03 April 2008

A grand day out plus illness

It's been an odd week.

On Tuesday, my legs decided to swell up to unusual and grotesque proportions. A trip to the GP was required next day. The net result was an evening trip to A&E on suspicion of a DVT. Long story short - no DVT but possibly kidney problems.

Despite my crap health, I jumped on a train today as planned and headed to London to do telly. The OH was outraged, as he'd been expecting me to go for a kidney scan today. But you can't keep a good hack down - even though I felt like I might puke at any moment, looked like shit and could barely waddle let alone walk, the story was more important. And this time I was part of it.

Thus it was that I entered the hallowed doors of TV Centre at midday. Only one thing could have excited me more - walking on to the EastEnders set at Elstree. The place is massive - a veritable rabbit warren of corridors populated by blokes with goatees, jeans and trainers. I drank some of the legendary BBC tea, which was bright orange and tasted fucking awful. I heard some very scurrilous gossip about a couple of household names and was disappointed not to spot Jonathan Ross or any other slebs in the bar after filming.

But, I did get to see how news programmes are made, which was interesting although how anyone can watch 30 screens at once in the director's gallery is beyond me. I did the green room for about 10 seconds before filming, had my make-up done and generally managed not to fluff my rant to camera. Afterwards, we retired to the bar for an "editorial meeting" (for which read several rounds of alcohol). As a hack who's only ever worked in print or online, my eyes were seriously opened to TV - the politicking I heard of is unbelievable (it makes print look like a walk in the park), not to mention all the petty budget squabbles and fights over job titles. So - now you know how your licence fee gets spent. To be fair, there are good people employed there who are doing the best they can under difficult circumstances and I was pleased to meet some of them today. The whole experience was a real eye-opener.

After the "hospitality" (cough), it was time to head home. Tomorrow means proper work again (I can't believe I gave up a whole day's work for 4 minutes' airtime, but needs must!). I arrived back to 139 emails, 66 RSS feeds demanding to be read and (eep!) over 200 posts on my favourite forum. And I haven't looked at Facebook yet!

6 comments:

Anne Brooke said...

You're a TV star!!! Well done you!

Sorry to hear about health problems though - hope all sorted soon ...

Hugs & stuff

A
xxx

Unknown said...

Star I think not. I'll be on screen for about 3 minutes on a minority channel! But I forgot to add that filming took place in the Newsnight studio and I got to sit in Jeremy Paxman's chair!

Anne Brooke said...

Jeremy Paxman's chair!!! Hope he was wearing decent undergarments ...

==:O

A
xxx

Unknown said...

There was no sign of Paxo Pants, only the Newsnight furniture stacked in a corner with a dust sheet over it until it was time to get it out for the Newsnight studio set.

Juliet said...

Ooh er, you sat in Paxman's very chair?!?! People will be wanting to shake your bottom . . . or something!

Wot larks!

Unknown said...

it was a hoot. Despite feeling very unwell, it was the most fun day out I've had in a long time. Especially when I won the debate. Clip going up on YouTube at some point soon.