Old Aunty

Love this 1959 documentary of life at the BBC looking at the overnight operations, including a hilarious sequence apparently filmed in the wee hours in the Bush newsroom.

'Anything new for the 0300 bulletin?'

It's still like that, well, sort of. My favourite sequence is the security guard ringing Jack De Mannio to point out that it's half past five in the morning. They ought to bring that sort of thing back.

In the Shadow of The Bomb

One of the weird things about being alive in 2008 is that people don't seem to fear the Bomb anymore. When I was a teenager in Cheadle I sued to have nightmares about it, and just to make sure you had the right amount of fatalism there were films like 'Threads' which made you feel that you absolutely didn't want to survive if the bomb ever did get dropped. I nearly joined CND, but then worried I'd be blacklisted by the BBC, so I decided to be an anxious bystander.

But people seem to be cool about fission devices now. I can't remember the last time I discussed nuclear weapons with anyone. Folk seem to have forgotten they exist. They're just not brought up in polite society.

But exist they do, and can I have been alone in being transfixed by an adaptation on BBC Radio 4 on Saturday night of Nevil Shute's novel 'On the Beach'. In Shute's story the world has engaged in a nuclear conflagration and everyone is dead - except the Aussies, who people presumably forgot to press the button on. But the levels of radiation are rising and even in Brisbane people are going to die within a matter of months. Then, from Seattle, a radio signal is heard and a US Navy submarine sets out on a desperate mission. I listened to it on the way home , then sat there in the street as it finished. It's here for seven days, but then the recording reaches it's own half life and dies away.

Death at Broadcasting House

To Broadcasting House to watch the film 'Death at Broadcasting House' which was screened as part of the BBC's arts and music festival. Considering the budget - £16,ooo- and the time it was made - 1934 - the movie is really pretty good. And it was only an hour and ten minutes long; I like brevity in a movie.

After the film there followed a hilarious discussion chaired by Radio 5L's film critic Mark Kermode. There were lots of funny stories about BH that I'd never heard before. It seems that at one point BH had a special chapel studio - which was consecrated - to host religious broadcasting. Apparently it had to be re-consecrated after two members of staff were discovered in flagrante delicto behind the organ.

Stories too about a tunnel used during the war which linked BH to the Langham hotel across the road, and the tube system. Fascinating, but I have no idea if it's true.

The chief architect of the multi million pound redesign, Mark Hines, turned up to publicise his book, which he then had to sell from a van parked outside 'because of competition rules'.

North and South

This week the political classes united to denounce a report from the Policy Exchange, said to be David Cameron's favourite think tank. The document, entitled 'Cities Unlimited' described northern cities as essentially washed up, claimed regeneration efforts had failed and suggested everyone put their belongings into carts and move to Oxford, Cambridge and an expanded London.

On the face of it this is, let's say, unhelpful on a number of levels and the Conservatives went out of their way to disassociate themselves from it. But the report was simply stating what I had to face up to in my own industry back in 1995; there was no future for me in Manchester and I had to bite the bullet, sell up and go to London to make things work. It hurt like hell to leave the North, but I wasn't on my own. London is full of people who've moved here from somewhere else and jobs are almost always at the bottom of their decision. Some of the people denouncing the report are my fellow travellers. In modern Britain people move about. They generally move from the North to the South. I wish it were not so, but that's the way it is.

Now the BBC is single handedly leading a regional revival with big (well advanced) plans for Salford which will restore serious production capability to the Northwest, which used to belong emotionally to Granada TV. But it has largely moved south, like me.

In Praise of Eddie Mair

Eddie Mair has always been a forensically lethal interviewer, but he exceeded even his usual high standards on PM yesterday. The interviewee was the usually unflappable Tom Crone, who runs legal affairs for the News of The World. Anyone who's interested in broadcast journalism, or who teaches it, should take note of these ten minutes of broadcasting. Eddie's polite dissection is masterful and he keeps control of the discussion in the face of determined attempts by Crone to move it off sensitive areas. Is Mair now the best interviewer at the BBC? Go here, use the listen again button for Thursday's show, the interview is the lead item.

The Archers Again

'The Archers' this week gave us another Golden Radio Moment (c) when the satanic infant George fell into Neil Carter's pig sty. He was shocked but unhurt, sadly.

I worked up at BBC Birmingham recently, in the brand new Mailbox building. You pass 'The Archers' studio on a landing on the way into the newsroom. It has a big window so you can see the equipment and control booth, but when they record they draw down big blinds so you can't see the actors. I'm glad about that as I have specific visual images of many of the cast nurtured over twenty five years. They include:

Joe Grundy: Almost indescribably hairy, red faced, hook nosed and illegally smelly.

Matt: Sideburns and bad breath.

Jennifer: Dark shoulder length hair and a martyred expression.

Shula: Dark shorter hair but the same martyred expression as Jennifer.

Lillian: Silverish bob, blue eyes and the foxy manner that's made her the favourite character at Hendo Towers.

Clarrie: Traditionally built (see Alexander McCall Smith), and yes, rosy cheeks.

George: Blond hair, tiny, with a tiny '666' tattooed somewhere only a professional exorcist can find it.