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Today reporter, Nicola Stanbridge writes from Newcastle upon Tyne.
Dan Savage is an artist. Quite a complicated one. He told me about his latest project, which involved building up layered panels of printed glass to create a picture of our fragmented past and industrial heritage. I nodded sagely. With this idea in mind, he wanted to become our second people’s reporter. He said that his piece would be about art, the North East, shipbuilding history and more. I said that I didn’t know how layered glass would come across on the radio.
BBC News and Sport is on tour this summer (next stop Anglesey, Ynys Mon, August 9-10). As part of our summer outings we’re making it possible for listeners of the Today Programme to report on a story they think is newsworthy. We provide the equipment and one of our stable of reporters to help. On 27th July, the BBC was in Newcastle, at the Tall Ships race. I would be the reporter on hand to help.
On the previous Saturday’s programme I had been asked to explain the idea of the people’s reporter, to encourage listeners to get involved. It hadn’t gone too well.
Presenter Tim Franks (and boy, is he in trouble) said,
“Email us your suggestions and win Nicola for the day!”
John Humphrys (and he should know better) asked,
“Well, are you available?”
I know many of our listeners would like to be chatted up by John, but instead I found the blood draining from my body at the prospect of entering into some live x-rated chat with the Master of Radio 4. We laughed our way out of the quandary…
Anyway, the emails came rolling in. There were science ideas, and archaeology projects to be covered, but not wanting to take the easy option I was drawn to Dan’s panelled glass idea like a moth to a blowtorch.
“Hi Dan… is there a news story in glass?”
“There’s a gallery, a symposium, and a break dancer artist is involved”
I worried.
I called Dan’s lecturer at the University of Sunderland. He recommended a shipbuilding art project, but it didn’t involve glass, could Dan forget the glass? Dan called me a few more times to suggest ways we could put the glass into the piece …
The lecturer knew about a ‘Ghost ship’ coming into Newcastle as part of the Tall Ships race, on the very Thursday we wanted to broadcast a piece. Still a bit odd, but now we had a news story. It was the maiden voyage of a crewless, self-navigating 28-foot ship, an engineering and artistic project by Chris Burden. We could combine ideas about shipbuilding in the North East in an artistic way. Dan compromised, and agreed to cover the event.
So we met in Newcastle. The News on tour site over looked the Tyne, that day decorated with the Tall Ships resting mid-race. We were told our Ghost ship was due mid-afternoon, maybe around 3pm. We headed to our meeting point in North Shields, and waited. It was a blowy, blue sky day and we sat by Fish Quay eating fish and chips. Dan wrote some lines setting the scene, preparing some questions for when the artist and designer of the ship arrived.
I put in regular calls to find out where our ship was. I began to wear out my worried expression. 5pm and still no ship. Then came an ominous-sounding message: “It’s struggling in calm waters.”
We waited.
Dan practised on the microphone he was going to use to record the interview. The web producer who’d come along on the trip to see the people’s reporter in action (and take some excellent photos for our web site) called her sister-in-law to come over with her four children to pass the time and provide some entertainment.
The children ate fish and chips, and also practised on the microphone. The seven-year-old Julia in particular was scarily impressive. Watch out for her in the future, Mr Humphrys.
Waiting harbourside for so long, we all got wind burn. Which didn’t help.
Dan’s girlfriend turned up, and asked if they could call the whole thing off, because they had a night out planned. I nearly lost it. But as all reporters learn to do with their social lives, Dan compromised, took his girlfriend off for dinner and promised to return.
At 7.30pm, amid the gathering of little sail boats, we spotted a crewless 28-footer, with a trawler following behind. The computers, on board censors and global positioning technology had finally, finally, finally brought our ship billowing into the harbour at the mouth of the Tyne in North Shields.
I called Dan. Good as his word, he came running.
Well that’s all from me... Over to Dan if you want to know what happened next. You can hear his report again.
Find out more about becoming a people’s reporter.
Find out more about Dan and his glass fragmented past.
Nicola.
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