She Really Didn't Know Anything About it!

Tuesday 9th March

Rose Thompson from Airdrie had been selected as one of the finalists for GMTV’s Britain’s Best Mum. The broadcast this morning was simply to go to her door and let her know that unknown to her she was one of the finalists.

On Thursday I had met daughter Kirsty, one of her sisters Beth and some of the grandchildren when I came through to Airdrie to do a little bit of filming as a preview to the surprise we were about to spring.

We had parked all our vehicles including the satellite truck around the corner from the house.

The Satellite Truck "Hidden" somewhere in Airdrie.

Robbie the engineer was busy getting the dish lined up whilst we talked talkback and got the camera and sound gear organised.

Away from the Technical Stress Presenter Jeff Brazier Writes his Script.

It was plain from the bits of conversation that I could hear Robbie having with Telenor that things were not going smoothly.

Something was being lost in translation. There is a big difference between “I am not seeing you” and “I am unable to see you”.

Robbie was told by a rather curt Frenchman that his signal was not being seen.

Robbie was confused because everything appeared to be working perfectly and the downlink was being seen by another company.

After much technical chat about vertical and horizontal polarisation, them being swapped around, and other satellite jargon flying through the ether it slowly became clear that Telenor could not see the signal for two reasons.

The first reason was that they had a problem with their kit, but rather more worryingly they had no knowledge of the booking.

It was now getting very close to the time of our first transmission which was a short tease.

There was then a gap of forty minutes before the main broadcast.

Mobile phones were ringing and conversations made between us, the technical director at GMTV and the producer in the gallery.

Given the stress level and the proximity to the live everyone remained calm, focused and got the job done albeit with a liberal amount of frustration.

It was coming together but not quickly enough for the fast approaching deadline for the tease.

We saw the time for that come and go.

Jeff gets all the Attention as he gets Briefed by Producer Sarah and Wired for Sound.

There were ten minutes to go before the main broadcast when I heard Doug, the technical director’s measured tones in my ear to say that he was seeing our pictures and hearing our sound.

During the time that we were dealing with the satellite situation the family members had turned up ready to join us in the surprise.

In a lane not far from Rose’s house we marshalled ourselves.

Presenter Jeff Brazier did a quick link in to the commercial break.

Out of the break we were ready for the off.

Jeff did a short introduction.

I showed the large family group complete with balloons, home made banners and excited faces.

Sophie, one of the grand children took Jeff’s hand and lead him to the door.

When he knocked on it there was a bit of a pause before Rose came to the door.

Sometimes the thought goes through your head that these things are not a real surprise. Perhaps the person getting the surprise has either an inkling, or even knows for sure that something is going to happen.

The look on Rose’s face, her loss of colour and the uncontrollable trembling dismissed those thoughts faster than a GMTV showbiz presenter can get rid of a hollywood A list movie star on the Oscar‘s red carpet.

As she watched the video that I had shot on Thursday she shook in disbelief. I would not have been surprised if she had keeled over with the emotion of it all.

Smiling broadly Robbie said, “When you see a reaction like that it makes all the stress worthwhile.”

Rose the Centre of the Family After the Broadcast.

"U-turn if you want to."

Sunday 7th March

“16 Missed Calls”, was flashing at me when I picked up my mobile phone.

There were three voice mails spaced an hour apart asking me to call the office.

It was still well before lunchtime on a bright Sunday.

I was pressing the speed dial to speak to the office thinking or certainly hoping that it was not an urgent job. Surely they would have called me on the landline if it had been really important.

I was relieved to find that it was just a bit of a heads up that I would be needed to go south for a job in either Liverpool, Oldham or Manchester.

Without rushing too much, because all I had to do was get to a hotel in time for bed I set off down the road.

The story allocated to me was a live outside the family home in Oldham of the little boy kidnapped in Pakistan.

I was slightly surprised to be heading away from a story of three people who had died from falling off a tower block in Glasgow.

As the day and my journey progressed and the radio reports indicated that there were no suspicious circumstances I was much less surprised.

The gravitational pull around the greater Manchester area was just having an effect when the phone rang.

Tentatively Carol from GMTV asked, “How far sown the road are you?”

“Almost there”, I replied, knowing what was probably coming next.

“Pull over we might need you to come back.”

