calva bridge which links a large part of the community with the main town on the brink of destruction.


I met Richard there in the gathering dark and growing winds.


We were doing a recce for live broadcasts in the morning.


There was no vantage point from where it was possible to get a good shot of the bridge.


Whilst we were there we did an interview with a Civil Engineer. He explained that the force of the water had undermined the foundations of the bridge and if it did not fall down it would have to be pulled down.


We then went to a local pub on the now  isolated northside of the town to hear from the locals how much of a problem not having the bridge would be.


We had done that fairly efficiently and found a good place to do our live broadcasts from that was different from the other broadcasters.


Once again there was a plan to do two sets of live broadcasts. We would be at the bridge and John Stapleton would be broadcasting from Cockermouth town centre.


That was the plan!

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