"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.

One of those an interview with Caroline a victim of Jimmy Saville's horrible activities

..another an interview with Bernie Nolan about cancer treatment

Location:Emmerdale

Police Funeral and the search for April

Wednesday 3rd October

Manchester

Rippling stiffly in the dark sky above Manchester Cathedral the Greater Manchester Police flag flew at half mast.

It had taken Paul, the satellite engineer, Tom, the sound recordist, Gregg, the correspondent and me a bit longer than we thought to get into position for the live broadcasts marking the funeral of 23 year old Nicola Highes, killed recently in an unbelievable gun and grenade attack.

The confusion that had us scratching our heads was because Deansgate, one of Manchester's main roads which runs right in front of the Cathedral has been blocked off by some semi-permanent ornamental tubs of shrubs and trees.

It foxed our sat' navs and even local boy Tom's local knowledge.

Once we had managed to get to where we thought we would get the best shot, a couple of policemen about to come off night shift came over for a chat.

Slotting nicely into their prescribed roles of good cop/bad cop they spoke to us.

The one with the short, carefully sculpted beard, who found eye contact difficult played his part by doing the, "You can't park there!" thing.

Which was fine because we had no intentions of parking where we had stopped. We were however, interested to know if media vehicles had any allocated area because there would be a fair few turning up over the course of the morning to cover the actual funeral.

Our truck would be staying after our Daybreak broadcasts. It had been designated as the pool satellite feed for the inside of the cathedral transmitting the service.

It was not too surprising that at that time in the morning they did not know.

What they did know, at least bad cop knew for certain, was that we could not park where we were.

We found a perfectly acceptable place from which to transmit our pictures and sound to London in a car park across the road.

It was a bit of a cable run to where the camera needed to be so I attached the power hungry beast that is the Digi-link.

Then all we had to do was wait for the automatic satellite dish to lock on to the satellite.

The pattern of confusion for the morning continued as the dish stuttered around pointing at various parts of the sky trying to make contact with the geostationary bird in space.

Could the internal compass be getting thrown off kilter because the car park we were in is basically a large iron bridge?

Paul gave it a good rebooting a few times to kick it in to life.

Eventually we heard the Daybreak ident loop "this is Daybreak IFB for Manchester", followed by a burst of tone break through the static in our earpieces that told us the frustrating waiting was over.

Manchester Cathedral

There was still a little while to go before we went on air.

The big story of the day was the search for little April Jones the five year old girl who had gone missing in south Wales.

There were three satellite trucks with three crews and three correspondents working on that story.

We thought that we might only do one live broadcast at around 6 am .

In the event we did a broadcast in all the news bulletins.

Gregg in thoughtful mood before one of the broadcasts

After the last one the truck then had to be moved to the area designated for it to cover the service.

It had been a little after 7 am when we found out where that should be.

I then went for a short sleep followed by, what I hoped would be, a jaunt back up the M6 and M74 taking me back home.

A call from Daybreak dashed those hopes.

I would be embarking on a journey further south to be a part of tomorrow's coverage of the April Jones story.

As I prepared to leave Manchester the mood in the centre could certainly be described as somber.

Hundreds of police lined the route down Deansgate. Some were in normal uniforms, some in plain clothes and others in dress uniforms with ribbons and medals glistening on their chests.

Members of the public also took up positions to pay their respects to the young murdered officer.

I drove down the M6 and across the long winding Welsh roads for around three hours.

When I got to Machynlleth there were lots of signs asking for help in he hunt for April.

The golf club at the start of the town..

..and all over the place..

..it was the same in Aberystwyth..

..everywhere

It was in the fading light of the evening I arrived at my B&B in Aberystwyth.

Thursday 4th October

Aberystwyth

The heavy rain that had spent most of the time I was trying to sleep battering against the thin glass of the bedroom window has ceased.

The location for the morning was planned to be the Government Buildings in Aberystwyth.

The post code, which was all I had as an address was not recognised by the sat' nav'.

I opted for the nearest one which took me to part of Aberystwyth University.

Trevor the satellite engineer for the morning from ITV Wales was already at the location. He talked me in when I called him asking for directions.

It was a very uninspiring location to say the least and not of huge relevance given that any press conference to be held there would not be happening until around 11 am, unless of course there was some news, good, or as was increasingly likely, bad.

When Jonathan Swain arrived he asked Trevor to reposition the truck to the Police Station a few hundred meters along the road.

This was where prime suspect in April's abduction, Mark Bridger was being detained and questioned.

There was no panic because the first broadcast was not scheduled until 6:35 am. That was in over an hours time.

ITV and Sky News trucks outside the police station in Aberystwyth

After that the plan was for us to be on standby for the rest of the morning. The crew in Machynlleth with Katy Fawcett would be doing the bulk of the work.

