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BBC research

December 2nd, 2005 · Posted by Skuds in Life · No Comments · Life

Thanks to Andrew I had an email from a BBC researcher called Andrew yesterday (St Andrew’s Day) and spent most of lunchtime today chatting on the phone with him.

Having what is charitably described as a face made for radio I am not particularly bothered if they want to film me for vox pops in an documentary or not, but its always good for the ego to talk to someone who is actually listening to what you are saying – even if they are being paid to do so.

I know that people who work for the BBC are either selected for the quality or trained in the skills, or both, but I was still impressed by some of the questions. Some were pretty obvious but some did actually make me think differently about a few things.

One thing I did discover, which surprised me, is that I still cannot talk about the African woman at Live 8. The one who was in the original Live Aid film, on the point of starving to death, who appeared on stage Hyde Park. I don’t know why. It is just a weak spot for me. If I think about her I feel in danger of starting to cry like a baby. Even writing this I can feel my throat constricting. When he asked about that I had to practically beg to change the subject to avoid a scene in the office.

I don’t know why this is. It could be the sadness of her original situation or happiness that she survived or something else. It just pulls at strings I am not normally aware of having.

The only other time I get this feeling is sometimes when I hear about the WWII concentration camps. In 2004 I was giving out Unite Against Fascism leaflets in Crawley town centre and started talking to an old boy. He had been in the British Army Intelligence at the end of the war and had been one of the first allied troops to go into Belsen, I think. Just thinking about him talking about it sets me off too. I would love to have persuaded him to take part in events where he talked to children about it all, but really felt unable to talk.

Lots of things make me happy or sad or angry, but these two are the ones which cause an almost instant and visceral reaction.

Lets just say I was a lot more comfortable talking about how great it was to see Pink Floyd playing together at last.

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