It’s been just over a year since I joined the BBC through the Extend scheme. For my initial six-month placement, I worked on The One Show as a researcher, and while I had previous experience as a production runner, I knew I had a lot to learn as I started my first day.
Thankfully, my new colleagues made me feel very welcome and I quickly settled into the Cardiff-based unit that makes films about the arts, history and food for the show. More often than not, a film we shot one week would be broadcast to millions of viewers the next, which was hugely rewarding… if at times slightly scary!
A few weeks before my contract was up in March, I spotted an internal job advert for a researcher on the BBC Proms television team. I knew instantly I wanted to apply, as I have a music degree and continue to perform and write classical music alongside working in TV.
I sent off my application, received an invitation to interview, and was thrilled when they offered me the job. I could now apply the new skills I had learnt on the One Show to a subject area I was already really passionate about, and help bring the best of the world’s greatest classical music festival to audiences far beyond the Royal Albert Hall.
And as if that wasn’t exciting enough, there was another huge surprise in store when I started there in the summer. Two days in, the executive producer took me to one side and revealed she had seen some presenting work I had done online prior to joining the BBC. She offered me a screen test, which went well, I guess, as on 6 August at 7.30pm I made my BBC Proms presenting debut alongside Clemency Burton-Hill.
The live, two and half-hour broadcast on BBC iPlayer was the perfect way to top off my first year in this amazing organisation, and I realise now they weren’t joking when they told me on my first day that "anything is possible" at the BBC.
Since then, I’ve had more brilliant opportunities come my way. Last month, I joined a group of CBBC presenters at the Skills Show in Birmingham’s huge NEC, to host a series of talks, games and quizzes on the main stage. This was a great way to give something back, by encouraging others considering their future career options to join the BBC and follow their dreams.
You can watch Lloyd’s latest onscreen appearance when he joined Josie D’Arby and singing star Julian Ovenden to present Choir of the Year on BBC Four earlier this month.
