Features

Newsletter 28 [09.03.09]

DOWN MEMORY LANE:

A couple of weeks ago I took a day off the programme to fly to Belfast, the city of my birth. My first ever job was as a trainee reporter on the Belfast Telegraph and then after 4 years with BBC Radio in London, I returned to Northern Ireland for my first television experience. And what an experience it turned out to be.  I was appointed sports editor but soon was also anchoring the nightly news programme UTV Reports. Almost simultaneously the troubles began and I spent the next four years battling with politicians in the studio, reporting atrocities, bombings and shootings. Well, Ulster Television, or UTV as it’s now officially called, is celebrating its 50th birthday this year and they have started to interview their former presenters about their memories of their days at the station. Gloria Hunniford and Eamonn Holmes were among those who succeeded me in the UTV Reports hot seat.  So I flew over to indulge in a spot of nostalgia. 

They asked me about those nightly battles with politicians like the Rev Ian Paisley, Bernadette Devlin (now McAliskey), John Hume and Gerry Fitt. Well, one of my claims to fame is that I’m probably the only interviewer to stop the Rev Paisley in his tracks with shock! I was chairing a discussion between politicians of the various Northern Ireland parties “live” on the evening programme. Mr Paisley was in full flow and every time I tried to bring in another politician he just bellowed louder and refused to stop. His rivals were glaring angrily and protesting they weren’t getting a fair share of the discussion. Drastic action was called for. I was sitting at the middle point of a horseshoe style desk. Mr Paisley was immediately on my right. As the big man thundered on, I reached under the desk and grabbed his thigh with my right hand and squeezed hard! He stopped with shock in mid flow and whirled round on me. But like a flash I turned to the left and invited another politician to respond. Result!

On another occasion the big man came in to do a similar discussion round the horseshoe desk with politicians from the other parties. As always I battled to keep order and to allocate equal time to everybody which is a nightmare with Ulster politicians. Once they start they don’t want to stop and they ALL want the last word. When the programme ended Mr Paisley descended on my and bellowed: “that was the most biased discussion I’ve ever been involved in…you gave those other politicians much more time than me.” I told him I thought he was being unfair and that if anything he had had more time than anyone else because he wouldn’t stop when I asked him too. “Rubbish” he retorted. “Totally biased” and marched off into the night. A few days later he was back in the building and I bumped into him in the corridor. “Just the man,” he exclaimed. He then grasped the lapels of my jacket and despite me being 6 feet tall he lifted me on to my tippy toes!  With his big face right in mine he said; “do you remember that discussion on the programme the other night when I said the others had more time than me and you argued that in fact I had more time? Well, one of my congregation recorded that show and we put a stopwatch on the contributions of each politician. And do you know what, Mr Burns?” My heart sank and I feared the worst and much wrath to follow. Putting his face even closer to mine he paused to increase my tension and then roared with laughter; “You were right and I was wrong… I DID get longer than the others by a few seconds!” He then marched off down the corridor still chuckling away to himself. 

PARTY TIME FOR TONY:

The credit crunch affects most of us and some much more than others. But there are those it doesn’t seem to touch – like the super rich. Our sports presenter Tony Livesey was invited to a big party in the Dorchester Hotel in London. It was thrown by the chairman of Birmingham City David Sullivan, an old friend of Tony’s, for his 60th birthday. Tony says he’d never seen anything like it. David Sullivan got up at the start to welcome his guests and finished his speech with the words: “please enjoy the party, its costing me £1600 a minute!”  And no wonder because it was a star studded occasion. Compere for the night was comedian Brian Connelly and for the cabaret David Sullivan had flown in from America none other than Paul Anka and his entire orchestra….just for the one night!!  Paul Anka of course was first famous for his pop hit of the late 1950s “Diana” and for writing “My Way” among his many blockbusters. Tony said he was surprised how small the American star was…he resembl  ed a jockey. In fact when he made his entrance from the back of the room and walked through the partygoers, Tony couldn’t even catch a glimpse of him until he reached the stage! The champagne flowed all night and when the party ended everyone proceeded to the hotel bar including all the stars present and carried on the birthday celebrations. How the other half live eh?

