a

03.08.10 Week 31
a
explore.gateway.bbc.co.uk/ariel
The BBC Newspaper
Ways to
entertain the
the kids in
the holidays
Page 7
PATRICK OLNER
cymru culture
Welsh druid Angharad
Lisabeth Rees shares a joke
with Radio Cymru’s Nia Lloyd
Jones at the Eisteddfod. Full
story on the coverage of a
very special cultural event
Page 4
Trust finds improved
reporting of devolution
across News Page 2
Salmon will live ‘above
shop’ before full move
to Salford Page 3
Teams behind top
investigations explain
how it’s done Pages 8-9
> NEWS 2-4 PROFILE 5 MAIL 11 JOBS 14 GREEN ROOM 16

16 2 News
a 00·00·08 03·08·10
aRoom 2316, White City
201 Wood Lane, London W12 7TS
020 8008 4228
Editor
Candida Watson 02-84222
Deputy Editor
Cathy Loughran 02-27360
Chief Writer
Sally Hillier 02-26877
Planning Manager
Clare Bolt 02-24622
Broadcast Journalists
Claire Barrett 02-27368
Adam Bambury 02-27410
Lisette Johnston 02-27630
Rumeana Jahangir 01 -43756
Carla Parks 02-84228
AV Manager
Peter Roach 02-24622
Digital Design Executives
David Murray 02-27380
Gary Lonergan 02-84229
Team Assistant
Harriet Roche 02-81038
Guest contributors this week
Jo Kim, pronunciation linguist, on
the thorny questions about correct
ways of saying things which make up
her day Page 14
Ariel mail
Candida. Watson@bbc.co.uk
Ariel online explore.gateway.bbc.uk/ariel
BBC Jobs 0370 333 1330
Jobs textphone 028 9032 8478
BBC Jobs John Clarke 02-27143
Room 2120, White City, London W12 7TS
Advertise in Ariel
Ten Alps Media 020 7878 2313
www.bbcarielads.com
Printing
Garnett Dickinson Group
Rotherham 01709 768000
Subscribe to Ariel
Six months: £26, £36, £40
Twelve months: £50, £60, £68
(prices for UK, Europe, rest of world
respectively)
Cheques to: Garnett Dickinson Print,
Brookfields Way, Manvers,
Wath Upon Dearne, Rotherham S63 5DL
Tel 0161 485 6540
INFORMATION IN AN EMERGENCY
Telephone 0800 0688 159
Ceefax Page 159 www.bbc.co.uk/159
Ariel is produced by Internal
Communications for people at the BBC
PLEASE RECYCLE YOUR COPY OF ARIEL
Better reporting of
devolved nations
by Candida Watson
The BBC Trust says ‘real progress has been
made’ in news coverage of the politics of devolution
across network output.
The trust commissioned a follow-up survey
two years after Anthony King’s critical report
on network reporting of devolution issues.
King said BBC News was too ‘London-centric’,
with coverage of politics in Scotland, Wales and
Northern Ireland too often seen through Westminster
eyes, and a general tendency to use ‘the
UK’, ‘Britain’ and ‘England’ interchangeably.
Cardiff University monitored news output
last October and November. Their study found:
• significant increase in the proportion of news
items about the devolved nations on BBC tv and
in BBC tv reporting from the devolved nations;
• the proportion of news stories referring to devolved
powers almost doubled in BBC output;
• the number of references to devolved powers
increased almost sevenfold from 71 to 480;
• double the number of news stories comparing
devolved powers of the different nations.
It found that other broadcasters are doing
much less than the BBC, and in some cases coverage
of devolved issues is actually down on 2007.
Nonetheless the trust said some network news
journalists still aren’t making it absolutely clear
which devolved issues affect which parts of the
UK. It said it was ‘looking to the executive for
speedy improvement here’.
The survey also found that in some subject areas
there is still a preponderance of stories about
England. Over the survey period every story about
business, the arts and policing on network output
related only to England. Researchers also
found that the problem of reporting issues that
applied only to England, or England and Wales,
was made more difficult because English institutions
and Westminster-based political parties often
announced things without making it clear
which areas of the UK they would apply to.
Helen Boaden, director of News, said: ‘People
across News have worked very hard to improve
our journalism in this area. We have had
generous help and advice along the way from
colleagues in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
and although I think there is still work to be
done, it’s great to get this positive feedback.’
From now on new editorial leaders in news and
current affairs will all attend a special workshop
on devolution matters, and all new network editors
will spend at least one week in a newsroom
in one of the devolved nations and in an English
region, within 12 months of starting their jobs.
Other changes include adding a daily ‘devolution
reminder’ to programme running orders
Holyrood – home of Scottish politics
in the newsroom computer system, and building
on the links developed with nations and regions
during the election campaign.
The BBC executive expressed reservations
about one aspect of the analysis, saying it ‘gives
more weight to quantity than quality’, adding:
‘UK-wide programmes .. have to judge the
strength of a devolution story relative to events
elsewhere in the world. It is important that
content analysis takes account of this.’
Tait leaves trust on a high
by Cathy Loughran
FOR LONG-SERVING BBC trustee
and former governor Richard
Tait, the progress made
on reporting the nations is a
positive note on which to bow
out, after a torrid few years in
charge of editorial standards.
Queengate, bogus competitions,
quickly followed by the
Ross/Brand debacle, took him
away from his other life as
chair of journalism at Cardiff
University more than he’d bargained
for.
Last week’s findings reflected
the work BBC managers
had put into addressing an
industry-wide problem, Tait
said: ‘I’m pleased to be able to
leave, saying how well I think
BBC journalism is doing.
‘What I’ve enjoyed most has
been working with the broader
community of BBC journalists.
I’ve great admiration for
the vast majority of their output.
It’s in very good shape.’
A former BBC Newsnight editor
and ITN editor-in-chief,
Tait was a respected leader of
the trust’s post mortems into
the fakery scandals of 2007
and Ross/Brand a year later. He
says there is merit in ‘never
wasting a good crisis’.
‘The organisation is immensely
stronger for its capacity
to learn, instead of being
in corporate denial, and you
can see that reflected in public
trust ratings.’
Had the BBC put those
breaches behind it? Tait, who
became a BBC governor in the
aftermath of the Hutton inquiry,
has no doubt: ‘Look at
where the BBC was after Hutton
and where it is now. Ross/
Brand was a bad affair, but it
was rapidly dealt with.’
He stands by his committee’s
controversial censuring
last year of Middle East editor
Jeremy Bowen over two reports
on Israel: ‘I make no apology
for what I said about those
two pieces – they were judged
on the same criteria as all BBC
journalism. But there is no
suggestion that the BBC is reporting
the Middle East without
impartiality…and I have
every confidence in Jeremy as
a fine Middle East editor.’
He was confident that the
under-pressure trust would
survive at least until the end
of the current charter period
and, despite its critics, was a
better system than most: ‘I’ve
worked under all sorts of regulators
and I don’t think I ever
felt they really got my concerns,
as a programme maker.
At trust meetings with
the executive, there were, of
course, differences of opinion,
but common commitment to
what the BBC stands for. I’ll
miss that,’ says Tait, who will
be returning full time to his
academic role.
He is replaced on the trust by
Richard Ayre, a former deputy
chief executive of BBC News.
The former Home Secretary
Jacqui Smith is also hoping
to find a place on the
trust. Smith, who lost her parliamentary
seat in the recent
election, has applied for the
job of vice-chairman. The position
pays £77,000 a year for
a two-and-a-half-day week. The
present incumbent, Chitra
Bharucha, is stepping down at
the end of October.
News bites
TOM STOPPARD returns to British tv
after 20 years with his five-hour adaptation
for BBC Two of Ford Maddox
Ford’s Edwardian saga Parade’s
End. Directed by Bafta winning Susanna
White, the series will be made
by Mammoth Screen through BBC
Wales Drama.
MICHAEL HILL has been appointed
managing director of Radioplayer,
the joint project between the BBC
and commercial radio to develop an
online radio console. Hill, who has
been managing editor at 5 live and
interactive editor at BBC Audio and
Music, has led the project since last
May.
THE VISION FORUM in September will
be showcasing short-form online content
and exceptional multiplatform
work. Nominations are invited for
the best short-form clips published
on bbc.co.uk since January 2010.
Closing date for entries is Friday August
27. Find more details at
http://tinyurl.com/visionforumshort
BBC TWO DAYTIME has commissioned
a new factual series, Royal Upstairs
Downstairs, which looks at the
many different homes Queen Victoria
visited during her long reign.
