Shooting Live: "You Can Help" appeal launch in Emmerdale

Monday 26th November

Leeds/Emmerdale

Entrance to the world of Emmerdale in Daylight.

The flood warnings were out. I had driven to Leeds through a deluge which had not let up all night.

The rain was still bouncing off the solid ground that was keeping the puddles apart.

The old adage about bad weather keeping the bad boys indoors had not held up.

When Chris the producer went to drive the production crew's minibus out of the car park he felt it a bit a bit of a draft and there was some strange crunching underfoot.

The draft was caused by the small bits of glass that were making the crunching noise.

They should have been one larger solid piece of glass in the side of the van protecting the interior from the weather and worse.

At some point during the night someone had braved the dreadful weather to do a bit of thievery.

The side widow had been smashed and a rather vital rucksack had been taken.

Production crew minibus

That's how they got the bag of goodies.

Although it contained some essential bits of kit that Matt the cameraman would need for his shoot for the rest of the day a couple of big v-lock batteries some XDCam disks and a radio mic are neither much use in normal life nor easy to sell.

Added to the wet, very wet, foggy weather things had not started well.

When I arrived at the small purpose built Yorkshire village after the long drive from the security gate at the farm entrance Glyn the satellite engineer had the truck parked behind "The Woolpack" and the dish was already deployed.

The ITN truck tucked behind the Woolpack

ITV Studios, the producers of Emmerdale had kindly provided a couple of sparks and a few lights that we could use.

Dave the supervisor lot the areas that we would be using, outside the pub and in the little village shop.

We were there to launch Daybreak's Christmas charity appeal, "You Can Help".

The idea is to get people to donate cans of food that can be distributed to those in need.

Says it all

It was not the most hectic of mornings even though we had a presenter, Gethin Jones, a Salvation Army band, three actors from the soap and a huge tin can.

The tin can, called "Duncan" was actually Chris in a bright orange suit inside a massive tube with a big smiley face on it.

Producer Chris stacking cans before becoming one himself

It might not have been hectic but it was busy. We did several shot teases in various locations featuring the hilarious antics of "Duncan", one main broadcast and a little down the line interview with John Middleton who plays Rev Ashley Thomas.

Outside the Woolpack Gethin, Priya Sharma (Fiona Wade), David Metcalfe (Matthew Wolfenden),
Alicia Metcalfe (Natalie Anderson) and the Salvation Army Band.

Sound-man Pete gets Gethin's earpiece sorted as he gets briefed by producer Christina

Going live soon!

Quick photo opportunity..

..for press and production tweets

The Rev Ashley Thomas (John Middleton) doing his down the line interview with Lorraine and Aled from the warmth of the Woolpack. The bit specially built for the live programme

By 9 am we were all wrapped. The Emmerdale crew were setting up where we had just been doing our live broadcasts. Gethin had gone with Matt and his somewhat reduced kit to run around a lot of the ITV shows in production to collect cans of food.

Matt shooting the dash to This Morning with Gethin and Chris, AKA Duncan!

After a quick breakfast I had to do a dash across the M62 in dreadful weather to do a very quick shoot with the daughter of one of the ladies who is heading to LA to take part in Daybreak's Hollywood Diet.

This was some pick ups from a previous shoot that had not gone as well as had been hoped.

I had a half hour to do a little interview with 8 year old Charlie and get some shots of her with her mum.

It was shaping up to be a busy week after a little quiet time doing little bitty jobs like the ridiculous interest rates charged by those pay day loan companies and a couple of more prominent stories.