Filming yesterday for BBC1 Watchdog (that’ll be aired tonight) felt like Murphy’s law personified (Sod’s law being “if anything can go wrong it will”, Murphy’s law being “Sod was an optimist”)…
- No airport would let us film
The piece is about travel money – the aim being to find people setting off on holiday and show them the right and wrong ways to spend when overseas. Yet we couldn’t get into any of the London airports to film at such short notice. We got the all clear from Cardiff airport , so it was a 2 and a half hour train and cab journey to get there and the same back. - Slashed shirt loo crisis
On the train to Cardiff, when I nipped into the loo my shirt got caught in the door handle and as a result half of my buttons were ripped off. I was left flashing my tummy like a 16 year old girl on a school trip.I was desperate to get a new shirt at the station, after all this is prime time BBC1 TV with 6 million viewers, but there was no time. So I thought I’d wait until the airport, yet it was smaller than I imagined and there was no shirt shop.
So we tried buying safety pins but they were too weak. In the end there was no choice but to bring out the gaffer tape and stick it together. Yet that’s easier said than done as it had to leave the shirt uncreased. I got strange looks due to the three people with their hands up my shirt, trying to stick it together.
- First train cancelled, second train delayed
The entire day was running to a tight schedule, but arriving at Paddington in the morning a signal failure at Didcot Parkway meant the train was cancelled. Then the next one, half an hour later, was 25 minutes late to leave. - Got to the airport and we were the only ones there
Having arrived at the airport late, the ensuant timing wasn’t good, the place felt deserted, we didn’t have permission to go airside and there was just no one checking in. Not a good thing when the entire aim of the piece was about ‘travel money, Money Saving and foreign cash clinic’.We loitered upstairs near the shops first, but the only people there were waiting for arrivals, so we headed down to the check in and crossed our fingers. Eventually after an hour’s wait we were saved by a Thomas Cook flight to Rhodes as people started coming in.
Having said all that the Watchdog team were superb, and nothing phased them. So I’m pretty sure these issues will be left on the cutting room floor, and the piece itself will look good. Yet it was one of those stressful days where you think things will never go right, and I think my shirt is a gonner.