Presenters Tim Wonnacott and Rosemary
Shrager will examine every aspect
of the visit, from the entertainment
to the vast amounts of food.
PROMS IN THE PARK tickets are now
available from the BBC shop in TV
Centre. The price to staff is £25 each,
a reduction of £5, and anyone buying
seven tickets will get an eighth free.
Proms in the Park is on September 11,
the Last Night of the Proms.
RADIO MERSEYSIDE-BASED production
accountant Ian Loxley has scored
one of the top ten professional exam
results worldwide. Revising on holiday
and fitting in study around work
commitments clearly paid off in the
CIMA (Chartered Institute of Management
Accountants) examinations.
Radio 3 is ‘reviewing the situation’
after a Russian pianist who is due to
conduct a Prom concert was charged
in Thailand with raping a boy. Mikhail
Pletnev is scheduled to conduct the
Russian National Orchestra at the
Royal Albert Hall on August 18.
THE HOUSE of Lords communications
committee is looking into the regulation
of tv advertising. The committee
will look at proposed regulatory
changes, and examine how much the
recent decline in advertising was due
to the recession, and how much to
competition from the internet.
The chief executive of Welsh-language
television channel S4C, Iona
Jones, has left her post after a meeting
of the S4C authority. Jones was
the first woman in the role.
Next Monday cyclists can get assistance
and advice on maintenance and
security from a Bike Doctor and the
Police at the White City Media Village,
between 9-4.30.
> ARIEL ONLINE: BBC NEWS AS IT HAPPENS – EXPLORE.GATEWAY.BBC.CO.UK/ARIEL

a 03·08·10 News 3
Salmon ‘more committed to north than ever’
by Cathy Loughran
Peter Salmon has defended his decision
to delay a full move to Salford,
in the face of external and internal
criticism.
A barrage of press reports over
the last week have painted as hypocritical
his decision to initially rent a
second home in Salford Quays rather
than move his entire family from
south west London, at what is a critical
educational stage for some of his
six children.
From the start, Salmon brought
his trademark enthusiasm to the
BBC North project, as its director
and most passionate champion. So
for some Salford movers, the news
that he was taking up the option to
rent in the North West, while keeping
a main home in London was evidence
of a ‘disconnect’ between
management and staff.
Salmon insists his choice does
not mean he is any less dedicated,
he told Ariel: ‘If anything, I’m more
committed than ever.’
He would make the move at some
time, he said, and at his own expense,
waiving the £8000 relocation
support to which he would be
entitled. Under the BBC’s three optional
relocation packages, anyone
choosing to rent first in Salford can
claim an allowance of up to £1900 a
month, for a maximum of two years
[taxable].
Was he worried about the message
he was sending to BBC North
colleagues? Salmon was ‘sanguine’
about that: ‘Whatever I did would
have gone down badly with some
people.
‘Imagine if I’d moved to a leafy estate
in the north of England, with
help from the licence fee towards the
cost of the move…In the current climate
and mischief making around
the BBC, that would have gone down
badly, especially given whom I’m
married to.’ Salmon’s wife is actress
Sarah Lancashire.
Salmon admits he has his ‘detractors’,
both inside and outside the organisation,
but said he’d also had
‘supportive and insightful’ messages
from colleagues who also work flexibly.
Radio 5 live sbj Adam Cumiskey,
who has decided not to move north
with the station, agrees that ‘everyone
has to make their own decision.
But there is a danger that the BBC
comes across as an organisation that
demands more of its staff than of its
managers’, he told Ariel.
‘There seems to be a growing disconnect
between management and
staff, which is unfortunate in any
organisation, but especially one in
which people are being asked to relocate,
there’s a pay freeze and an attack
on pensions.’
A colleague from FM&T, whose
job is also moving to MediaCity UK,
thought the wrong message was being
sent out: ‘It should so clearly
have been a prerequisite of the post
that the director of BBC North relocate.
You either lead from the front
and by example, or you don’t,’ he
said.
Of other BBC execs whose divisions
are moving, Radio 5 live controller
Adrian van Klaveren has said
he too will rent accommodation for
the first two years, to avoid disrupting
his children’s education, and review
the situation after that time,
making any new arrangements at
his own cost.
As both commissioner and head
of religion and ethics, Aaqil Ahmed
will split his time between Manchester
and London. Joe Godwin, director
of Children’s, and Saul Nasse, controller
of Learning, will both be moving
to Salford and purchasing properties.
Richard Deverell, BBC North’s
chief operating officer, and head of
BBC Sport Barbara Slater have still to
make a final decision on whether to
rent or buy.
People due to move in 2011 will
start learning of their relocation
dates this autumn and must choose
their relocation support package six
months before the move.
Breakfast stars and staff still deciding whether they will move north
Reports of his early retirement,
prompted by news of BBC Breakfast’s
move to Salford, are ‘greatly
exaggerated’, says the programme’s
long-serving presenter Bill Turnbull.
In response to weekend press
speculation along those lines, he
tweeted: ‘Not so. I’m just a bit shy,
that’s all.’
Along with more than 80 Breakfast
colleagues, he has a minimum of six
months – the deadline could be extended
– to decide whether to relocate.
With children at university, he
says his decision will personally concern
only his wife and himself.
But Turnbull also has concerns
about the inevitable loss of some
of the current team, and ‘the very
big question’ of getting ‘bottoms on
the sofa’, so far from London: ‘We’d
just have to design a different programme,’
he told Ariel.
‘What concerns me is that there
is a Breakfast mindset, where people
understand what resonates with
the audience – why we’ve been so
successful over the last few years.’
He added: ‘No one on the shop
floor is under any illusion about
how difficult this is going to be. And
interesting too. Can it be done?’
He shares the view of co-presenter
Sian Williams that people’s uncertainty
about moving is not – as
some papers make out – due to any
aversion to the north.
A mother of four, with one child
mid-A levels and a widowed father in
the South East, Williams has still to
make her decision.
‘If I had no ties it would be a
much easier decision to make,’ she
said. ‘I love the North West, I trained
in Liverpool and Manchester, worked
on North West Tonight and spent five
very happy years in the region. There
are lots of people to consult before I
make up my mind.’
Melas heading for big finale
Presenter loses
Bee2 wowing the crowd in Leeds
The London Mela is to have
its own Introducing stage
for the first time, giving new
Asian artists exposure to festival
crowds at the biggest
Asian live music event in the
UK.
After the success of the
Leeds Asian Festival and the
East London Mela over the
weekend, the Cardiff and
London events this month
are the last of the 11 Melas
that the Asian Network has
covered since June. Taking
place on August 8 in Gunnersbury
Park, the London
Mela is a key point in the UK
Asian music calendar.
‘It’s the nearest thing the
Asian music scene in Britain
has to a Glastonbury or Notting
Hill Carnival,’ says Asian
Network presenter Bobby
Friction, who presents the
station’s Introducing show.
He will be compering the
stage and has picked a suitably
eclectic but crowd-pleasing
line-up, like upcoming
dance producer and rapper
RKZ.
Introducing has had a
growing presence at festivals
since its first stage at Glastonbury
in 2007. Editor Jason
Carter says it is ‘part of the
evolution’ of the brand, and
will also extend its reach.
‘We have over 35 Introducing
local radio shows. They
are, on the whole, leaning
towards guitar and rock music.
That’s great, but we want
to make sure we’re as broad
as we can be.’
tribunal case
A former sports presenter for
BBC Northern Ireland has lost
an industrial tribunal against
the BBC.
Jerome Quinn specialised in
Gaelic sports coverage on BBC
NI for 17 years, but was sacked
for gross misconduct last year.
He had been posting anonymously
on an internet forum,
criticising colleagues, Northern
Irish sports people and the
BBC’s coverage of Gaelic football
and hurling.
Quinn took the BBC to a tribunal,
alleging unfair dismissal
and race and religious discrimination,
on the grounds
that he is an Irish Catholic.
His case was heard in May,
when he told the tribunal he
received ‘less favourable treatment
than if I was a Protestant,
British and not associated with
the GAA’ [Gaelic Athletics Association].
The BBC denied the allegations,
and said Quinn had
been using his work computer
to criticise his employers
and colleagues for more than
two years. The BBC said the decision
to sack Quinn was ‘not
taken lightly’.
Last week the tribunal in
Belfast dismissed his claims
‘in their entirety.’ The tribunal
said it found Quinn a ‘less
than satisfactory witness’ who
had been ‘disingenuous’ in his
evidence. Since Quinn accepted
that his internet comments
were ‘a serious error’, the tribunal
felt the BBC had very little
option other than to dismiss
him.

