3PM: 24 Hours in the Life of 5 live

I'd heard a story about a mother of a British soldier killed in Afghanistan who is facing eviction because her benefits have been withdrawn. She'd spoken to BBC Midlands Today, and I needed to get hold of the audio from the tape. After a chat with the BBC network bureau in Birmingham I tracked it down and spent the rest of the day chasing up ideas of my own.

There was a briefing the following afternoon about next year's Birmingham City Council budget I wanted to get to. It's the largest authority in the UK, so whatever they have to say is important, and I called the council press office to say I'd like to attend. They said the briefing is for 'local' media only. I pointed out that 5 live and Radio 4 (for whom I also work) has a joint audience of half a million people in the West Midlands - or one person in five. There is a point of principle at stake here, and after several long 'conversations' the head of the press office agreed to mull over the decision and let me know (ed note: 5 live's Bob Walker ended up going to the press conference). All very frustrating.

While filling up my car with petrol on the Hagley Road, my phone rang: "Can you go to Cairo? It looks as though President Mubarak will resign."

I had 45 minutes to pack, make arrangements for childcare, let my wife know, and get to Heathrow where I met up with Peter Allen and producer Hasit Shah. It was a plane full of reporters - John Simpson, George Alagiah and Jon Snow were all on the flight, but it turned out the president hadn't quite gone.

Peter, Hasit and I spent the flight trying to plan exactly what we had to do when we hit the ground the next day. But a five hour flight became a nine hour flight with four hours on the tarmac in Athens, because of the Cairo curfew. We tried (and failed) to get some sleep.

We landed at 10am local time, driving past the tanks and burnt out buildings along empty boulevards into the city centre. After checking on the latest security situation with the BBC Bureau, we dumped our bags at the hotel and went straight to Tahrir Square, the centre of the anti-Mubarak protests. And it was busy.

There were army checkpoints with tanks and barbed wire, and then another checkpoint, manned by protestors who frisked us for weapons and checked our ID. At that moment, the BBC was popular with one side and tolerated by the other. It isn't always the way and a crowd of this size can turn quickly. By two, we had some interviews and tried to find somewhere to broadcast from. None of our kit worked in the empty flat that the BBC was using for TV lives overlooking the square and we couldn't safely broadcast from inside the square with that many people there. We began a three hour, increasingly frantic, search for a live location.

Eventually we had to locate back to Zamalek, across the river Nile from Tahrir Square. It wasn't ideal but it was the only option. Peter, Hasit and I were frustrated and tired. Fifteen minutes before we were due to "go live" our satellite broke. I decided not to tell Peter, and tracked down Cairo correspondent Jon Leyne who let us have his. With just two minutes to go until Drive started, we finally had a line and were through to the studios in London.

By now, it was six o'clock local time. While Peter chatted to his co-presenter Aasmah Mir back in London, the vice president appeared on State TV. I heard a shout and ran next door. One of the BBC's Egyptian producers was yelling. "He's gone, he's gone". Hasit and Jon Leyne confirmed that President Mubarak had stepped down and Peter (the regime changer) broke the news on air immediately. We ran outside and headed back to the now jubilant crowds of Tahrir Square.

Everywhere flags were flying, people cheered and horns were blasting. The traffic had stopped at one of the bridges, so we jumped out and ran the rest of the way to Tahrir Square. Peter and Hasit went in one direction and Yolande Knell from BBC News online and I ran in another. For the next two and a half hours, every time any of us could get a phone signal we went through to the studio for live updates. When not on air - I was recording interviews and taking photos.

We were in the middle of history here. The people were exuberant and euphoric. Smiling, happy Egyptians kept coming up and telling us they were free. But there was no time to pause. Peter still had to do the Livesey and Up All Night programmes. I had to edit and send all the audio I gathered for Breakfast. I suddenly realised I hadn't had any liquids for the last eight hours. I found a bottle of water and downed it in one.

Sleep came at one o'clock in the morning. But we were up and out again at 7 to report the latest for Breakfast. Two more news specials on Saturday Edition, and so it went on. It was a long day - a 36 hour shift followed by a 15 hour one across two countries. But, as Peter pointed out to me, this is what we live for.

Related Links

Check out the time-lapse video of the 5 live newsroom

Read the first blog entry for 24 Hours in the Life of 5 live by Breakfast's Chris Hunter

Read 5 live travel presenter Nick Duncalf's blog post

Read Rachel's blog about working on Your Call

Read Jonathan's post about the Derbyshire programme

Read Rabiya's blog about working on Logan

Read Alice's blog about Bacon

Phil Mackie is 5 live's West Midlands reporter