Inside Out South

Jon Cuthill

I've always thought I'd make quite a good pigeon.

They, after all, seem happiest heading for home - release a pigeon anywhere in the world and the theory goes, magnetic fields and/or the shooting season pending, sooner or later it will find it's way back.

Being Dorset born and bred (although not to my knowledge in a pigeon loft) my feathered based analogy still stands.

I am never happier than when on the South coast with the people and places I know best.

Possibly this is the part where I'm meant to tell you ever since the beginning of time I always wanted to be a journalist.

My options at school were somewhat limited. I was never confident enough around kettles for the steam driver career path and the astronaut thing was discounted due to mild hay fever which I would imagine would be disastrous in a space helmet.

Instead I chose the obvious "finish studies, go to America to teach sailing, come home not entirely sure what to do, start training as an accountant and then realise working in the media was the more appealing option".

I'm not entirely sure if your career advisor would recommend the same but it seems to have worked for me.

The BBC took me on as a trainee working in the South West. Countless early, late and weekend shifts followed working as a journalist, producer and news reader before finding my niche as a presenter.

BBC Inside Out isn't the first foray into TV.

The world of consumer affairs and TV news reporting kept me busy for several years as did BBC Video Nation before the recent radio fun.

Living on the South Coast much of my spare time is spent staring out to sea sitting next to an unused surfboard wondering when the next decent wave will come.

I've recently bought a kayak in order to fill the other 362 days a year of no decent waves. A mountain bike is another of my distractions although the term 'mountain' possibly should be replaced with 'small rolling hill'.

I'm an ardent Cherries fan who dreams one day of a stadium with four sides and a place in the Championship. Weekly five a side football keeps me match fit should the call up ever come but I suspect the options for a slightly slow, left footed, lumbering asthmatic are somewhat limited. I can only live in hope.

My dad's a music teacher, my mum taught art and so I'd love to tell you I could knock off a fresco while playing a rendition of Auld Lang Syne on the ukelele. However it would appear certain genes have skipped a generation so I'm left with the ability to play a few bars on the guitar, chopsticks on the piano and my artistic talents are best described as abstract.

For me BBC Inside Out is just the perfect mix of real lives and real people here in the South.

From the man who has made his own personal rocket belt in his garden shed to bringing people to account who've cheated or misled others no day is the same.

Every day and every film brings something new. A place I've never been, a person I've never met and perhaps a topic I've never considered.

It's thought provoking, it's local, it's serious, it's fun. It's a glorious mixture of people and places from here in the South.

I can't think of a better team to work for.

It really is quite a coup (please refer to starting pigeon analogy)!