Usually when I'm in the Peak District it's to ride my bike but I've been out there to cover the pros in the Tour of Britain who were cycling on the roads I know so well. The race attracts some of the biggest names in the sport. I covered the story for BBC Look North and BBC Radio Sheffield - another example of how we're now doing more multi-media journalism than ever before.
Here's my TV live...
And my report for the programme...
And I did lots of reporting for BBC Radio Sheffield too, including this piece for Rony Robinson's live broadcast from Hathersage...
BBC Copyright
Showing posts with label Radio Derby. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Radio Derby. Show all posts
Saturday, 12 September 2015
Monday, 17 October 2011
Olympic Dreams, Rebecca Peake
As part of the Olympic Dreams series for BBC
Radio Derby I've been tracking the progress of four of Derbyshire's London 2012 hopefuls. Rebecca Peake is a shotputter from Kilburn and here's an article that my colleague who works on online has written using my interview with Rebecca:
Wednesday, 14 September 2011
Ariel Magazine
I've been featured alongside four colleagues at BBC Radio Derby in the BBC's staff magazine Ariel. Five of us in the newsroom have already got, or are about to get, married! Click on the photo above for a closer look.
Emily and I are also on our wedding photographer's website. Danielle Benbow is relatively new to working on weddings but the quality of her photos is superb. Click here to see our pre-wedding shoot in Sheffield.
Monday, 1 August 2011
Olympic Dreams
Over the last few weeks I've been working on a series for BBC Radio Derby called 'Olympic Dreams'. I'm tracking the progress of four athletes in the build up to London 2012. They are Leon Taylor who is the Paralympic football team goalkeeper from Chaddesden, Rebecca Peake, a shotputter from Kilburn, women's boxer from Oakwood Talia Anthony and one of Derbyshire's most successful current athletes, the swimmer Ross Davenport. I've been out to see them train in Derby and Loughborough. My colleague Gavin who works on the BBC Derby website, has written an article from my interview and used a snap I took of Ross at the pool at Loughborough. Click here to read it.Working on this series, which has started on BBC Radio Derby this week, has given me a deeper interest in the sports the athletes compete in. I've really enjoyed learning about the intricacies of the athletes' training and the sacrifices they make in order to try to make it to London 2012. For example, Rebbecca (below) works as a lecturer at Loughborough College, trains before at lunchtime and after work. She trains for a week every month with her coach in Holland.
She's also a good laugh. Before researching my interviews with the athletes, I did research on them on the internet. This is one of the videos I found of Rebecca Peake, she says she was bored while on a training camp in the States!
Saturday, 23 July 2011
Reporting on the Bombardier Rally
Today I've been covering the Bombardier march and rally in Derby. I reported live from the Bass Recreation Ground where the five to six thousand protesters gathered (photo 1), on the march through the city (photo 2) and at the rally on Cathedral Green (photo 3). I also recorded some interviews for Monday's breakfast show including one with Derby South MP Margaret Beckett. I took photos on my iPhone and emailed 
them on location to BBC News online. My pictures were used on the BBC article which featured on the home page of the BBC News England website.
It was quite amazing to see so many thousands of people marching through the heart of Derby with their colourful placards and banners against the government's decision to give a £1.4 billion contract to German firm Siemens rather than Derby-based Bombardier. I hadn't expected there to be as many as five to six thousand, and among them, so many Derbyshire people with no connection to Bombardier.
Below is a 60 second recording I made on my phone using the Audioboo app during the march. I let the recording breathe so you can hear plenty of the atmosphere.
Wednesday, 6 July 2011
A Day In The Life
BBC Radio Derby has recently celebrated its 40th anniversary. To mark the event, a video of a day in the life of the radio station has been made. It gives you an insight into what my colleagues and I get up to at work...Thursday, 19 May 2011
Pride Park
It was BBC Radio Derby's 40th birthday last month and we've been marking it by looking back at some of the key events in Derbyshire and East Staffordshire over the last four decades. I made a package on Derby County's move from the Baseball Ground to Pride Park in 1997. I went along to the recent home game against Hull where I took this photo and recorded lots of natural sound which included the fans going through the turnstiles and crowds chanting. You can listen to my package by clicking here.The first football match I ever went to was at the Baseball Ground with my dad. We slipped in at half time for free and stood on the terraces. Pride Park is a fantastic place to watch football thanks partly to the fact that Derby County are still able to attract 25,000 fans to every home game despite this being a disappointing season. You can listen to some of the other BBC Radio Derby 40th anniversary packages here.
Monday, 9 May 2011
BBC Radio Derby, Sony Station of The Year...Again!
BBC Radio Derby has tonight been named Sony Station of The Year for an unprecedented third time in five years (and second year in a row)! It makes all the hard work everyone at the station puts in worth it. It may not look state of the art, but we create award winning radio in this former car show room. Click here to read what the judges said about us. Here's the video of our team collecting the award...Tuesday, 3 May 2011
iPhone. A Reporter's Friend.