4 News
Balding
complains to
PCC about
name calling
Clare Balding has complained to
the Press Complaints Commission
about a letter she received from
the editor of the Sunday Times
after she wrote to him over being
called a ‘dyke’ in an article by critic
AA Gill.
Balding initially complained to
John Witherow after Gill reviewed
her new BBC Four programme
Britain by Bike. In his reply to her
Witherow wrote: ‘In my view some
members of the gay community
need to stop regarding themselves
as having a special victim status...’
and went on to equate Gill’s remarks
with people making fun of
Jeremy Clarkson’s dress sense and
behaviour. Clarkson is also a Sunday
Times columnist.
Balding told Ariel: ‘I expect a
certain level of responsibility from
the Sunday Times and I don’t expect
even the Sun to use the word
dyke. I object to the use of a person’s
sexuality in a story that is
nothing to do with it.’
She added: ‘I have nothing
against Jeremy Clarkson, I like
him – but I do resent the comparison.
This is not the same. It makes
it seem that it’s ok to call people
names based on their sexuality.’
In fact, Balding is most upset for
those with a lower public profile
than herself, who don’t feel able to
complain about being abused for
their sexuality. She said: ‘I’m not
saying there should be one rule for
me, I think it should be the same for
everyone.’
She hopes the PCC will rule on
her complaint within the month.
Let the valleys ring with
the celebration of Wales
by Lisette Johnston
It is the biggest festival in Wales,
and during its eight day run at Ebbw
Vale the National Eisteddfod will be
appearing across all platforms of
BBC Wales as it celebrates all that is
Welsh.
A travelling festival, the Eisteddfod
visits areas in north and south
Wales alternately. It attracts around
160,000 visitors and has a history going
back almost 1000 years. The 2010
event is being held in Ebbw Vale in
south Wales, which is a predominantly
English speaking area.
The festival is taking place on the
site of the town’s former steelworks.
The area has been transformed, with
a huge pavilion, stages, stalls, a food
court and even a beach area for visitors
to enjoy. But the sense of history
is still there, with the festival’s arts
and crafts chamber set up in underground
chambers which once housed
the steel smelting pits.
As a place where Welsh culture
and language are celebrated across
many different genres, from literature,
music, dance, poetry, theatre
to visual arts, technology and even a
foam party, it is a challenging event
for the BBC to cover. And while the
festival only lasts a week, the preparatory
work has taken three months
with many crew working onsite for
up to four weeks beforehand.
Onsite there are four editing
suites, three radio studios and the
crew has 19 cameras.
BBC Cymru Wales’ coverage includes
all the main Eisteddfod programmes
on S4C and S4C2, extensive
Radio Cymru and Radio Wales
programming and dedicated online
coverage.
‘Because of our cultural remit it is
hugely important that the BBC gives
Eisteddfod due respect. It is a manifestation
of everything that is important
about Wales and its culture and
language,’ explains Ynyr Williams,
executive producer, BBC Wales.
‘There is huge excitement, because
this is a major operation and there is
so much output, but it is fantastic to
see everything coming together and
everyone gets stuck in.’
Among the team working on site
is BBC Wales’ Jason Mohammad, who
will be presenting in Welsh for the
first time.
The Eisteddfod is a clarion call for Welsh culture
He will work alongside presenter
Rhun ap Iorwerth on the main
evening highlights programme going
out nightly on S4C until next
weekend.
Mohammad, who went to an English
speaking school, studied Welsh
at university, and will introduce
items recorded on the festival Maes
a 03·08·10
during the day.
‘I’ve visited the Eisteddfod numerous
times,’ he says ‘And I’ve presented
from previous ones in English,
but this will be my first time presenting
in Welsh. I’m very honoured to
have been asked and I do see it as an
achievement. To be part of the Welsh
language coverage is very exciting.’
BBC Worldwide sets out to raise its game in India
by Cathy Loughran
India is featuring larger on BBC
Worldwide’s international radar than
ever before, with new investment
into BBC channels in the country
and the high profile appointment of
a director of channels for the region.
Darren Childs, MD of the company’s
channels business, used
an event BBCW hosted for David
Cameron’s delegation to India last
week to announce ‘significant’ extra
investment into CBeebies and BBC
Entertainment – available in India
since 2007.
The new money would enhance
content on the two channels and
also allow BBC Worldwide to explore
the feasibility of bringing other
channels to India. BBC World News
is already in 22m homes in India and
26m across South Asia.
‘India is a country which we believe
is a great fit for our channels,
with a large English speaking population,
good brand recognition and
a strong affinity with the UK,’ Childs
said.
‘We have identified India as a
tier one priority market and will be
actively investing to bring more
quality content and increasing distribution.
The Indian pay-tv market
already has significant scale and its
future potential for subscription and
advertising is exciting.’
With Worldwide’s mandate to focus
more of its business outside the
UK, the channels division – which
Deepak Shourie: high profile role
has launched 41 channels since
2006 – is key to the company’s target
of generating two thirds of its
sales from overseas business by
2012 (currently 55 percent), and India
is clearly prime territory.
The appointment as channels
director for South Asia of New Delhibased
Deepak Shourie – a former
executive president of the Hindustan
Times and CEO at Zee TV – signals
just that, Childs said.
Shourie comes to BBCW from
Discovery Communications India,
where he was executive vice president
and MD, and launched Discovery
Travel and Living in India and
brought the company into profit.
He would bring experience, but
also personal relationships to the
newly created role and enable
BBCW to ‘shift to the next stage of
growth for the channels business in
the region’.
Photograph: PATRICK OLNER
Trainees Step Up to the challenge of making the news
by Lisette Johnston
It can be daunting to go out in East
London and find a story, even more
so with little or no journalistic experience.
But that is what 30 Step Up trainees
were tasked with on their 12-week
course.
The scheme, run by the Academy
and BBC London, gives young people
access to the broadcasting industry
and radio, online and television journalism
experience.
It has been running in London for
20 years, but this year was introduced
in Scotland and is set to roll out in
Manchester.
Trainees developed their skills in
workshops one day a week, ending with
a production week where they created
content for BBC London. They were
each mentored by a BBC employee.
Glynn Ryland of the BBC Academy
said: ‘Step Up is a wonderful chance
for the BBC to share its multi-platform
training with a talented and diverse
group of people who are all passionate
about journalism.’
The trainees’ ‘brief’ was ‘Olympics
2012’, and their pitches were whittled
down to three stories which were made
for all platforms.
At a special showcase last week the
trainees ‘passed out’, with all the ‘graduates’
agreeing they felt the course
would help them progress in the industry.
‘I had not thought about journalism
though I wrote a blog, but I was
always on the BBC website looking at
sports stories and am very passionate
about sport,’ said Arun Mahey from
Peckham.
‘I learned radio and tv skills as well
as working online. And I worked on
radio for BBC Essex and BBC London
so it’s been a great opportunity. If it
hadn’t been for this course I would still
be working with my dad in his shop.’
Single mum Makeda Wilson juggled
taking part in the radio scheme with
an already busy schedule managing an
online magazine and presenting and
producing an online radio show.
‘This course has definitely brought
me more confidence. I know now that
I have all that I need to get a break in
the industry. It may take some time
and hard work but I’ll get there,’ she
explained.

a 03·08·10
Features 5
Art, film, literature, theatre -
must be The Culture Show
New editor of
BBC Two
programme tells
Ariel she has the
best job in arts
television
by Carla Parks
I’m one of those people who
thinks the shop window of Selfridges
qualifies as popular art, so you
can understand why I was a little
apprehensive about speaking to
the new editor of The Culture Show, a
woman I imagined was as comfortable
in the refined art world as I was
in Primark. But whatever I expected
of Janet Lee, she turned out to be
forthright, relaxed, chatty and unpretentious.
Yes, she knows a great
deal about galleries and what qualifies
as popular culture these days,
but she also values a good pedicure
on her day off.
Seven months into her job, Janet
declares unashamedly that it’s ‘the
best job in arts television’. The fortysomething
television executive took
over from Edward Morgan, who left
the weekly BBC Two arts programme
to head up the in-house college of
production. Her highlight so far is
the sheer amount of work her team
of 40 – split between its production
bases in London and Glasgow –
has delivered. They’ve managed to
make 49 films in one run of the series,
averaging seven items per show.
‘It’s great fun, but it’s relentless,’
she laughs. ‘It’s coming at you every
week and there is no respite.’
Despite cramming each show, inevitably
a great deal gets left out.