TEAM NEWS:

I like to respond to your suggestions about my newsletter and thank you for them all. I love to get your reactions. Several of you asked for more information about new faces that appear on the programme and you seem to like to hear about the things that happen off screen to the regulars. So here we go then with the latest team news!

The newest face on our programme who you will have seen presenting morning and late evening bulletins and going out and about for North West Tonight is Elaine Dunkley. She has joined us from BBC Hull but has a long association with the North West. She worked at The Christie cancer hospital in Manchester before joining BBC Leeds. She trained as a journalist on the BBC trainee scheme and landed a job reporting for Radio Leeds. She then got her break into television with the BBC’s Look North programme in Hull where she worked as a reporter and news presenter. Currently she’s trying to trace her ancestry and if you live in Lancashire you might be able to help. Her great grandfather, who was white, lived in the county maybe around the Blackburn area though her family aren’t sure. His name was John Dunkley and he was born around 1900. She says he was obviously a real character. He eventually headed off to Jamaica where he had ten children with his black maid!!  Apparently he took good care of her and loved all his kids. Two generations later some of the family moved to Wolverhampton which is where Elaine was born.  In fact in one street in Wolverhampton Elaine has four brothers and two sisters all living within a few houses of each other!  So if anyone there in Lancashire can offer any information that might reveal more about her great grandfather, John Dunkley, please email us at nwt@bbc.co.uk

Missing from our screens for a few months now has been our Cheshire reporter KATE SIMMS. She went off on maternity leave and recently gave birth to another daughter, Beatrice, or Bea as they plan to call her. Kate certainly is one for drama when it comes to having babies! Those of you who have been reading my newsletters from the day they began will remember the story behind the birth of her first daughter, Florrie. Kate had been doing a live report into North West Tonight from the stage of a theatre that was closing down in Chester. She then went home and a few hours later the baby started coming, many weeks prematurely. But all went well and Kate, reporter to the end, sent in pictures of her and Florrie for the next night’s programme!  And there was more drama with Bea’s arrival. This time Kate was already on maternity leave but one evening, a few weeks before the due date, her waters suddenly broke. Off she rushed to hospital but they told her it would be a long time before the baby would come so they sent her back home to relax. She did just that by having a nice hot bath. Suddenly she felt the baby coming. Frantic phone calls were made and the paramedics arrived literally minutes before the birth which took place in her bedroom. Bea weighed in at 7lbs 9oz and mother and baby are doing really well. In fact Kate brought Bea into the office last week provoking much ooh-ing and ahhh-ing and holding.

Congratulations are due to our lunchtime weather presenter HEATHER STOTT. If you don’t live in the Greater Manchester area you may not know that before you see Heather on our lunchtime programme she presents her own show on BBC Radio Manchester. It runs between 9am and mid-day and has proved to be one of the stations’s success stories with excellent ratings. Well now listeners are going to hear even more of her because her show has just been extended by another 40 minutes. So when she comes off air at 12.40 it’s a quick dash to the weather office, study the charts, work out the forecast and prepare her graphics. Then she falls into the studio in time to deliver that forecast in our 1.30pm North West Today programme. After that it’s off to the gym and then to look after her family, dogs and horse. A busy, busy life but she loves every minute of it and that comes across in her bubbly and always cheerful personality.

And talking of weather presenters a story DIANNE recounted at the end of the programme about a week ago is to become an item in our programme! In the chat on the sofa at the end of the show she told us how mad one of her Labradors was. Sam would leap up on the kitchen sink, lift up a plate in his teeth and then chuck it on the floor! He would go through the lot if not stopped. After our programme ended we went on talking and Dianne told us she has an island in the middle of her kitchen and Sam just charges round and round and round it like a mad thing.  Then she revealed she was calling in a dog psychologist to sort him out! We immediately scented a story and relayed the tale to our producers. They loved it and so we’re now going to follow the dog psychologist’s attempt to sort out the crazy hound. So watch out for it… it should be great fun.

