Danny Baker is in reception...
Post categories: Danny Baker, presenters
|15:16 UK time, Tuesday, 8 September 2009
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I'm sitting in our studio 15 minutes before the first Danny Baker Show of the new season - and there's no sign of Danny. Now Dan likes to surprise his audience. In fact he believes it's his duty. But surprising his producer like this is a new and unwelcome development. The production crew are poised, the theme tunes are loaded, the phones are manned, the Red Button studio cameras are on, his favourite pirate hat with dangling dreadlocks is ready to be worn... but still there's no Danny.
So why not phone him? Well Danny is that rare thing in the 21st Century, a media man with no phone. It's not a tech aversion. He's taken a stand against joining the ranks of the constantly bothered. So now it's 12 minutes to showtime and we haven't a clue where he is. In the producer's seat, I've passed through the anxious phase and have entered the super-calm you feel before something very bad is about to happen.
I formulate a Plan B. Co-presenter Issy Clarke can open the show with a sound effect of tumbleweed before inviting the nation to create the brand new sport of 'Danny Spotting'. Broadcasting history will be made as we become the first 5 live show named after a star who didn't turn up on day one. Then - behold! At precisely 10 minutes to transmission the door bursts open and there's Danny in a flurry of chatter and silly hats.
Having battled with trains (both cancelled and late) and two taxis. He was then held in BBC reception for twenty minutes as he didn't have a security pass. Finally he was able to strike a deal with the door staff. If they agreed to let him into the building on a visitor pass to do the Danny Baker Show which was starting in 10 minutes, and it was later discovered that he wasn't really Danny Baker, they could come up to the studio and physically remove him from behind the mic. And with negotiations over, he was freed to put on his hat and headphones while I packed away the tumbleweed.
Clare Davison is Producer of the Danny Baker Show
- Listen again to Saturday's Danny Baker Show, the first in the new series (and you've got until January 2010 to listen because the show is part of BBC Audio & Music's 'series catchup trial').
- Subscribe to the Danny Baker Show podcast (the whole show, in two parts).
Comment number 1.
At 18:36 9th Sep 2009, carrie wrote:Considering all the "stars" of Strictly Come Dancing get a limo to take them back and forth, and even news researchers get a cab to pick them up if the shifts are a bit early or late, couldn't your budget stretch to one of your contract cabs? And isn't it your fault for not issuing ID for him? Even though they should have known who he is, the jobsworths always have their day .............I blame you Clare, for frightening yourself.
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