So how does she decide what makes
the cut? Janet humbly says that her
years of working in the arts – she
was previously commissioning editor
for arts at Channel 4 and, more
recently, executive editor of Imagine
– means that she has ‘a hunch’
about what’s going to create a stir.
These big things – whether an art
opening, theatre, books or even
films – are what Janet nicknames
her ‘blue-chip’ items and she likes to
have one in each programme. With
a proactive forward-planning team
to help, Janet thinks she fulfils her
brief – for The Culture Show ‘to set the
agenda as well as to follow it’.
But this doesn’t mean she always
gets what she wants. The editor’s
dream line-up is Apple’s CEO Steve
Jobs and senior vice president and
designer Jonathan Ive, who never
gives interviews. ‘There is no way
of infiltrating Apple. I’ve tried,’ she
explains ruefully. Lee believes that
The Culture Show is in a good place to
take advantage of new technology –
the average length of each segment
is seven minutes, perfect for mobiles
or YouTube – although she admits
that she is not a technological expert
but is ‘willing to learn’.
On the subject of learning, Janet
returns time and again to her belief
that The Culture Show under her
editorship needs to teach you something
you don’t already know. It’s
why she has gone for a team of experts
to present the programmes;
art historian and writer Andrew Graham-Dixon
is the main anchor.
(Lauren Laverne, who appeared regularly
under Morgan, has left to focus
on her radio show and new book.) In
the autumn Janet will be trying out
some new reporters, but she refuses
to name them.
Looking ahead to the Edinburgh
Festival, to which The Culture Show
traditionally decamps each August,
she has picked Edinburgh veteran
Sue Perkins to front three, onehour
specials. The comedian will
invite her contemporaries to recall
their comic debut at the Edinburgh
Fringe. Martin Creed’s retrospective
at The Fruitmarket Gallery,
called Down Over Up, will feature in
the first show; there will be something
on the National Theatre of
Scotland’s production of Caledonia;
and coverage of cabaret from the
Spiegeltent.
Of course, it’s hard to talk about
arts television without touching on
criticism from some quarters of the
press – The Culture Show, first shown
in November 2004, has in the past
been labelled shallow. ‘There is a
sense that everything was better in
the past, a kind of unthinking nostalgia,
but it’s not true,’ reflects Janet.
‘There have been some great arts
documentaries recently.’ She names
Andrew Graham-Dixon’s series for
BBC Four, The Art of Russia; Julian
Temple’s Requiem for Detroit; and Alan
Yentob’s profile of Diana Athill for
Imagine. She also adds that if there is
another wave of criticism she would
like to invite the detractors onto
The Culture Show and get them to debate
it.
Janet Lee
Born: St Mary’s Hospital, Manchester;
moved to London at 16.
Education: Went to night school in her
twenties and got two A levels. Degree in
Contemporary Culture Studies, Middlesex
Polytechnic.
First job: receptionist at Vidal Sassoon
(‘I had to quickly get rid of my northern
accent’).
What got her hooked on art:
Henri Matisse’s ‘The Snail’. ‘I was very
literal and I couldn’t understand why
this thing that looked like a collage of
different colours represented a snail.’
Also likes: Photography, particularly
William Eggleston, and Andreas Gursky.
A favourite artwork is a sculpture
called The Chapman Family Collection
(by the Chapman brothers), which is
‘an ironic take on primitive art’.
Unwinds with: yoga
Reading: A Kind of Intimacy by Jen
Ashworth, and she highly recommends
Barbara Demick’s non-fictional
account of North Korean immigrants,
Nothing to Envy.
What she wishes she’d known
growing up: ‘Children usually want
to fit in, to be like everyone else,
and I was the same. What you realise
as you get older is that many
of the most successful people are
not like everyone else and it’s their
bravery in daring to stand out that
has led to their success.’
On Alan Yentob: ‘I have the best
show in arts television, but don’t
tell Alan. I tell him what he should
be doing.’
If this criticism is a downside
to her job, she doesn’t dwell
on many others. I mention
never getting to see her children
(aged 12 and 17) because
of evening commitments,
but she brushes this aside. ‘I
take them with me. I’ve dragged babies
around exhibitions, so they are
used to it.’ She admits they don’t always
like it, but neither does she.
And the job has its perks. ‘I can get
preview tickets to Twilight, so there
are some advantages in having a
full-time working mother dragging
them off to culture.’ Not surprisingly,
the exec’s perfect day – lunch at
El Viajante in Bethnal Green, a pedicure,
galleries along the South Bank
– would include seeing an evening
concert. But don’t expect it to be a
sedate prom; she wants to see Florence
and the Machine. Janet says
she’d like her shows to be highly
original but not exclusive. You get
the feeling she likes her personal life
the same way.
Edinburgh Culture Show specials
start August 12, BBC Two

6 Features
ONCAMERA
a 03·08·10
Calling all budding photographers: Ariel is on
the hunt for creative and beautifully framed pictures
A CBeebies production
team were taking no
chances when they filmed
a sequence at a beehive
for the channel’s new
programme Nina and The
Neurons: In the Lab, which
is being produced by
CBeebies Scotland.
Getting buzzy with it were
fictional scientist Nina
(Katrina Bryan) and three
young experimenters
from Glasgow who went
to an Ayrshire garden to
investigate the process of
honey making.
Other questions that Nina
and her five animated
sense Neurons will answer
include why do our fingers
go wrinkly in the bath?
Why does chocolate melt
in our hands? And why
do flowers smell so nice?
Which brings us right back
to the scents and sounds
of a summer garden,
drowsy with warmth and
the humming of bees.....
Affordable healthcare for only 1.50 a week.
Think of it as a perk of your job.
As you work for the BBC, you can take control of your healthcare for just
1.50 a week by joining Benenden Healthcare. With no medical required
and no exclusions due to age or pre-existing conditions. You’ll have access to
a range of valued discretionary services including our 24/7 GP Advice Line, 300
towards physiotherapy costs, and treatment at specially selected hospitals across
the UK with excellent infection control rates.
As a mutual, not-for-profit society, our members are at the heart of everything
we do. That’s probably why we already look after the healthcare needs of over
935,000 people.
We’ll welcome you, your partner, family, friends
and anyone else that you’d like to benefit.
If you think this sounds too good
to be true visit
www.benenden.org.uk/ariel
or call us on
0845 052 5757 *
Please quote ref: ARIEL
For just
1.50
per person
per week
* Calls cost a maximum of 4p per minute for BT customers. The price of calls from non-BT lines will vary. Lines open
8am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. Calls may be recorded. Benenden Healthcare membership is initially only available
for current or former employees of the Post Office, Civil Service, BT, registered charities, public sector bodies and
other approved organisations whose aims and objectives are deemed compatible with those of the Society.
Some services have a six month qualifying period. The Benenden Healthcare Society Limited is an incorporated friendly
society, registered under the Friendly Societies Act 1992, registered number 480F. The Society’s contractual business
(the provision of tuberculosis benefit) is authorised by the FSA. The remainder of the Society’s business is undertaken
on a discretionary basis. The Society is subject to FSA requirement for prudential management. Registered Office: The
Benenden Healthcare Society Limited, Holgate Park Drive, York, YO26 4GG.
AD/ARIEL/SP/6261/08.10/V1
6355 You're Unique_HP_Ad_Ariel_AW.indd 1 16/7/10 11:53:13

a 03·08·10 Features 7
Your child could
be a superhero
this holiday
BBC themed ideas to beat the familiar cry of
‘I’m bored’ as the long summer break begins
by Claire Barrett
Sums and spellings might not be top of your
child’s wish list when it comes to summer holiday
entertainment, but give a bit of learning a
playful guise, an imaginative twist or some shiny
reward stickers and the little ones won’t be able
to resist it. Better still, get their favourite tv characters
on board to make the curriculum fun.
It’s what BBC Magazines’ raft of children’s
titles do all year round, of course, but it’s during
the gaping, six week break that parents particularly
welcome some new ideas, diversions
and activities.
‘Our research tells us that parents want to
entertain their children at key holiday times,
but they also want educational content,’ says
Steph Cooper, educational advisor and editor of
several BBC children’s magazines. ‘They are absolutely
asking for it. So when we’re planning
our summer issues, we have to work out how
to engage and educate readers in a really playful
way.’
Summer cover mounts, from Igglepiggle’s
xylophone to an animal charm bracelet, may
grab their attention, but inside features inviting
readers to puzzle it out in Opposites World,
star in their own Upsy Daisy story or join Bob
the Builder in his busy workshop about numbers
will keep them interested.
