Friday 1 July 2016

London Calling Day 4


If you thought that the London Calling Activities Week didn't have the drama and excitement of some of the other trips then think again! Today we joined Jeremy Vine and his friend, Fiona Bruce, in one of BBC Radio 2's studios today for his lunchtime show.


After failing to persuade our one pianist, Mia, to have a tinkle on the ivories of Elton John's piano we had a quick chat with Ken Bruce's team before observing the planning meeting for the lunchtime show.

Plans and scripts were all set; however, minutes before going live we had the shock news that Boris Johnson would not be entering into the Cons
ervative leadership battle. This made for a brilliant time as the students got to see how Jeremy and the production team quickly had to think on their feet and be at the forefront of reporting this story with no preparation.

Mauricio Alencar (Y9) and Heedal Al Hasani (Y8) were particularly vocal with their thoughts about Brexit and the leadership competition and as a result were given the opportunity to voice them live on air!

Once the unexpected news was digested, the show changed tact to discuss issues closer to the heart and there was a lively call-in about parents favouring one sibling which provoked some interesting debate amongst our quintet. This was followed by a quirky feature on motorways whilst all interspersed with music as diverse as Meghan Trainor to Duran Duran.

The visit culminated in a Q&A session with Jeremy and acclaimed newsreader and presenter, Fiona Bruce - see photograph. It was quite an experience and education for our quintet!

Jeremy, his team and Fiona were delightful and charming hosts and couldn't have made us feel more welcome.


It could just be that one of our group will end up on the radio or behind the scenes in the future... !