Behind the scenes of Latest TV with Jay Legate
Work, rest & play
With only a matter of days now until Latest TV goes live, the level of excitement (and height of my hair) is reaching astronomical proportions. We’ve been the busiest of bees, as ever. I took a brief departure from Latest Sport to help film The Vote.
First, to Hove Park School with a group of A-level students with far more insightful views than I had at that age! Then, on to Hove Town Hall where Latest TV’s Frank Le Duc was grilling Peter Kyle from the Labour Party, Green councillor Geoffrey Bowden and Cllr Geoffrey Theobold, Tory leader of the opposition. Now, you’ll have to forgive me – in the picture above you can see I’m struggling not to laugh. Can I be blamed if I was tasked with filming two councillors called Geoffrey and wasn’t able to stop the Toys R Us theme tune from looping in my head? I don’t think so.
No rest for the wickedly busy, I was then off to Downs Junior School on Ditchling Road because they’ve celebrated the end of their school year in style, and teamed up with a Kenyan school to showcase a musical about the illegal slave trade.
Lizzie Jago from Braeburn School in Nairobi constructed the narrative for Albatross, based on the life of her ancestor Bishop Charles Smythies. Set in the late 1880s in Zanzibar, East Africa, it tracks the struggle to eradicate the black market slave trade.
The cast for Albatross was composed of pupils from both schools and it has clearly been a bonding experience for all involved as Minnie, 11, describes: “In the playground at lunch times we all eat lunch together and it’s really nice to make friends with people from different countries who may live different lives from us.”
Downs Junior School’s music teacher, Anna Rusbatch, composed the music and, while she admitted being nervous about the performances, she is very proud of the children. She said: “I am daunted, it’s a huge project this year. But I’m also thrilled because I know those kids are going to absolutely shine.”
Meanwhile, in a far more sports-related setting, Joseph ‘The Gunn Show’ was juggling cameras at Moulsecoomb Leisure Centre for the final wheelchair rugby session of the Take Part Festival. While I can categorically confirm Joseph can juggle cameras, please don’t ask him to show you, he’s very shy.
Great Britain wheelchair rugby officer Paul Arnold hosted the event, designed to inspire people to come down and try something new. “We’ve been working with Brighton and Hove Council as part of the Take Part Festival of Sport and this is an opportunity for the people of Brighton to come and have a go at wheelchair rugby, which is a new sport to the area.”
Mayor Brian Fitch attended the session to give his support, and even had a go in one of the wheelchairs – sufficed to say we won’t be seeing him competing anytime soon! But sadly, the numbers at the session were quite low. Shanni Collins from the Brighton and Hove Council shared her thoughts: “We’d hope for more and more people to take it up. I think with a new activity it’s a slow burner, word of mouth, taking the risk to try something new.” Time will tell if this fun and exciting new sport will take off. Judging by the enthusiasm shown by the participants, as long as numbers increase, wheelchair rugby might just be for everyone.
So, that’s another week in the life of Latest Sport! As much as you love hearing what we’ve been up to (ahem) it won’t be long now until we’ll be on your televisions every day.
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