Covering the whole curriculum, the mags encourage
children to use the summer break to get
creative – without alienating some adults. ‘We
know that there are different types of parents,’
admits Cooper. ‘Some are comfortable doing
arty stuff, others dread it. Our ‘makes’ are easy,
quick and accessible to all kinds of parents.’
Rather than specialist materials, they draw
on household gear – such as a sock to make an
elephant puppet like Lola’s – or the magazines
provide the equipment. The bumper holiday
edition of CBeebies Art comes with all you need
to create a 3D seaside collage. ‘We give the glue,
Win a goody bag
Keep the kids happy this summer with this
prize courtesy of BBC Worldwide. Ariel has
25 goody bags, including magazine and preschool
toy, up for grabs. To enter to win one,
tell us the name of the train in the CBeebies
show In the Night Garden.
Email ariel.competitions by August 10.
the bit of straw for the sail, the pieces of elastic...
whether the children are at the airport or
on a long journey, they’ll still have lots to do.’
The ‘makes’ are best fired up by imagination,
and the children are urged to put them to good
use – make a simple superhero costume, stuff
tights up the sleeves for muscles, attach ‘rocket
boosters’ to the ankles and see where your
superpowers take you. ‘It’s what you do with
the ‘makes’ that makes them exciting,’ reasons
Cooper, whose titles also inspire readers to get
out and about this summer – for walks, bike
rides or sandcastle building. ‘Finding bugs is always
popular,’ she says. ‘Children love discovering
things for the first time.’
If the CBeebies section on iPlayer is an invaluable
rainy day resource, Cooper’s top tip for
this holiday is to take the children to see In the
Night Garden Live. A new, musical, stage production,
featuring costumed characters, puppets
and projections and performed in a purpose
built dome, it will be visiting London,
Birmingham and Glasgow in the coming weeks
(www.nightgardenlive.com).
‘All our magazine content is totally connected
with the CBeebies channel, website and live
events; we join all the dots,’ says Cooper. ‘In the
Night Garden Live is a fantastic opportunity for
pre-schoolers to recognise and engage with the
characters they see on tv or in print in a theatrical
setting.’
Just don’t try taking your teenagers.
You work full-time, but
the children are off for six
weeks. Ariel asked BBC
parents how they cope
Sarah Taylor, senior producer, radio
documentaries (Two boys, aged nine
and five)
March ‘10: Think what the F**** am I
going to do.
April 10: Realise there are no full
time playschemes available locally
(except for the two weeks when we
are away on our family holiday).
April 10: Discuss with partner how
on earth we are going to get the children
looked after for the other four
weeks.
May 10: I am exhausted after extensive
research reveals I’m buggered.
Partner seems to have forgotten he
has two children who need looking
after.
May 10: Take ‘grace leave’ for the
summer so social services don’t prosecute
me.
July 10: Rescind part of summer holidays
as programme commitments
mean very idea of a long break is impossible.
Boys will go to mother in
law for a week (they will put on half
a stone each and come back in sugar
induced diabetic coma).
July 10: Partner dares to ask – how
are we going to manage childcare
for the summer?
Aug 10: Me and boys go on holiday
after burying husband under the
patio.
Fiona Steggles
assistant news editor, tv news,
BBC North West
Beg, steal and borrow. Every year I
panic I won’t fill the days, every year
we just about make it.
Cathy Farmer producer,
world affairs unit
Several years ago we had the use of
a shared BBC playscheme with the
Inland Revenue in Somerset House.
This was great as it was over the
road from Bush House and the organisers
took the children to different
places around London. They also
had a great time playing in the fountains
in the courtyard. Sadly, the
BBC stopped the scheme.
The problem with privately funded
holiday playschemes is the expense.
We have three young children
and the only scheme near our home
is a Beaumont Holiday Camp. This is
£227 per child per week. Potentially
in the future we will need to cover
four weeks out of the six. That
amounts to £2724, more than I take
home each month.
This year my husband, also BBC
staff, and I are keeping our heads
above water by taking some long
service leave, a week’s bought holiday
and some annual.
In the past I have taken chunks of
unpaid parental leave. Now that my
third child is about to be five, it no
longer applies. My parents are not
well enough to look after three children.
Childcare is no joking matter.
Steve Beech
sbj, BBC Nottingham
Marry a teacher as I did. Problem
sorted.
Nina Robinson
sbj, World Service News
This year I am flying my mother in
law over from the Caribbean so that
she can look after my son (who is
four years old) while I am at work.
His nursery school is closed for two
weeks and she is staying for six
weeks. It is also a chance to see her
and for her to spend some time with
us and give her a break also. I think
it should work out all round.
Pippa Baddeley
production accountant, Elstree
The childminder gets us through the
summer; she’s looked after the boys
since they were toddlers and they’ve
grown up with her kids. The downside
is that it’s very expensive. Even
if I put the boys into PGL or similar,
I’d still have to pay the childminder
something to keep their places
open. And, unless our holidays coincide
with hers, we end up paying for
six weeks’ care. Financially speaking,
I can’t wait for them to go back
to school.
Amina Wehelie
producer, Somali service,
Bush House
During the summer I arrange new
things for my family such as quizzes
about anything from the names
of presidents, actors and singers to
the capitals of the world’s nations.
I give them more time to play on
their toys, watch tv, go to the parks
with their older siblings. My mother
(their granny is living with us) plays
her role too, telling her stories and
her jokes. But you know the main
role of the kids? They have cookery
lessons from my mother and
me. All seven of my children know
how to cook – the little ones learns
how to make sandwiches, the older
ones can invite you for three course
meals. I am happy for them and
me. On my rest days I am in a good
mood, because my children will
cook for me now and then, something
that will also help them in the
future.

8 9
the need to know
It can take months, involve trawling
through masses of paperwork and
confronting unpleasant people, but
in-depth investigative journalism
also delivers the stories other news
doesn’t reach, and some of its best
practitioners work at the BBC
by LISETTE JOHNSTON
It all started when an attendant tried to
stop Dr Eamonn O’Neil taking pictures of his
twin boys – then aged just a few weeks old – on
a trip to the local swimming pool. ‘Not only was
I mad, but I wanted to find out what my rights
were,’ recalls the investigative journalist, who
lectures at Strathclyde University and directs a
bespoke course on investigative journalism.
When he discovered that every local authority
in Scotland had different rules, he set about
‘stirring up a hornet’s nest’ which he hopes will
prompt reform.
Personal experience often sparks the most
elaborate and painstaking investigations which
end up on our screen – and on the news.
Despite popular mythology, investigative
journalists rarely find themselves in moonlit
meetings with Deep Throats or unearthing
inter-governmental cover ups: the reality is less
filled with drama and more with hard work.
Investigations are not for journalists looking
for quick results, as they can involve a lot more
digging than a traditional news story and sifting
through stacks of information – so how do you
go about finding a story within this particular
strand of journalism?
‘Often I pick something that interests me,’
explains O’Neill, who has been an investigative
journalist for more than 20 years, and
currently works with BBC Scotland on radio
investigations.
‘I try and find something that everyone has
an idea about, but knows little about. I go to
the top of the tree and ask the hardest questions
and provoke debate. And they are very
personal [in radio] because you are using your
own voice,’ he says.
O’Neill says there is no great secret to his
methods, which he describes as ‘totally transparent’.
‘I just happen to make more phone calls or
go out of my way to meet people. Even if it’s
11pm on a Friday night, I am always willing to
go the extra mile.’
That extra mile saw one investigation last
11 years, ending in 2002 with the 25 year murder
conviction of Scotsman Robert Brown being
overturned by the Court of Appeal, after O’Neill
uncovered previously unseen evidence.
‘Often these stories are right under your
nose,’ he says. ‘It’s just that for various reasons
they have been left alone.’
Can you handle the truth?
Jeremy Adams, head of tv current affairs, BBC
Northern Ireland, says the first and last question
in any investigation has to be ‘is it true’.
‘You have to ask yourself why a person is
telling you something. Can you corroborate it,
verify it through other sources of information
– and is it in the public interest for us to broadcast
it?’ Adams says.
Whether your investigation is only for a few
days or weeks, patience is clearly important.
But there are other useful attributes for an
investigative journalist.
‘I would say the qualities you require are
an inherent curiosity, a determination not to
be fobbed off and an ability to recognise when
you have the proof of something and when you
have not,’ says Gerry Northam, who runs several
Cojo courses into investigations and reports
for File on 4.
