Laura Hamilton in the World of Beatrix Potter

Monday April 1st 

Bowness on Windermere

It is always great when the hotel is more of a walk to the location than a drive.

When Christina and I rounded the little lane that has the World of Beatrix Potter tucked down it we could see that the satellite dish was up pointing and pointing to the distant bird hovering in space over the equator.

The truck tucked into the corner of beside the entrance

Andy, Matt and Sarah from the show gave us a quick tour of the impressive attraction.

Model of Beatrix Potter's house

Producer Christina with the lady herself. (BTW Christina's the one on the left)..

..some of her creations almost brought to life, Mrs Tiggy Winkle..

..Mr Badger..

..and Jeremy Fisher

We quickly worked out what we wanted to do and the way that we wanted to do it, which obviously involved changing everything around that had been set up.

The trio, with very good humour and not the slightest hint of annoyance moved the tables, chairs and paraphernalia that had been placed for a lot of kids work on from the foyer part into one of the rooms housing part of the exhibition.

With Matt's help I tweaked the existing lighting, supplementing it with my own and some from the truck.

Christina going through the vital waiver forms with Andy

When Laura arrived there were just a few little bit to fiddle with before we had time to block the broadcasts through, which is short for a loose rehearsal.

Peter was involved in both one of the short teases and at the end of the main broadcast. We made sure that "he" was aware of the cue that "he" would get.

Laura about to meet one of Beatrix Potter's most famous characters..

..yes, it's Peter Rabbit..

..happy to pose for a photo

It did not take long until the kids and parents arrived, some it has to be said happier than others to be up this early on a school holiday.

Just about to go live. Kids busy painting on one of the tables we repositioned

Then we did some proper rehearsals which all went off well. 

It was not until the real broadcast that my camera cable got a little bit snagged on the corner of a table which prevented me doing a shot the way that I had wanted and a very studious viewer might have noticed a slight wobble of the camera as the cable suddenly became taught.

It was more annoying than anything else and did not spoil the short live broadcast.

Laura did a great job of keeping to time, which she was told over talkback had been reduced by ten seconds, just as we were about to go, and Peter's timing was spot on.

When we came off air it was down the the exhibition's cafe for coffee and bacon rolls that had been laid on for us before going out to briefly enjoy the lovely yet still very cold lake district weather.

But, not before a quick team photo including one cheeky chappy, and it's not Pete the sound recordist!

According to one of the locals it had been the first day in ages that it had not snowed, sleeted or simply rained.

Then it was time to hit the road to Chester, our location for tomorrow's broadcasts.

Swans enjoying the lack of rain..

.. falling on Lake Windermere