I was nearing a service area so I parked up and waited for further instructions not relishing the thought of another four hours drive back the way I had come.

A few moments later the phone rang again.

“We’re sending a reporter up to Glasgow to cover the triple death story.” I was told.

At that point I wished that I could collect road miles rather than air miles.

Then a glimmer of hope started to glow when I was given the choice of continuing on the way to Manchester and doing the live broadcasts in Oldham or retracing my tread marks to Glasgow to do some shooting.

No brainer. A short drive to a hotel and almost a full nights sleep or a four hour drive in the dark followed by at least a couple of hours shooting and maybe an edit.

Monday 8th March

Even when my alarm jangled me into wakefulness at four in the morning I was glad that I made the decision not to drive for hours in the darkness.

Although with only one brief live shot on the programme filled with glitz and glamour from the Oscars in Hollywood and a lot of hanging around on a very cold morning just in case the wee lad, Sahil Saeed was found I was not so sure.

After one of the most uneventful mornings spent huddled in a satellite truck at least the sun was shining for my journey back north for a surprise job tomorrow morning.

Ballater

Friday 26th February

The forecast snow had certainly fallen but we were pleased to see that although there was an additional coating on the cars there was not enough to stop us getting out on the A93 and along the short distance to Ballater.

Ian had left the STV North satellite truck in the centre of the town because there was no way that he would have been able to get it up to the hotel.

The STV North Truck.

The little town which is very close to Balmoral was a real picture postcard scene with a thick covering of snow.

We decided that the best technical option for us was to use the digi link that was on the truck.

However, the mount for the link was not compatible with my camera. The truck also carries a camera which meant I would need to use that instead of mine.

Ian rigged the link, Bob the sound recordist got his gear ready and I prepared the STV camera putting on a wide angle adaptor and the transmitting part of the link.

Ian with the Link Antennae.

The Camera all Wrapped up against the Snow with the Digi Link on the back.

Richard kept us informed of the the time to go before our first transmission. I was also listening to the PA count down to the programme going on air.

We were almost ready. There was only a minute or so until the titles rolled and we were on a couple of short minutes after that.

The pictures were getting to the truck and we were receiving the programme sound.

There was only one problem. I did not have time to swap over the camera light from my camera to the STV one.

We started to make our was to an area that was as brightly lit as possible.

There were now on a few seconds until we were on air.

I pointed the unfamiliar camera at Richard and framed him under some street lights.

It looked pretty, perhaps a little too pretty because the points of light from the lamps made lovely four point stars.

The link from the studio was being read. I was not sure which of the filter wheels to turn or which way to turn them to take out the star filter.

I’d just have to go with it.

Richard started to talk and walk around a huge pile of snow. He ended up infront of the bus station as a bus was being eased out over the snow for it’s first journey of the day.

I was not happy with that first broadcast. Richard was not lit enough for my liking and the street lights were just a bit OTT with the star treatment.

As the daylight came up the rest of the broadcasts went off without a hitch.

Business as Usual Even in the Snow.

The Post has to get Through.

It was a good morning’s work. Each of our broadcasts were from a different location with lots of movement to show the snowy conditions in all their white disruptive glory.

The annoying thing was that it was not possible to take the direct route back to Edinburgh because the roads were blocked.

There were at least some beautiful views on the way home, including one of my favourite sights an old black and yellow AA box.

The Cambus O'May AA Box.

I wonder if any AA member still has a key for the box?

Snow Joke

Thursday 25th February (Afternoon)

I was thrashing my way up to Aberdeen expecting to be confronted by the dreadful snow that had been forecast.

Schools were closed, roads were closed and thousands of homes were without power.

It never came. Instead heavy rain lashed down and blinding spray was kicked up by big trucks as I overtook them.

Where's the Snow?

I arrived at a dreich Aberdeen airport at around the same time as Richard's flight from Heathrow landed.

The snow appeared to be a little bit further west so we set off to find it.

Rather than taking the direct route to where we were confident the white stuff was making it’s presence felt I lead us on the less used roads in the hope that we might come across some interesting sights.

The rain continued falling heavily but as we drove it slowly changed into grey mushy sleet. A few miles on and up it carried on its metamorphosis into big white flakes gently wafting down thickening the layers that had already overstayed their welcome since December.

Ah! Here it is!