The experts
behind File on
Four; David Ross,
editor, reporter
Gerry Northam and
producer Samantha
Fenwick
Clockwise from
left; Jeremy Adams,
Iris Robinson,
undercover footage
of fighting dogs
from the Spotlight/
Panorama
programme made
by BBC Northern
Ireland
‘And also, the determination to get as far as
you can in establishing what has happened. You
need a certain amount of pluck to confront people
because those interviews can turn nasty.’
He reminds students in his Anatomy of an Investigation
class, which is based on a real story,
to consider one important factor before confronting
a member of the public – it’s their life’s work
you are investigating.
In other words, they will know a great deal
more about it than you do, and they will have
all kinds of ways of evading questions.
‘Being thorough in your research helps, but
try to build up a paper trail as well – it’s harder
to deny something when there’s documentary
evidence to prove it,’ he says.
Northam firmly believes people should have
tenacity, but they also need to know about the
legal framework, so his courses cover points connected
with libel, contempt of court and the risk
of injunctions. And he says journalists also need
to think about their editorial responsibilities.
Whistleblower walked in
Jeremy Adams agrees. As head of current affairs
in Northern Ireland the major investigations
he has dealt with include breaking the story of
alleged irregular financial dealings involving
Iris Robinson, wife of the First Minister of
Northern Ireland.
‘The Robinson story is one where a whistleblower
walks in, and then you have to make a
decision on whether you should investigate it,’
Adams says.
‘Legal, private behaviour
is not something the
BBC investigates, so we
referred the case to Peter
Jordan and Mark Byford to
see if we should investigate.
We made it clear from the
start we were investigating
alleged financial impropriety
and abuse of power.’
Another huge project for
his team was the Spotlight
and Panorama special on
‘Legal, private
behaviour is
not something
the BBC
investigates’
dog fighting, for which an undercover journalist
infiltrated a gang over a period of 18 months.
Evidence from the programme was later used in
court to help secure several convictions.
Journalists had known for years that dog
fighting was a serious problem in Northern
Ireland, with links to paramilitary organisations.
Spotlight were able to pursue it because they
found someone with specialist training who
could infiltrate the dog fighting world.
The footage and information attracted network
attention and Panorama came on board,
with both programmes airing the same night.
‘But before then the level of discussion we
had to do was enormous,’ Adams stresses.
And that’s another key piece of advice – if
you are thinking of doing an investigation, refer
up. He believes that if senior management
know about an investigation from the start
they are generally very supportive.
So investigations take a long time, you need
tenacity, and your must consider whether the
story should be told. But at a time when finances
are scrutinised and many outlets cannot
afford long running investigations, does this
type of journalism still have a place at the BBC?
‘It’s the only place really where proper
investigative current affairs journalism
is being conducted,’ enthuses Adams.
‘And the fantastic thing about Northern
Ireland, which has for some time
been a centre of excellence for current
affairs, is that it has made a conscious
decision to give its regional programmes
the resources to do proper investigative
journalism.’
To find out about the Anatomy of an Investigation
course, go to: http://learn.gateway.bbc.co.uk/
Courses/CourseDetails.aspx?CourseID=11406
TRADE SECRETS
A few tips for investigative
journalists... look for tiny loopholes
and work from the outside in
Gerry’s tips:
n Find out why a source is talking to you. Know the worst. Even if they have
a bad motive, what they tell you may prove to be true. So check.
n Before you pick up the phone, spend a moment thinking what the person
you are calling is going to feel when you contact them. You never get a
second chance to make a first impression.
n Before you end a call, ask ‘Is there anything else you think is important?’.
You may be pleasantly surprised.
n Look for tiny loopholes in what anyone tells you. They often lead to big
stories.
n Don’t be put off if events don’t fit your preconceptions. The truth is
usually more interesting than what you had imagined.
n Prepare for big interviews by gaming out questions and alternative
answers. Like scouts and guides, Be Prepared.
n In a confrontational interview, listen carefully to what an interviewee
denies. Evasion is more common than outright lying.
n Be courageous, but contact Legal and Editorial Policy advisers early.
Eamonn’s tips:
n Always work from the facts outwards: never from a thesis inwards. Or to
put it another way: ‘Don’t write the headline first and then try to make the
facts fit’. Allow yourself to be guided by what you uncover and not let
preconceived ideas warp your findings. Even the great Woodward and
Bernstein of Watergate fame didn’t set out to bring down President Nixon.
n Go beyond the documents. I’ve often made the mistake of rushing into
print or broadcast once I have got my hands on documents (eg minutes of
a meeting) that I think conclusively nail a story. I’ve learned from mistakes
I’ve made that it’s worth taking a little more time to track down and meet
people who attended, for example, the meeting you’re interested in.
n The internet is a great tool. Learn how to use it properly. Reverse phone
books, background reports, company investigations... are all a click or two
away. But don’t think any great secrets
are on the net. The really hard stuff is
still locked in files and the really,
really great stuff, is locked in
people’s heads.
n Meet people face to face. It’s
massively important to get out
and speak to people because only
then can you size each other up.
People will always tell you more,
remember more and trust you more,
if you take the time to turn up and
share a coffee and listen to them.
n Use what I dub the ‘Circle
Technique’. Most news
reporters I know have to
watch the clock and that
means always going to
the heart-of-the-matter
and straight to the
highest source
possible for
‘comment’. This
helps file a story fast
but it rarely uncovers
the truth. I speak to
lowly sources first and
gently work my way
towards the centre.
Eamonn
O’Neil,
working
towards the
centre

a 03.08.10 11
This is the page that everybody reads. Please email candida.watson@bbc.co.uk
You can also contribute to the mail page directly from the Ariel Online home page
mail
Shift the boundaries
With all this talk of allowances for
senior executives to rent accommodation
in t’North, rather than moving
lock stock and barrel, it got me
thinking.
Moving around the country has
always been a regular occurrence in
Nations and Regions, if you want to
progress your career, and gone are
the days when absolutely everything
was paid for.
But just what is the BBC’s allowances
policy? It’s obviously extremely
discretionary...
So how do you square these two
different equations?
1. Senior executives renting accommodation
and spending up to
£1900 per month in doing so, for up
to two years.
2. A colleague who moved from
one local radio station to another
and was told that he was lucky to get
£4000 in moving allowances. This
was to cover B&B accommodation in
the interim period while selling his
property, AND estate agents/surveyor/moving
and solicitors’ fees for the
whole move.
Needless to say, in this flat property
market, two years on the property
hasn’t sold, and his allowance has
run out. No more money available –
just get on with it and take the hit.
Eric Smith
breakfast presenter, Radio Shropshire
Ken Lee, HR director, BBC North,
replies: The £1900 per month quoted
in the press can be misleading as
this is a maximum allowance and
is subject to tax – hence the actual
maximum spend will generally be
around £1100. This has to fund return
travel, bills and council tax, in
addition to monthly rental.
It is designed to provide reasonable
accommodation but not luxury
penthouses. It is also important to
note that this arrangement is available
to all migrating staff who own
properties, rather than an exclusive
deal for senior executives.
Only staff whose existing roles are
‘in scope’ for Salford are entitled to
this support – it reflects the fact that
the move is not of their choice.
Staff who apply for roles in Salford
to develop their careers have
lower levels of relocation support, as
is the usual practice within the corporation.
Will the Regions get a share of the new deal?
Pensions plan
could give new
purpose to TVC
n As a younger member of staff
with six years’ pensionable service,
I’m one of those that faces a very
grim future as a pensioner.
In 27 years time when I, hopefully,
retire both pension options will
be pathetic in comparison to what I
was working towards. Inflation over
this time will put paid to me being
able to afford a retirement.
Ignoring the implications on retirement,
there is a massive implication
while still employed. Those
above me will have to work longer
preventing me from being able to
work my way up the ladder. Simply
put, older staff will be blocking
younger staff from getting promoted.
Thinking out of the box, if BBC
Management refuses to amend the
pension to ensure we are adequately
provided for in our retirement,
might they consider converting
TVC into a free retirement home
for former BBC staff? BBC buildings
will end up looking like retirement
homes anyway, filled with aged
staff unable to afford to retire.
Marcus Gaines
operator, South TV News
n When it comes to pensions the
devil is, no doubt, somewhere in
the detail. The BBC’s slick presentations,
glossy brochures and ‘consultation’
are geared to justify the
proposals.
However, my understanding is
that all of the proposals are based
‘Nations and Regions to get better deal from
BBC tv, says Bennett’ screamed the front page of
Ariel Online last week.
Interesting, I thought, considering the recently
announced plan to pre-record the regional
elements of the BBC Politics Show.
The only programme on BBC TV, I might add,
that covers local politics. And at a very interesting
time for politics generally.
