Latest TV blog
As Channel 8 prepares to launch, we go behind the scenes with Latest TV
Good morning! Blog, Vlog or TVlog? This is the start of a regular diary logging what goes on behind the scenes when creating the video content for Latest TV. Think Letter From America without the history and famous politicians! Think Bridget Jones without Colin Firth or any of the famous names!
Here is a peek at a few stories filmed by the Latest TV team over the last week:
First off, Brighton Festival. Jenni interviewed the Chief Executive of Brighton Dome & Festival, Andrew Comben and the Festival’s Guest Director, the acclaimed choreographer and composer, Hofesh Shechter. Hofesh said: “I think each one of us has a black sheep inside…” so the front cover of the Brighton Festival programme depicts all of us at Latest TV.
February was filled with science, literally tonnes of the stuff and Brighton Science Festival founder, Richard Robinson allowed us access all areas.
“We all waited with bated breath to see if she had delivered…”
This year, the festival included more scientist heavyweights than usual. Dr Adam Rutherford, a geneticist, writer and broadcaster whose television work includes The Cell and The Gene Code as well as presenting Radio 4’s Inside Science, gave a wonderful insight into the workings of DNA whilst on stage at the Sallis Benney awaiting his own miracle of life. His wife, due to give birth imminently, phoned him up. We all waited with bated breath to see if she had delivered, but no she just phoned to see how his talk went!
Professor Jim Al-Khalili OBE, host of many BBC Science documentaries, described himself as a “humanist accommodationist” at the Sunday Assembly at St Andrews Church in Hove, whilst clearing up the evolutionist/creationist debate.
The congregation (can you call an atheist crowd a congregation?) sang songs by Queen, ‘Chain Reaction’ by Diana Ross and we’ve got Jim singing gamely into his lapel mic.
We also caught up with Dr Simon Singh, another great researcher, author, TV producer who, like Jim Al-Khalili and Adam Rutherford, is able to popularise science and include jokes! Simon Singh shows how Homer Simpson very nearly proved that Fermat’s Last Theorem was wrong shocking mathematicians the world over. Homer’s near miss only goes to show that the equation has no solution in integers greater than or equal to 3. Yep, we learnt some maths this week, and what special numbers to look out for (taxi number 1792) when watching Bart and family.
Earlier in the day the charismatic and gutsy MP Caroline Lucas got philosophical as well as global on the ideological thread of fairness, even squeezing in time for a quick joke: “What if climate change is a hoax, and we’ve created a better society for no reason!”
Our intrepid news hound, Tim ‘A Scoop A Day’ Ridgway, and our sports hound, Jay ‘Any Sport As Long As It Involves Mud’ Legate, filmed another gutsy MP, the UK Home Secretary Theresa May, out and about in Kemp Town with Brighton Kemp Town MP Simon Kirby. A spot of shoe-shopping for leopard skin shoes at the Sussex Beacon charity shop rounded off the piece nicely.
Latest Musicbar, the TV studio by day/venue by night scrubbed up well for the occasion, being able to cope with any number of visiting dignitaries, having hosted the likes of Colin Firth (yes!) when he attended a party there recently, and also Larry Adler (harmonica royalty) in times gone by.
So there you have it, a week in the life of Latest TV, complete with Colin Firth and famous politicians!
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