I've written the following as a guest blog post for the website www.newmediamonster.co.uk which covers all things new media.
My work as a BBC reporter has been helped enormously by finally giving in and investing in an iPhone in November last year. I now heavily rely on it to help me tell stories. I’m often the radio car reporter, which means I drive a people carrier around my patch (Derbyshire and
After being woken by the phone’s alarm at
Once I’m at work and have printed off the details of the five or so stories I’ll be covering, I set off on the radio car and often use my phone to help me get to the locations. I use Google maps as a reassuring back up to the unreliable sat nav in the car.
If I have time when I get to the story, I often use the Google app on my phone to do some further research such as finding out statistics, for example I recently went to a story about the closure of Sure Start Centres in
After I’ve finished my live I take photos of the locations and people I interview and then email them from my phone to the presenter, producer and web team. It allows them to upload the photo straight to the BBC Radio Derby Facebook page which the presenter will then refer to on air and sometimes the snaps are used for articles on www.bbc.co.uk/derby. I also upload some of the more interesting photos on my personal twitter feed and sometimes record a video on my phone to enhance my blog posts, here’s a good example.
I’ve recently started using the app VR+ to record audio on location and then email it to the newsroom in seconds. The app came into its own recently when I was reporting from Birmingham Crown Court on the murder trial of Sylwia Ciapcinska. The court is a 25 minute walk to the Mailbox, the BBC building in the city, and I wanted to get my material on air as soon as possible once the verdict had been returned. I used the app to record my report on the court steps for the news bulletin and an interview with the police as well as the victim’s parent’s statement. I then emailed the audio to my colleagues in the newsroom in
The iPhone is an incredible aid to reporting and is an exciting way of enhancing the way we tell stories by, for example, adding photos and video. The next step for me is to use my phone to broadcast live which I know the radio car reporter at BBC 3 Counties Radio in
Tuesday, 26 April 2011
Reporting on Oxford United
I never thought I'd have the chance to report on Oxford United but on Easter Saturday I covered the Chesterfield match at the Kassam Stadium for BBC Radio Derby - albeit from the opposition's perspective. My pre match, half time and full time reports had to be brief. I wonder what you think about me singing during my half time report? Too much? Perhaps, but I think it's important to inject personality into reporting and I feel it fitted the mood of a club celebrating promotion. Here's my pre match, half time and full time reports...Oxford v Chesterfield by markansell
After the game I went pitch-side tointerview Oxford United's defender Damian Batt on my iPhone. He was voted by the Professional Football's Association as the best right back in League 2. I forgot to stop the recording at the end of the interview so you can hear a bit of small talk afterwards...
Damien Batt interview by markansell
I also interviewed Chesterfield Manager John Sheridan...
John Sheridan interview by markansell
It's been about 4 years since I last reported on football but I really enjoyed it. When I was a student I used to go to a lot of Sheffield United matches at Bramall Lane with my friend Paul and I'd write half and full time reports and read them to my audience - him! Very sad I know but I love the challenge of summing up the action. The aim is to try to capture the essence of the game in an engaging way.
Thursday, 14 April 2011
Young and Unemployed
I've been looking into the stats on the number of young people in Derby who are are claiming job seeker's allowance. I found out that over the last 3 years it was up 77% to over 2,000 18 to 24 year olds. I went out in to Derby to ask random young people the daunting question, "why aren't you working?" And this is what they told me for this morning's breakfast show on BBC Radio Derby... Everybody I spoke to was frustrated but nonetheless friendly and not in the least bit threatening. It just shows that with a mic in your hand you have the unspoken permission to ask people almost anything and that most people don't mind being asked questions. I remember when I was a teenager on work experience at an Oxford commercial radio station I was asked to go out and vox people on their sexual health, and people answered!
Sunday, 10 April 2011
Birds of Prey in Risley
I recently had the great pleasure of going back to Risley, the Derbyshire village where I spent many a happy weekend in my younger years. My Bonnemaman (Belgian Grandma) and Grandad lived in a lovely big, old house (left) with outhouse after outhouse next to garden after garden. As part of a nature series for the afternoon programme I went to a bird of prey centre in the village. The lives I do in the afternoon last
longer than for the breakfast show where we cover many more stories - so I had plenty of time to get my hands on a very dangerous animal...
Friday, 1 April 2011
Fish Feet!
Today I was reporting live at a new 'fish therapy' shop in Burton after stories in the press claiming that it could be dangerous to have fish nibbling on your feet...Afterwards, I recorded a video on my phone...