Almost all of the ‘better deals’ suggested by the
article seem to be happening in the Nations.
I look forward to the follow up report on how
we, in the Regions, might expect something to
look forward to, too.
I won’t hold my breath though.
Jo Babbage Politics Show South
on a report by consultants KPMG.
So let’s see it.
The BBC should reveal the full
consultants’ documents on which
the proposals are based. Only then
would the consultation be truly
full open and honest.
Rob Sissons
health correspondent, BBC East
Midlands
n Could you fill the pensions shortfall
by selling off Lonely Planet? Or
any of the BBC’s other profitable
ventures?
Seeing as I am subsidising the
pensions of the Executive Board, it
only seems fair.
Iain Haddow
World News TV
n Can Mark Thompson explain,
given the latest senior management
private pension pot revelation,
what probability he sees of being
able to avert industrial action and
how he intends to achieve that.
Kevin Doig
lecturer, BBC People
n The pension problem can be
solved as follows:
Ask to withdraw your BBC pension
in cash.
Take your swag bag(s) (big cheeses
might need a porter) to the local
bookmakers office.
Tell the fat cat that you would
like to place this on the jolly (the
favourite) for the first race of the
day. Might also be worth telling the
person behind the counter as well.
Watch the race – if it wins, great
return on your investment.
If it fails eg by falling at the first
– wow think what a buzz you are
going to have, and a totally natural
one at that, and you should be able
to sell your story many times over.
Weighed in.
Mike Hughes
business manager, BBC Academy
n In the wake of the government’s
new retirement age policy, may I
suggest the BBC considers a way of
saving money and offering promotion
opportunities?
I will agree not to carry on working
and drawing my salary until
I’m 80 in return for the BBC agreeing
a redundancy deal which includes
24 months salary and no
early retirement deduction in my
pension. Sound familiar?
Andy Farrant
assistant editor, BBC Lincolnshire
n The BBC says: ‘We are reviewing
all aspects of pension provision...
and will announce these ....after
the consultation closes.’
Why? We know now of the proposals
for most of the BBC – why
not also for the senior managers?
Something to hide?
Jan Killick responds to the question
as to why the BBC has to act
now by telling us that the current
actuarial valuation has to be finished
before June 30 2011.
Perhaps we could have a Newsnight
session and Mr Paxman might
put the question to Ms Killick again
(and again, and again........)
Daniel Meyer, BBC Symphony, Musicians’
Union Steward
Any letters with questions about the
proposed changes will be answered
online by the BBC Pensions team.
Q&As can be seen at http://tinyurl.
com/33a3mqx
Over the Edge
A small but important correction to
your story about Geoff Watt’s ABSW
lifetime achievement award in the
News section (Ariel, July 27). Geoff
no longer presents Leading Edge on
Radio 4. That series was ‘decommissioned’
in late 2009.
Geoff will, we hope, continue to
present programmes for the BBC
as he is, without doubt, one of the
finest journalists that we have ever
worked with, as well as one of the
nicest.
Rami Tzabar
exec producer, Radio Science Unit , Bush
Part of a bigger Tory
I’m sure I’m not the only person concerned
by the nature of the cuts to the
licence fee being suggested by the new
government. I signed up to an online
campaign run by www.38degrees.org.
uk that forwards my concerns to my
local MP with the request that they
should protect the BBC from cuts being
made on ideological grounds or to
sweeten Rupert Murdoch.
I duly received a response from
my MP, Roger Gale (Conservative
Thanet North) and wanted to share
his response. He claims to have ‘considerable
affection for what is probably
still, just, the least worst broadcasting
organisation in the world’
and wants to see the public service it
provides preserved. He goes on to say
that he is, ‘from close personal experience,
more aware than many of the
wholly unacceptable level of waste,
gross extravagance and inflated salaries
that are prevalent within a corporation
that has grown like Topsy,
invested vast amounts wholly unnecessarily
in buildings that are now
redundant and, while still capable
of making excellent programmes,
also generates a very considerable
amount of material that is at best infantile
and banal and at worst downright
offensive’.
He used to work for the BBC as a
radio reporter, producer, editor and
television director.
I hope these are the words of a
man who has been an MP in a safe
seat for a long time. If his views are
also held by those at the top of the coalition
government then I think the
BBC is in big trouble.
Trevor Ellis
senior media asst, I&A cataloguing
Obituary
ROBERT SANDALL
I met Robert Sandall in 1990. I had
been talking to my friend, the musician
Mark Russell, about the idea of
a live, late night music programme
for Radio 3 where two presenters
from different ends of the musical
spectrum, could play their choices,
discuss them, agree or disagree, providing
a mix which crossed genres.
Mark was classically trained and
into contemporary music. He suggested
Robert, then rock critic on
the Sunday Times, as co presenter.
Mixing It was born.
Robert easily and quickly established
an authoritative, attractive on
air persona.
His conversations with Mark,
their joint enthusiasm and sense of
enquiry about music sparked with
an audience, many of whom were
new listeners to the network. Early
guests included David Sylvian, Steve
Reich, Laurie Anderson and Robert
Wyatt.
We would never have guessed the
show would run to 2007.
Robert occasionally presented
R3’s Late Junction and his final programmes
were only last month.
Robert was a true broadcaster and
a great guy and we’ll all miss him.
Tony Cheevers
Philip Tagney writes: I was a producer on
Mixing It with Robert for much of its
17 year run. Robert would sometimes
say joshingly to Mark Russell, after a
particularly abstract piece of free improvisation,
‘Where’s the skill in that
then, Mark?’
He knew, of course, that there was
great skill involved. This now seems to
me pertinent to his radio work, which
was highly accomplished yet seemed
effortless to the listener. Though he
was a rock journalist when he started
on Mixing It, he fearlessly explored
with great enthusiasm all the remoter
edges of the avant garde, from German
improv to Japanese noise.
He had a sharp ear for a good lyric,
an aspect of popular music not
much discussed by radio djs. His understanding
of the art of good music
meant he conducted more in-depth
interviews than the usual fare, and
I remember particularly rewarding
ones with Ry Cooder, Björk, Scott
Walker, PJ Harvey and Radiohead, to
name but a few.

14 Jobs
MakeaDayofit
A snapshot of
working life
Jo Kim, Pronunciation Linguist
and Unit Co-ordinator
How does your day start?
I turn on the radio. I usually listen to the Today Programme
while I’m getting ready for work so I can
catch up with the news and mentally list the day’s
potential pronunciation problems. I do the ‘early’
shift so I’m in at half past nine, email/answering machine
fire fighting before my colleagues get in at ten.
What are the key points in your day?
We’re a very small unit so my daily work can be extremely
varied. I’m constantly on the phone, either
answering pronunciation queries, which can be
challenging, or researching pronunciations. When
I’m compiling the daily news pronunciations, I scan
the news, research potentially difficult words and
get the list on the website before the One o’clock
news. I also have a to-do list of requests, which can
be from quiz shows to radio drama, but when we get
urgent requests from broadcasters about to go live
– or even on air – I have to react at once.
How did you get here?
I grew up in London, did a PhD and was a part-time
interpreter and translator. I did a B.Ed. in French and
Linguistics in Seoul and taught English and French
in Korea. I became interested in phonetics and returned
to London to do a post-grad in the subject. I
was invited to give a seminar on Korean phonetics
to the Pronunciation Unit. I enjoyed it so much, and
was so impressed by the unit’s work, that when I saw
they were recruiting, I applied for the job.
Sandwich as you work or proper break?
I always try to get away from my desk at lunch. The
only physical activity I really get at work is what I call
the ‘dictionary workout’, standing up, turning round
and picking up reference books. (In my defence,
some do weigh a few kilos.) By lunch, I really need a
walk and a breath of fresh air to reset my brain.
Memorable moment at work?
After many hours of research, much controversy
and six months of non-BBC people insisting we were
recommending an incorrect pronunciation, Kai Eide
emailed us to say that he preferred his name to be
said the way we suggested. All three of us had put
a lot of work into that pronunciation – at one point I
even looked into Norwegian sociolinguistics – it was
such a relief to get vindication from the man himself.
How and when does your day end?
I go home, or to my yoga class, and switch off from
listening or speaking for at least an hour!
