Editor's note: Radio 4 Extra presents, Chasing New Year, following Midnight as it happens around the globe, in real time. Chasing New Year starts at 10.00am on 31 December and ends on New Years Day at 10:00am. (AI)
World Clocks - Elvis image
As the 4 Extra team scratched its collective head over its Christmas and New Year plans, my colleague Luke Doran piped up: why don't we follow midnight around the globe, in real time, broadcasting programmes that reflect different parts of the world as they celebrate the arrival of 2013?
Inspired! Audacious! Or just plain loopy?
The BBC works in mysterious ways at times and, somehow, it fell to me to put a schedule together covering twenty-five and a half hours. And it's been a voyage of discovery on so many fronts.
While we were boldly going where 4 Extra has not gone before (tossing the usual schedule out of the window for 25 and a half hours), we still wanted to retain the network's mix of the best comedy, drama, entertainment and features from across the years - and at the same time produce a day and a bit of varied, stimulating and entertaining radio.
Time was of the essence (in more ways than one). Some ideas had to be rejected as copyright could not be cleared; strange as it may seem, just because the BBC has broadcast a programme, it doesn't always automatically have the right to broadcast it again. Compromises had to be made: I'm disappointed that Africa isn't better represented and breakfast time on New Year's Day has turned into something of an America-fest.
However, we have unearthed some rarely-heard gems - such as the late Johnny Morris musing on a jaunt around the Pacific and Michael Bakewell's play about Lewis Carroll's only ever trip abroad. 39 individual programmes will be making 4 extra débuts during this period.
Fitting relevant programmes into their time zones (and accommodating the many quirks of same) has been both fun and challenging. For example, Chasing New Year features a play set in Antarctica - but to most of the world that continent is a time zone-free area and the various research stations have each adopted their own times.
We've a comedy with a Venezuelan connection - in 2007 President Chavez declared that his country would have its own unique time zone. There's a drama set in Shanghai - despite its vastness, China has only the one zone. And the aforementioned Johnny Morris visited Samoa which last year "crossed" the International Date Line and lost a day in the process! And please don’t get me started on the vagaries of Daylight Saving Time...
Have you spent New Year's Eve anywhere unlikely? Maybe crossing the International Date Line? Do let us know below. But you can travel the world and see in 2013 without leaving your armchair thanks to Chasing New Year, starting at 10am on 31 December on Radio 4 Extra.