The narrow roads began to get a bit more difficult to drive on. We were on the verge of having to turn back as neither of our vehicles were four wheel drive when the shots I was hoping for appeared.

A house cocooned in snow with almost a tunnel leading to the door, a big round thermometer hanging on a bracket beside it and kids gazing out of icy windows.

We slid our cars to a halt. I got some pretty shots. Richard did an interview with the chap from the house.

At Least it Looks Pretty.

I was putting the gear back into the car when I saw two chaps with big wooden things on their shoulders.

“They look like feeding troughs.”, I thought.

I pulled the camera back out of the case.

The guys were kind enough to let me film them as they fed a flock of sheep that hurried down a ploughed lane made in the snow to devour the pellets of food poured into the troughs.

We had the basis for a nice short little report showing how the snow could cause disruption but could also be very pretty.

We managed to negotiate our two wheel drive cars to Ballater, the village nearest to Balmoral.

It looked like the perfect Christmas card image.

The houses and church were covered in thick snow looking more like perfectly iced cakes than real buildings.

Life was pretty much going on as normal because the roads and streets had been well cleared by the large and small snow ploughs that patrolled up and down.

I got the camera out to do a few more pretty shots when Richard got very excited.

A car had pulled up and two people were getting out in full highland dress.

They were obviously part of a pipe band.

Their heavy kilts and large dangling sporrans looked fantastic against the white snow.

Richard was rather taken by the whole thing of folk wandering the streets in kilts. So we did a quick interview with them as well as a few shots.

Pity one of them had to admit to not wearing it in the traditional manner. He was wearing a pair ot cycling shorts.

The report was getting better.

Richard got the final shot using his camera as I drove my car up the drive of the hotel.

The drive of the Craigendarroch hotel was only just a car width with the sides walls of snow almost the height of the car.

There was a layer of snow still on the ground which made it a bit of a difficult drive.

The wheels of my Ford Galaxy fighting to get traction as I slowly slithered up the sloping drive gave Richard the opening shot of the report.

Job done, well almost.

The top car park of the hotel was now virtually inaccessible. there was one car, a red Alfa Romeo that had its roof just visible through the snow.

I did a shot of that and we did a little interview with the hotel manager as the light faded.

Now, job done.

The Matrix causes chaos.

Thursday 25th February (Morning)

Marcella Whitingdale and I were set up on the dark foggy roof of STV's Edinburgh studio.

The Castle Shrouded in Fog.

The rain, cold and wet dripped off my hood on to my nose and ran down it forming a big cold blob before it joined the other big droplets splashing on the already soaked paving.

It assaulted Marcella's face looking like tears rolling down her cheeks.

"This GMTV clean feed six for Edinburgh. Poooooo"

"This GMTV clean feed six for Edinburgh. Poooooo"

The Technical Director's voice and tone repeated loud in our ears.

It was the ident loop that played before the programme started.

I could also hear the PA in my other ear, "on air in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1".

Then in that ear I heard the sound of the title music come from the speakers in the gallery but suddenly the other ear was silent.

Marcella looked at me slightly puzzled. She was expecting to hear the programme when the loop disappeared.

Over the speakers in the gallery I heard one of the other correspondents say that she could

not hear the programme.

I spoke to Doug the technical director to let him know that we could not hear the programme either but that I could hear Erron the Director.

They were due to come to us in less than a minute.

I told Marcella that I would give her the cue and her count out of the report that she was Linking into.

News reader Helen was reading the lead words introducing Marcella.

When she finished and Erron said, "Cue Marcella!".

I waved my hand and Marcella started to talk about the death of two climbers, their lives claimed by an avalanche.

She linked into a report about the dreadful weather that Scotland was having.

Erron and Jo, the PA gave me the timing of the report which I relayed to Marcella.

When the piece of tape finished I cued her and she finished of the live broadcast talking about the road conditions.

There had been a major problem with the programme sound going out to all the many outside broadcasts.

The sound matrix had failed.

Doug got on the case and came up with a solution which got the programme sound back but neither he nor Erron could talk to the various reporters and guests out and about.

We were prepared to do another couple of broadcasts but a combination of the talkback, the darkness and more important stories meant we were not used until our final one at eight o'clock.

I said goodbye to Marcella and no sooner had I done that than the call came for me to head north to Aberdeen to meet chief correspondent Richard Gaisford to continue with the story of the weather.