We were just about rigged and ready to go when the request came for a short broadcast in the opening part of the programme at 6 am

I would need to put a bit more urgency into getting the camera, sound and talk back sorted but it should be fine.

Unfortunately automatic satellite dish deployment systems do not react to any sense of urgency.

Trevor and I were ready. Jonathan was all geared up and raring to go.

The PA counted down to the start of the programme, the titles rolled and the presenters started the introduction that should have included our contribution. 

All we could do was stare at the dish on the roof of the truck as it stuttered and jerked in short robotic stints of movement searching for the satellite.

It did find it in plenty of time for the main broadcast but too late for the short tease that we had been asked for.

Camera in position

We planned a trip to the nearby McDonalds for a coffee in the warm where we could be on standby in relative comfort.

The best we managed was a quick dash there to grab some takeaways from the drive through.

We ended up doing a lot more broadcasts than we had anticipated.

Jonathan Swain ready to broadcast

When the last broadcast into the Lorraine programme was done we were standing in the truck getting ready for a slow derig.

The trucks in the daylight

Earlier I had noticed a prison transport van drive into the gated car park at the back of the police station.

At some point today if Mark Bridger had not been charged or released police would have to apply to Magistrates for more time to question him.

Would he need to go to court for that to happen?

Probably not was the consensus. It was a formality done without him needing to appear.

It was more than likely the usual routine for the white van with the characteristic little dark square windows to turn up to take last evening's drunks, burglars and other miscreants to court.

We dismissed it from our thoughts. 

It appeared at the junction beside us a while later with a police car in front and one following it. That was certainly not routine.

I leapt out the truck and dashed to the camera, switching it on and simultaneously squeezing the record button.

I got one short shot as the mini convoy pulled out into the main road and disappeared into the distance.

Jonathan spoke to a police officer who confirmed that Mark Bridger was indeed inside and on his way to the magistrate's court.

The shot wasn't going to win me any awards but at least I had it.

There was still one more short bulletin in the programme. Trevor quickly put the tape in his VT machine and fed it to Daybreak in London.

Sky News were beside us busy doing their live broadcasts but had not noticed either the van or it's significance.

We offered them the shot.

They were unable to use it, much to their frustration because their kit was High Definition, ours was the old technology of Standard Definition.

There was not enough time for them to get the kit out to allow them to do the conversion.

What had started out being a quiet easy morning ended up in true rolling news fashion a busy and effective one.

That might have been the case from our point of view but in the scheme of things that was not important. What was important was that there was still a missing little girl and a distraught family. With each hour passing bringing no news of April it was increasingly likely that their lives would be ripped apart and horribly changed forever.

My thoughts did turn to the long journey home, but that would be for another day. The office had already extended my stay at the B&B on the wind and rain swept Aberystwyth sea front.

Me not getting home and having to change rooms was trivial in the extreme compared to the upheaval the Jones family was enduring.

Location:Union St,Aberystwyth,United Kingdom

Friday 5^th October

Machynlleth

During the course of the evening my assignment had been changed.

Instead of a nice short drive to the police station in Aberystwyth to work with Jonathan Swain I had to drag myself out of be almost an hour earlier to drive along to Machynlleth to do live broadcasts with Katy Fawcett the Daybreak northern correspondent.

Once again the rain had been heavy and consistent during the night. It had not been a problem for me tucked up in bed, even if it had been only for a short time.

However, for the many teams out in the countryside looking for April it had made their already hard task all the more difficult and unpleasant.

When I arrived at the leisure centre, which was being used as the main co-ordination centre in the search for little April Jones, there was already a lot of activity. It had been like that for the past few days.

Search dog cars and satellite trucks outside the leisure centre

The response from both the professionals and amateurs was incredible.

There were a lot of people who had not had a lot of sleep since the search for the five year old girl had started.

Katy checks her e-mails

We did our live broadcasts outside the front door where most of the media had been broadcasting for the last few days.

Sky News doing their broadcasts

Coffee and tea on hand throughout the night

As the light came up and we got through our broadcasts the place became progressively busier.

Sky's Jeremy Thompson doing his broadcast

The leisure centre starts to get busier..

..with teams waiting for their instructions..

..before going off to do their searching

There had been no change in the story, April had still not been found and Mark Bridger was still being held and questioned on suspicion of abducting her.

Katy and producer Matt had been out filming with some of the searchers for a little while last night and had sent the shots back to Daybreak where they had been edited into a short film that Katy linked into.

It was a stress free morning as far as we were concerned, everything working out well including a couple of live interviews with a search dog leader and the mayor of Machynlleth.

I could not begin to imagine how the Jones family were feeling as the hours and days dragged on with no news of their precious little girl.

When we had finished our planned broadcasts we waited until the end of the programme before heading off to our respective homes and families.

I bet April’s parents wished that they were just facing the prospect of a long drive rather than the spectre of a future without their daughter.