Tell us about your day’s work;
email Lisette Johnston
14 OCTOBER 08 ARIEL

a 03·08·10
SHOWCASE
15
This week’s
Showcase is
shivering with
Minnie Driver
and sweeping
up sawdust in a
Norman castle. If
you’re working on
a programme or an
event you’d like to
shout about, email
Vanessa Scott
Come on, if you
think you are hard
enough; Professor
Robert Bartlett
explains what made
the Normans
conquerors
n RADIO 3
Symphony in 3
Aspiring Mozarts, Bachs and Beethovens
have been penning their greatest works
in preparation for the BBC Proms Inspire
Young Composers competition. Winning
entries from this year’s competition will
be played by the Aurora Orchestra and
conducted by Nicholas Collon at the Royal
College of Music, as part of a special celebration
on Radio 3.
Friday August 6, 9.15pm, Radio 3
n BBC.CO.UK
HOLY DAYS
Find holy days and festivals by religion,
date or year on the BBC Religion website.
You can also explore different religions
with detailed information about beliefs,
ethics and customs as well as listening
online or downloading podcasts of your
favourite shows.
bbc.co.uk/religion
n bbc two
Beer and hawking for breakfast
Being a ten year old in 1066 was tricky
stuff, a whirl of archery and hawking
classes, fuelled by beer for breakfast.
And by all accounts it was pretty horrid
living in a Norman Castle, carpeted in
stinking straw, shrouded in eye watering
smoke and under siege from a steady
stream of enemy Anglo Saxons.
We know all this thanks to BBC Learning’s
new campaign, Hands on History, which
accompanies the BBC’s Norman Season.
Starting this week on BBC Two with
The Normans, Professor Robert Bartlett
reveals how the Normans evolved from a
band of marauding Vikings into the formidable
warriors who conquered England
in 1066.
The Hands on History team will also
be setting up Norman Walks near you,
teaching you how to make a DIY Bayeaux
Tapestry and create a medieval banquet
(instructions on the BBC History website).
For more on the Normans throughout the
season, go to the Showcase intranet page
– http://tinyurl.com/ShoCo
The Normans, Wednesday August 4,
9pm, BBC Two
n RADIO 4
LOVE AND MONEY
Toby Jones and Anna Maxwell Martin star
in Linda Marshall Griffiths’ adaptation of
The Wings of a Dove on Radio 4. As Henry
James aficionados will recall, Kate is in love
with Merton, a poor writer, but her rich
aunt disapproves. Will our protagonist risk
losing her luxurious
lifestyle for her
beau? Episode one
is available now on
iPlayer and you can
go to the Showcase
intranet page for a
preview of episode
two.
Sunday August 8,
3pm, Radio 4
n BBC TWO
NATURAL ECHO
The world’s most famous elephant, Echo,
is remembered in this new episode of
Natural World. David Attenborough pays
tribute to the wise old matriarch who
died in 2009, while the NHU team who
followed her for the last 20 years look at
how her death has affected not only her
herd, but the Amboseli elephant research
project in Kenya.
Echo the
Elephant
Natural
World,
Thursday
August 5,
8pm, BBC
Two
n RADIO 4
Dinner ladies
and takeaways
Last year’s winner of the best
dinner ‘lady’ gong at the Radio
4 Food and Farming Awards was
chef John Rankin, who cooks for
his ‘customers’ at Penair
secondary school in
Cornwall. Now in its
11th year, the awards
are inviting nominations
in ten categories,
including
best dinner lady (or
man), farmer of the
year and best takeaway.
Full details are
on the Radio 4 website
– winners will be
announced in
November.
bbc.co.uk/
radio4
n WORLD SERVICE
Korea’s Lost
Children
Every year,
around
1000 South
Korean children
are
given
up for
adoption
in
western
countries. BBC journalist
Ellen Otzen meets Jane Trenka
(pictured) and Suki Leith, both of
whom were adopted by American
families, to explore the impact that
foreign adoption has had on them.
Friday August 6, 8pm,
World Service
n BBC one
ICE AGE
Crushing pressure, boiling vent gases,
freezing temperatures and total darkness
await James Nesbitt and Minnie
Driver as they descend into BBC One
drama The Deep. Boarding oceanographic
submarine the Orpheus, the
team don parkas and travel thousands of
feet below the Arctic ice, searching for a
solution to the energy crisis in a new five
part thriller. Visit the Showcase intranet
page for a clip from the first episode.
Tuesday August 3, 9pm,
BBC One and HD

16
a 03·08·10
green room
fat dogs finish firsT
With Mad Men star Christina
Hendricks being an ideal shape for
women rather than size 0 models
and the public health minister’s
commandment that obese people
should be called ‘fat’ by their doctors,
issues of the body beautiful
were very much in the public eye
last week.
But no story caught our eye
more than the PDSA’s announcement
that more than a third of UK
dogs are overweight. The team behind
the World Service’s Newshour
programme were so inspired by the
news they issued an internal request
for a ‘fat dog and its owner’ to come
on the programme. ‘The dog might
be on a diet which would be even
better,’ wrote bj James Cowling.
‘Ideally, we would like to do a little
walk about around Bush House at
1900bst. We can provide a cab to
and from Bush House.’
Sadly they never found their
cuddly canine, but the request did
prompt many an amused email wondering
if the proffered cab was because
the dog would be too, ahem,
big-boned to walk there…
EARWIGGING
...overheard at the BBC
...The soloist hasn’t got any trousers on
and he can’t find BBC Four...
… My finger is the pulse…
…So, was the upshot of that general
mockery that I should start working on
the fat dogs story?...
…A lion would eat me. I have no
pretensions to being harder than a
lion…
…Do you think this uni prospectus
would do much damage, full on, in
your face?...
…Of course they don’t really have
problems with mice in America
because they don’t have good
cheese, do they?...
WE HEAR THAT. . .
swim to win
The closest some families
get to competition is a tense
game of Scrabble played on
holiday after too much wine.
Jude Pratt’s family, however,
are not the sedentary types.
Jude, who works as a touring
facilitator for BBC Blast at
White City, will be entering an
international swimming competition
this week with her parents and 90-year-old grandfather, who
come from Penwortham in Lancashire.
With a combined age of 245, team Pratt hopes to take home a medal
in a mixed relay race at the 13th FINA World Masters Championships
in Sweden, although 28-year-old Jude is sceptical of their chances:
‘We’re entering the mixed relay so that my grandfather can fulfil his
dream of competing with his family. We’re unlikely to appear on the
winner’s podium, but you never know.’
Grandfather Jim, a WWII veteran, has even bought new swimming
trunks for the special occasion: ‘I’d had the same pair of Speedos for
over 30 years and they served me well, but since I’ll be on the international
stage, I thought it was right to invest in a new pair. I want to look
like I mean business.’ We hope they make a big splash.
Win
a DAB + radio
Stay ahead of the digital radio game with the
new Nevada Sinfonie II digital radio. Not only can
it receive DAB digital radio, which is still scheduled to
replace FM in the UK in 2015, it also works with DAB+ and
DMB-A – two other DAB systems currently in use around the
world. It also includes a multi national UK/European mains
adaptor as well as optional battery power, so is perfect for
travellers.
We have two Nevada Sinfonie IIs to give away.
To enter to win one, tell us what DAB stands for. Email ariel.
competitions by August 10.
No offence to Austin Reed: men’s office attire is
generally pretty dull. But there is always someone
who dares to be different and so it is with John
Shield. The head of comms for journalism is off to
a new job, but it seems that his colleagues will remember
him most for his outrageous footwear. In a
farewell email, Ed Williams (head of MC&A comms)
mourns the departure of his rather original purple
pointy shoes (above). ‘They’re a marvel’, John tells
us. We think David Brent would have approved.
Out of office of the summer goes to head of safety
Paul Greeves for his charming piece of travel writing.
‘I’m away for two weeks,’ reads his automated
response, ‘getting some sun, swimming, playing
tennis, sailing small boats and otherwise mucking
about in the sea, reading a book or two, perhaps
seeing the odd sight, playing with my kids, talking
to my wife, eating some nice food, drinking a little,
possibly even dancing.’ Sounds divine. Seen better?
Let us know.
twitterati...
neilhimself Sent 7th draft of Dr Who ep off
to BBC. It’s 2:30am. I hope they like it. Pray for me.
Or sacrifice to strange gods. Or just hope..
Neil Gaiman, author
JemStone Favourite BBC acronyms or related:
1. CREAM 2. the BORG 3. BARLEY/BARLESQUE
4.GLOW 5.OMG 6.SMEF. I’ve also just heard of
PROJECT CRUYFF.Jem Stone, social media exec
richardpbacon Greg Wallace from
Masterchef today. I’ll be honest, it really would
help me out if you had some questions...
Richard Bacon, 5 live presenter
> IF YOU HAVE A STORY FOR THE GREEN ROOM, CONTACT ADAM BAMBURY