Friday, 4 March 2011
Hot Tub Mascot
One of the most enjoyable aspects of being the radio car reporter is the range of stories I get to cover.Hard news is what you live for as a reporter but it's great to be able to do some light hearted stories from time to time. Serious stories often tell themselves (you stick to telling the listener the hard facts) whereas lighter stories offer the opportunity to be more creative. Today, for example, I reported from a hot tub...
Podcast Powered By Podbean
And the other day I went to Derbyshire County Cricket Club as they're in search of someone to be the mascot. I gave it a go...
Podcast Powered By Podbean
I've made some changes to the blog - a new name: 'Behind The Stories' which sums up more accurately what I'm writing about and a new, more exciting design. After three and a half years, I felt it was time for the blog to be refreshed. I hope you like what you see.
Wednesday, 16 February 2011
Funeral For Fire Death Children
I spent today in Ashbourne covering the funeral of the four children who died in a house fire in Hulland Ward last month. I, and the other journalists from BBC East Midlands Today, ITV Central and local newspapers, were allowed to sit at the back of the church during the service. It was an emotionally draining day and I couldn't help feeling out of place - being exposed to so many people's grief inside the church. My colleague Dave has put together an excellent photo gallery of the day.And here's one of my four live reports on the funeral...
This breakfast show trail shows the range of stories I get to cover everyday...
Thursday, 27 January 2011
House Fire in Hulland Ward
This is one of the few stories I've worked on which has continued to play on my mind long after my working day is over. Over the last couple of days I've been covering the disturbing story of the death of four children in a house fire in Hulland Ward near Ashbourne. This was the first time I've been on a story for BBC Radio Derby where TV crews from Sky News, BBC News, ITV News etc were there. Yesterday I did seven lives for the breakfast show from the scene, including this one...
I then went to Ashbourne, where the childrens' mother works to report for the mid morning show...Wednesday, 15 December 2010
Back Where I Was Stuck
Today I went back to Hulland Ward near Ashbourne, where I was stuck in the snow with the BBC Radio Derby radio car two weeks ago. As you can see in this photo compared with those in my blog post below, the snow has since melted away. However, the white stuff is scheduled to fall there this weekend. I went back to interview the Coxon family who looked after me when I was stuck there for four hours. I asked them how they're preparing for the impending below zero temperatures.
Tuesday, 30 November 2010
Stuck in the Snow
Today instead of covering the story, I became it after being stuck in the snow for four hours. I left the newsroom prepared for the cold weather (see left) and headed to Hulland Ward near Ashbourne to do a radio car story for the breakfast show. I parked the vehicle in a drive off the main road and after doing the interview decided to head to Ashbourne to report live on the effect of the snow there. What I didn't realise was that from where I'd parked - on a gradient - and despite desperate attempts by myself and the friendly people who lived there, I was going nowhere.
This did nonetheless provide me with the opportunity to report live on the my predicament. After all, I was planning to report on how the snow was impacting on people!
Snow report 1:
It also allowed me the chance to Tweet my goings on and include some snaps of what happened on the BBC Radio Derby Breakfast Show Facebook page.
After a couple of hours I was no closer to leaving but was cheered by the sight of a gritter from the council in my wing mirror. However not only did they fail to clear the snow and spread salt to allow the residents access to drive, they quickly became stuck in the snow just as I was. Their efforts to escape were captured on the phone of by Tom Coxon, a 16 year old who lives there. His video is well worth a watch, it's featured on the BBC Derby website.
After a couple of hours I was no closer to leaving but was cheered by the sight of a gritter from the council in my wing mirror. However not only did they fail to clear the snow and spread salt to allow the residents access to drive, they quickly became stuck in the snow just as I was. Their efforts to escape were captured on the phone of by Tom Coxon, a 16 year old who lives there. His video is well worth a watch, it's featured on the BBC Derby website.
Tom provided me with cups of tea and excellent interviews for my live updates. I ended up recording a story for Wednesday's breakfast show on how he and his step dad snowbaord down the hill behind his garden whenever it snows.
Eventually, at 1 in the afternoon the RAC man managed to get the radio car out with the use of a rapidly dwindling supply of grit and a shovel I borrowed from one of the neighbours. So it was back to the newsroom having made new friends and with plenty of tales to tell my amused colleagues.
Wednesday, 17 November 2010
Is the high street dead?
I reported live for the BBC Radio Derby breakfast show on the phone in topic, is the high street dead? I went to Long Eaton, between Derby and Nottingham, and staged managed this live. I lined up the first interview with the owner of a newsagent who partly blames charity shops for the death of the high street and then walked across the road into a charity shop to put that accusation to the shop's manager.Tuesday, 2 November 2010
Reporting From A Speed Boat!
I went to Ogston Reservoir in the beautiful Derbyshire countryside to do a feature for the BBC Radio Derby afternoon show. I recorded the interview about the sailing club on a speed boat with one of the club's founder members, 91 year old Harry Fisher.
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