Making "The One Show" Magic

Well that was some day!

24 hours ago I was getting hypothermia in Cardiff centre .. tonight I have a sunburnt head! Spring finally said hello, remember me, today!

Today was the day The One Show came to the Allotment with Jeremy Vine.

The One Show is a television magazine style show that is on BBC One every week night at 7pm. It is basically a topical show with short films and discussions. They contacted dad a few weeks back to ask if he would appear on the show to do a short film on raising awareness on Prostate Cancer. It was then suggested that they could Jeremy Vine to do "anchor" the film and that they would perform a test on willing volunteers for signs of enlarged prostates, performed by a proper doctor.

For those who don't know, my dad appears on the Radio 2 Jeremy Vine show every fortnight or so giving gardening tips to the nation.

It was a glorious day with unbroken sunshine all day, and the Arctic easterly that has been freezing us all to death the past fortnight had mercifully dropped.

It is a fascinating watching the process of making a short five minute film. Believe it or not it takes about seven to eight hours. It's not the first time I have been up the allotment to watch my dad being filmed, and it's the second time I have featured in something that has been filmed up there. There is an inordinate amount of faffing and re-shooting from several angles. When you see the interviews on the news and you have the nodding shot, you have to remember that it is all filmed with one camera, so the same piece is filmed from a few angles, but the single piece of soundtrack is used. It really is quite clever!

Of course the important part of the day was raising awareness of Prostate Cancer and getting ourselves tested. There were a few willing volunteers from the allotment and me and my brother. The only way to check the prostate is rather intimately. It involves a finger up the bum basically, and the size and smoothness of the prostate can be felt. It takes just a minute, and what's a minutes worth of awkwardness when compared to missing a perfectly treatable cancer.

The excellent news both me and everybody up there checked out okay.

I am not sure when it will be shown on The One Show, as the show gets re-jigged depending on the weeks news. It may be this Tuesday .. it may be Thursday .. it may be next Tuesday. I will let you know when I know.

There was one last bit of excitement when the camper van they used as the Pop-In Prostate Clinic broke down in the gates of the allotment and we had to wait a couple of hours for someone to turn up to get it started again. I felt sorry for the two guys who did all the filming etc as they had to drive all the way back from the Rhondda to Manchester. Jeremy was catching a train, so he was okay.

All in all a top day, and lovely to meet Jeremy Vine again. Always a top fella and a true professional when it comes to making these kind of things. As I said, fascinating to watch.