And finally the latest on our award winning investigative reporter ABBIE JONES. She’s been off work for over a year now after her car was hit from behind on a motorway and spun her into the central reservation. She suffered whiplash which became so acute doctors have still not been able to detect where the problem actually is. In fact she now suffers chronic pain throughout her body.  But there is suddenly a glimmer of hope for her return. She tells me she is waiting on the thumbs up to let her come back to North West Tonight for perhaps just a day a week and then upping the days if all goes well. She is a very talented journalist and very popular in the office. We’ve greatly missed her and have all our fingers and toes crossed she makes it back soon.

BILL ROACHE (CORONATION STREET’S KEN BARLOW):

I was shocked to hear about the sudden death of Bill’s wife Sarah a few weeks ago. I knew them well and just two summers ago spent a lovely afternoon with them at a garden party in Buckingham Palace celebrating the Prince’s Trust’s 30th anniversary. Bill and I are both ambassadors for the Trust.  Bill and Sarah were an inseparable couple devoted to each other. She acted as his agent and manager and I regularly bumped into them at functions around the North West where one or other of us would be giving a speech or saying a few words. We always joked at how we had to endure each other’s same jokes time after time! But we agreed to always laugh loudly in support of each other. I first got to know Bill back in the 1980s when I was working at Granada Television. I got a call from the New University of Ulster in Coleraine, Northern Ireland to host a chat show in their theatre. I agreed… then they asked me if I could find any celebrities to be guests!! They couldn’t offer much money  so I feared the worst. But when I asked Bill, he said yes without even inquiring about a fee. He duly flew over and was in his dressing room about 10 minutes before the start. Suddenly, being Northern Ireland, with the troubles still raging, there was a bomb scare. The audience was evacuated and I went to tell Bill and the other guests to leave the theatre immediately. Bill was as cool as a cucumber. He’d have stayed reading his book if we’d let him! When the army eventually gave the all clear I wondered if the audience would return. But when Bill happily walked back into the theatre everyone followed. He is such a nice, unassuming man. He liked the chat show so much he decided to produce two of his own in the North West with me in the chair. We did one show in Liverpool’s Royal Court theatre where he persuaded Cliff Richard to top the bill! Cliff was terrific. Then in Preston we did our second show with Frankie Vaughan the big star. My heart now goes out to Bill. He will be devastated without his beloved Sarah. They were a truly loving, charming and devoted couple.

STUDIO TOUR:

Before I wind up another newsletter you might like to know that the BBC now offers short tours of our studios here. You can walk through ours and even sit in my seat at the presenter’s desk.  If you want to know more, here is what the Tours team are advertising in their own words.

BBC Manchester is throwing open its doors and offering people the chance to take a tour and have a peek behind the scenes of programmes such as BBC North West Tonight.  Visitors will also be able to have a go at presenting the weather or even take part in a special recording of a radio drama complete with sound effects.

The BBC Tour offers visitors the chance to gain access to the rarely seen world behind the famous TV and radio programmes broadcast and produced from BBC Manchester.

Visitors will have the chance to see the studio where Gordon Burns and Ranvir Singh present BBC North West Tonight, pop into BBC Radio Manchester Studios and visit Studio 7 the home of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra

There will also be an opportunity to hear more about the BBC’s move to the MediaCityUK development at Salford Quays in 2011.

BBC Tours, which run regularly on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays, last for approximately 90 minutes and ticket prices range from £4.50 to £5.50 per person. More details are available on the tours website www.bbc.co.uk/tours

Or you can book on 0370 901 1227

Well, that’s it once again. I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for all your comments and suggestions after the last one and indeed for pointing out my mathematics error!! I said that the original Krypton Factor began in 1977 and ran for 18 years ending in 2005!!! I should of course have said it ended in 1995.

Hope I’ve done better this time!

Email any more thoughts, suggestions or corrections (!) to nwt@bbc.co.uk

I really do read them all.

Take care

Gordon.

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