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Who will chase the bad guys now? A thread.
I’ve had a few days to digest it. The BBC doesn’t want me. I’m being made redundant. Okay.
But I need to tell you about the stories I work on that now have no home. The little man will lose their champion.Their champion was me (1/18)
I’ve had a few days to digest it. The BBC doesn’t want me. I’m being made redundant. Okay.
But I need to tell you about the stories I work on that now have no home. The little man will lose their champion.Their champion was me (1/18)
(I’m part of a team, & they are utterly incredible, but I haven’t asked for their permission to talk about them here so I’m just gonna tell you about my experience ok?) For the last five years I’ve mostly made films where I’ve secret filmed people up to no good (2/18)
...and chased them down the road with a camera to get answers. I want you to know how hard this is to get to air. Just in case you don’t know! When you’re balls deep in an investigation it’s consuming. It takes over your whole life. There’s no respite. None. (3/18)
The people whose stories you’re telling usually have complex, intricate stories. Conversations with case studies routinely take hours. And you can’t stop. If another case study pops into your inbox an hour before broadcast you still have to chat to them, because evidence (4/18)
...is evidence and when you defame someone as much as I do, you need to protect yourself. And there’s protection in many people telling you the same thing. The lawyers often laugh at me when they say “how many people do you have saying this?” And I reply “40”. I’ve had 60 (5/18)
My record is 96. You have to gather their prima facie evidence, all their paper work (for the Panorama I made there were 10,000 pieces of paper. I estimated there were 3 million words - and I read every one) I kept them in a suitcase. You always need more. (6/18)
Inevitably, much of the time, the people are C2DE as they’re ‘the little man’ & they need your help to fight the system. The power. So most of these calls are in the evening. You work all day then work some more when they can talk to you after their kids have gone to bed. (7/18)
Then there’s secret filming. It is fraught with jeopardy. When will you do it!? How? You have to amass evidence and present it to get permission, it’s (rightly) not easy. You’re scrutinised (rightly). Then there’s the right of reply. Often it’s 2 pages long. (8/18)
It can be as much as 5. You have to be confident that you could stand up in a court of law and defend every single thing you’ve written. Then comes their right of reply. Which is frequently a solicitor’s letter, threatening to sue you and the BBC (9/18)
(as the producer of an item I can be personally sued if there’s something libellous in my piece). And then usually it’s a doorstep. You can sit for days and days and hours and hours and hours waiting to pounce. Like a coiled spring. And it’s only 30 seconds on the telly. (10/18)
But it’s the most important 30 seconds as it’s your chance to get answers for the myriad people whose whole life has been overtaken by the wrong doing of this person stood in front of you. There have been 30 or so of these investigations in the last 5 years. (11/18)
Hundreds & hundreds of people have had their stories heard. I want them to continue to be heard. But I don’t know where they go now? Often the police & Trading standards can’t help. Their stories have usually consumed them. Monopolised their lives. So this breaks my heart (12/18)
If one of them finds something cathartic in seeing their story brought to life on tv, then the late nights scouring through paperwork, the conversations lasting hours, then it is all worth it. Afterwards most people are grateful. But actually some of them aren’t. (13/18)
They don’t really get why you haven’t included this, or haven’t included that. As much as you manage their expectations, sometimes even the chase down the road is unsatisfactory to them. I often want to say (but never do) “you have no idea how hard I’ve worked on this... (14/18)
... this is the best I could do! The most serious things I could prove!” So sometimes you don’t even get the satisfaction of a pat on the back from the people you’ve tried so desperately to help. I just hope that over time they come to change their mind. (15/18)
My favourite day ever was when one case study rang me 6 months later to thank me. Recognising that they did have their day in the court of public opinion thanks to me, it just took them time to realise it. Oh, and It’s not over when you broadcast either. (16/18)
Sometimes the police request all your footage. There’s often legal letters. Red flag complaints. I’ve even been investigated by OFCOM (in a judgement which ran to 40 + pages) every single part of the complaint was found in my favour. (17/18)
These stories still need to be told. In regional journalism there must still be a space carved out to help them. I won’t be the one doing it. But we have to get them a taste of justice. Because sometimes, hell, a lot of times, I was all they had.
Thanks for reading. (18/18)
Thanks for reading. (18/18)
I just want to add cos so many people are reading this, that I don’t do any of this in a silo. I have HUGE help from an incredible team (journalists & craft editors). I have the burden of responsibility. But they help me every step of the way and It wouldn’t happen without them.
