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Memories of a raving roving Reporter
The Probus Club of Sarum was able to welcome back Alan Jones, retired BBC Radio reporter. This time he entertained us with amazing as well as hilarious stories from his many years with the BBC.
He warned us, all his episodes would be about
foul-ups and mishaps, many of them due to the then precarious
technical arrangements available to a life radio reporter.
Alan started recalling his BBC interviewing
experience. He had to face a scary panel of interviewers. When he
was called for a second session the chairman explained how many
different roles the BBC has for young journalists, from writing the
stories to presenting them on TV and Radio. The chairman concluded:
“You have the face for radio”. Thus began a lifelong BBC career
spanning some 24,000 interviews.
In 1990 the provisional west wall of Portsmouth Cathedral was
demolished to restart the construction of the west end. This marked
the resumption of the expansion project that had been delayed due to
the war. Alan was asked to join a senior cleric at the top of the
scaffolding to interview as he dislodged the first brick and blessed
the restart of the project. However, his interviewee was so
terrified of heights that he rushed up like a Jack in a box, dislodged a single brick
and tried to rush back down the ladder. Alan had to trap him
on the ladder in order to get his life interview.
When reporting life the reporter normally gets instructions from the
production team through earphones counting down to the second.
The event was the ceremonial opening of a “blue flag beach” in Pool
by the Mayor. This was to be a mock landing of marines in RIBs, led
by the nubile, bikini clad daughter of the mayor. Mock explosions
were to go off as they rushed the beach. As the flotilla approached
Alan told the producer to get him on air. He was told wait!
When they finally told him to start he had to tell them it was
already over. The instructions through his earphones: “Tell them to
do it again”!
Approximately 20 minutes into the flight at an
altitude of 17,300 feet, the left cockpit windshield had blown out
and Captain Tim Lancaster being partially sucked out of the cockpit.
Co-pilot Alastair Atchison took immediate control of the aircraft. Flight attendants Nigel Ogden and Simon Rogers acted quickly to hold onto Captain Lancaster's legs, preventing him from being fully ejected.
Despite the extreme conditions—wind speeds of
over 300 mph, temperatures around -17°C, and the threat of further
decompression—the crew's coordinated efforts kept Captain Lancaster
from being lost.
Alan was asked to attend a big leukaemia fund
raising even in Swindon and interview the Mayor. On arrival the
receptionist in the glass entry box was stark nude. When he was led
to the press officer in the main hall he was nude as well. It turned
out the fund raisers were the Nudist Sports Club of GB. When Alan
finally started interviewing the Mayor his start was OMG, I nearly
sent my wife.