A week of floods

Monday 24th September
Saltburn-by-the-Sea

I thought that the news desk would leave me alone to get all the post trip things sorted out but the grey leaden skies that were relentlessly throwing down a huge amount of rain put paid to that.

I drove through the night and a constant deluge to the unimaginatively named Saltburn-by-the-Sea in Cleveland to meet Gregg Easteal.

We got nice and wet getting shots of the little town as the residents went into "baton down the hatches" mode.

There were already flood warnings coming out from the Met Office.

The forecast was predicting that a massive amount of rain would fall over the next few days.

The shoot did not take us too long to do but never the less the pair of us were soaked right through our supposedly waterproof bad weather gear.

As it approached midnight we got the job finished, at least the shooting part.

Gregg still had to edit the report and send it to Daybreak in London. I was lucky, there was a hotel bed with my name on it.

Gregg had also drawn the short straw in so much that he was also gong to have to get up early to do live broadcasts about the weather from Bishop Aukland in County Durham.

I would just need to get up when I woke up and head for home, or so I hoped.

Tuesday 25th September
Morpeth

The journey home from Saltburn ended before it really began. 

I was only just out of the hotel car park when the call came from Carol at Daybreak.

Live broadcasts tomorrow from Morpeth were going to be the order of the day.

I got sorted out with an hotel in Newcastle and planned a nice early dinner followed by a nice early night.

Both of those ideas got washed away by the need to do a little bit of shooting in Morpeth in the late evening.

Gregg Easteal and I did a bit of filming in a couple of houses that had been affected by the floods.

We met a very sprightly and posh couple, Angela and Cameron who's house had succumbed to a bit of damage.

The lively, good humoured, retired pair were happy to allow us to film in the house, as long as Angela was not referred to as elderly or senior in the report.

As floods go there was not really a great deal of damage. It was pretty much just their carpets that got the brunt of it.

They had been given enough warning to allow them, with the help of friends to get most of the furniture up the stairs.

In 2008 it had been a different story. The flood had been much worse. The water had come up to a height of about five feet in the house.

They had to be out of the house for eight months on that occasion whilst it dried out and some very extensive repair work was carried out.

It was a similar story with John a few doors along the road. In his case the newly installed kitchen had been slightly damaged along with the kitchen flooring.

The floor would need replaced and some of the kitchen units would likewise need replaced.

However, it was nothing like the devastation of four years ago.

Angela, Cameron and John all agreed to have us back in the morning for live broadcasts.

The material on tape was going to be sent to Daybreak from Tyne Tees Television down in Gateshead.

This caused a little bit of stress because of the time we finished shooting, the length of time Tyne Tees would still be manned and the number of other external feeds going into Daybreak.

It all came good in the end. By the time I rushed the rushes to Tyne Tees Carol at Daybreak had ironed out the logistical problems.

This time when I got to the hotel I knew that I was in for a short sleep.

I did not realise just how short it was going to be.

Wednesday 26th September

Newburn and Morpeth

My alarm still had a bit more than a couple of hours to run before it was due to wake me when the sleep shattering call came.

Last night, a while before I had managed to get to bed I saw a report by Dawn Thewlis, one of my colleagues from long ago during my time at Tyne Tees, running on the BBC's late bulletin.

It was a story about a new looking block of houses in Newburn just west of Newcastle that was almost about to fall down.

The flood waters had caused a lot of ground to be washed away. In the case of these town houses some of that ground was what they, until today, had been built on.

The report showed still images of the block of flats with a massive hole where the foundations should have been.

On the face of it this looked like a better story and location for our live broadcasts.

I was surprised that we had not been dispatched to cover it as well, or indeed instead of the Morpeth floods that, by the time we went on air would be "slightly olds" rather than breaking news.

This was the story that was behind the call.

I was tasked by the night editor to go to Newburn, get some shots of the teetering houses and if possible have a word with some of the evacuees who were in a nearby leisure centre before heading up to Morpeth for the live broadcasts.

It is a continual source of amusement combined with bewilderment that there is a genuine expectation by over night news desk staff that there will be a bevy of people up and about, and willing to be interviewed for television at 4 am.

If the people from the houses had not found temporary lodgings with friends or relatives they would be at Newburn's leisure centre a mile or so away from the flats.

Driving into the centre car park I could see lights on but no sign of life.

I had a quick look around. I saw a man in probably in his sixties who appeared to have a uniform sweatshirt on in an office.

I attracted his attention. He saw me, his face filled with a look of suspision and he walked slowly towards the door with an obvious reluctance.

When he opened the glass door a crack I told him that I was from ITV and asked if there was anyone from the flats around.

He said yes but that they were all sound asleep upstairs.

At which point a much younger sleepy looking bald head popped through a door as its disheveled owner looked quizzically at me.

