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.

Thursday, 3 January 2013

John Boshop and Sheridan Smith in "Panto" and more canny capers


Wednesday 28th November
Sunderland
Yesterday was a pleasant day enjoying the talents and chat with Daybreak's Richard Arnold, stand up comedian,  sometime serious actor, writer and producer John Bishop and the lovely multi talented Sheridan Smith as we did a little behind the scenes filming in Lancaster. 

Panto, a comedy drama written by John Bishop will be shown on ITV on Boxing Day was being shot in the Grand Theatre in the town.
The film truck village beside.. 
..Lancaster's Grand Theatre
The stage becomes the set of "Panto"
Director Chris takes a some stills of Sheridan and the dancers.
Nice nosh from the drama crew chuck wagon.
Matt the sound recordist has been ribbed by his mates for years because of his resemblance to Ralph Little, Sheridan's co-star in Two Pints of Lager.
What do you think?
After the day "on set" I drove up and over to Sunderland to overnight prior to this morning's instalment in the You Can Help appeal. 

 We only had one  broadcast to do from the Salvation Army Centre in the city. 

The good news was that because of having no little teases to do and the satellite truck not being able to get to the location until later than usual we got an extra hour in bed. 

Well at least the others did. So would I if I had seen the text sent late last night that was on one of my phones before I got in the car ready for the usual start time. 

Things were stress free and once again we had some on and off screen fun with producer Chris cavorting around as DunCan. 
Gethin and producer Natalie talk scripts..
..whilst DunCan and Co' pose for producer Christina's camera
Getting the cans set up for the live broadcast
Gethin has time for a quick tweet before the group photo.
We also got away early because the truck had to leave to get to another job for ITN. 

So it was time for a relaxing breakfast back at the hotel, an hours kip and a crew trip to a golf driving range before the relatively short journey west to the flooded city of Durham. 

We were lucky that our hotel, the Radisson Blu  was in action. Just the day before, the level of flood water from the river had come right up to the entrance of the hotel. 
The river Wear still high but, not as high as yesterday
 The silt and other flotsam left by the water as it receded was clearly  visible on the pavement and roads by the hotel. 
Durham's famous Cathedral from my hotel bedroom window
Tonight's crew meal.

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