I had GMTV in my kitchen today. I’m in the middle of filming the BBC’s new One programme, had a full day yesterday and am currently sitting on the train on the way to Bristol for today. In the midst of this GMTV called yesterday and asked if they could interview me about Reclaiming Bank Charges. Stephanie, one of the viewers of my LK Today slot, had contacted them to say thank you and that after seeing it she’d got almost £4,000 back. They wanted to interview us both.
Originally I said no. It was due to be a 7.10 slot and with my schedule I simply couldn’t cope with getting to the studio at that time. The 8.10 alternative was impossible as I needed to get onto this train. So they said “how about if we come to you? We’ll bring the live truck.” Thus this morning it was an outside broadcast live from my kitchen! Actually, this was great news. It’s a bit tough for my grandma to travel from Manchester and she’s wanted to see my new (well, it’s been over a year now) flat, but hasn’t been able to make it so she was hugely excited to get a peek today and told me “gosh, it was very clean, neat and tidy” – which is high praise indeed.
The slot itself was interesting. Stephanie had actually come onto this site to read the article and then gone to the Consumer Action Group, so it was a real triumph for the site and meant it got an on-air mention – which was great.
While I was being interviewed, I found myself self-censoring. When I first did the LK Today slot I called this a ‘war between consumers and the banks’. I was about to do the same when I realised, of course, the news this morning had been about the tragic Hezbollah-Israel conflict, and thus managed to pull back and call it a ‘major punch-up’ instead.
Oh, and one final thing. Just to say, yesterday I met the most awesome haggler. Joy was brought in as the case study to be filmed haggling down the cost of flights while I showed people how to use the internet (read my Cheap Flight Finding article) – she was incredible, and a lovely lady to boot. It should make a great film and will be shown later this month.