I asked to speak to him. He was the leisure centre's duty manager and repeated what I had already heard, that everyone was, not unreasonably, fast asleep.

The Newburn Leisure Centre

I made two calls, one to Gregg to let him know that he did not need to come to the leisure centre as there was no one to talk to, the other to the news desk to alert them that there would be no interviews.

All through these calls that I made from the car in the car park the pair back in the leisure centre never took their wary eyes off me.

All the roads that led anywhere near the houses were cordoned off with police tape and the area was in almost total darkness.

This was strange because all of ten minutes ago when I had driven past on my way up to the leisure centre the place was awash with the bright piercing light from large portable arc lights and there was a swarm of people wearing hi-viz jackets buzzing around the place.

Now all I could see were a couple of cold, bored looking policemen waiting for their night shift to be over.

I asked one of them, who appeared to be grateful for the distraction, where I could go to get some shots of the flats.

He laughed.

"Got a night vision camera?" he asked with an amused Geordie twang.

He went on to tell me that, firstly, I was not allowed past the tapes and secondly, that even if I was, all that I would see from that angle was a perfectly normal looking very dark block of houses.

He continued to tell me that in the darkness it was far too dangerous to approach the flats from the other side, where the damage was visible, or at least would be visible when the light came up.

I called the office in London again to let them know what I had been told.

I was on my way to Morpeth having been up for a couple of hours when the alarm on my phone went off to tell me that it was time to wake up.

For all the material that I had to show for my two hours lost sleep I wished that it had been.

In Morpeth I teamed up with Dave on the satellite truck, Phil, the sound recordist and Gregg, for our morning of broadcasting.

Satellite truck beside the houses

The river Wansbeck full and fast

Sound recordist Phil taking in the view

Camera set up for a shot that was never actually taken

It was a busy old morning with a series of live shots and three main broadcasts, two from John's house and garden, where his damaged furniture and carpets were, and one from Cameron and Angela's home.

When we had finished they insisted that we have a cup of coffee or tea.

It never ceases to amaze that very often when we impose ourselves on people who are in the midst of a major trauma in there lives, for the purpose of broadcasting their plight, not only do they allow us to do it, they offer hospitality way beyond what should ever be expected.

Ruined carpets outside Angela and Cameron's house

As we were packing up I saw my fellow countryman James Cook the BBC's Scotland Correspondent.

Like me he had been pulled south to cover the story. In the midst of our very short conversation he took a call which meant he was going to be pulled even further south to York.

At that point I was planning my journey north.

I got as far as Alnwick, where I stopped for breakfast.

The toppling homes in Newburn was the reason for the need to stay south. The plan was that we would do live broadcasts tomorrow from there.

This gave Daybreak a whole day to negotiate access for the satellite truck and camera to the site.

We would not be the only media wanting that access. Sky, the BBC and Tyne Tees along with the local newspapers and radio would no doubt be coving the story.

The good news for me was that at least tonight I would get almost a full night's sleep.

Thursday 27th September
York

At 2 am my iPhone pinged, waking me from sleep to let me know that I had a voicemail message.

It was Ian from the Daybreak office. The story had changed. No longer were they interested in the block of flats in Newburn near Newcastle that were in danger of toppling over thanks to the flood water carrying off some of the foundations. 

Instead they wanted to do the story in York which might get some more bad flooding during our air time.

I threw my things back in my bag and set off under a clear starry sky down the A1, which was now open at least all the way to the York exit.

The satellite truck had already arrived at our location, a pub in the effected area.

The satellite truck in position

It was not a particularly dramatic scene that greeted us, more deep puddles than biblical flood.

The scene outside the Jubilee pub

A few streets away there was a fire brigade pump busy pumping water, which had bubbled up through the drains.

Fire Brigade high volume pump at work

I quickly knocked off a few shots and after recording a quick voice over from Katy Fawcett got them sent over to Daybreak.

Phil gets Katy wired up with mic and talkback

Running true to form things were getting close to transmission.

We did our first couple of broadcasts at the pub, which was not as badly flooded as we had been told.

The cellar was totally under water putting the pub out of action but the water had risen short of the public areas.

Publican Kelly Bailey talks to Katy outside her pub, the Jubilee

Dave watching a replay of one of the broadcasts

As the light came up along the road there was a bit of activity in the area that the pump was.

The high volume pump in daylight

In no time Dave, the satellite engineer had stowed the dish, driven the short distance along the road, re-deployed the dish and started transmitting. We were lucky that it was a manually operated dish because had it been one of the automatic dishes, called Upods, it would probably not have deployed itself and locked on the the satellite in time for the broadcast.

The sat' truck in the second location

We did another couple of broadcasts from there and then some interviews for Yorkshire's Calendar news programme.

The flood in the centre of the city of York..

..was much more dramatic