Working on 主播大秀 One’s involves taking tough decisions. When you’re producing an award-winning current affairs programme, known for its exclusive news stories and hard-hitting investigations, you become accustomed to exercising editorial judgement.
But I’m not sure our production teams ever predicted a major dilemma involving Poldark-style topless scything and wildlife presenter Nick Baker’s nipple ring. Yet that was the situation our South West production team found themselves in.
Wildlife presenter Nick Baker about to embark on some scything
Still, the unexpected comes with the job when you work on Inside Out, which as well as original journalism aims to offer our audiences a reflection of real life in England’s regions, a balanced diet of hard news and human interest. And in the South West that now means covering the surge in interest in scything. I’ll leave you to watch the final film to see if Nick Baker’s ring made the cut.
Most of the challenges our production teams face involve more journalistic-based judgements. Ensuring factual accuracy and editorial balance; taking care to treat contributors with respect, getting the right footage to create a compelling and fair film, telling stories in new and creative ways.
We make eleven different versions of the programme in each region of England. During production for our new series, we had journalists filming undercover, film crews pursuing stories overseas and reporters working in potentially dangerous situations.
Inside Out South West crew filming with a Cornwall dairy farmer about to sell his farm
Inside Out fulfils a core 主播大秀 purpose. We hold those with power to account, we get behind the headlines and investigate stories in detail. We perform an important public service by seeking to tell stories that are complex but informative, controversial but important.
In this series, we take a look at the abuse suffered by women who wear religious veils. We talk to a Yorkshire father who’s spent much of the last year on the frontline fighting so-called Islamic State. We investigate the impact delays in the justice system are having on the victims of crime.
How do we find our stories? Often they come from our viewers. An email into the programme can, eventually, result in a story being covered. Other times it could be a line in a local council report, a tip-off from a taxi-driver or a throw away comment overheard in a pub. Great stories can come from conventional or unconventional news sources. It doesn’t matter where the story starts but where it leads.
So Inside Out South investigated a story about computer scams as suggested by a viewer, which eventually led to an exposure of prize draw and telephone preference scams. In Yorkshire, the Inside Out team looked into a puppy farm after being contacted by a viewer who is a veterinary nurse. The North East and Cumbria team looked into a care home chain after concerns from viewers.
And our stories have impact. Since the first series of Inside Out aired in 2002, we’ve consistently produced agenda-setting stories. In our last series, a special about the alarming number of GPs leaving the profession was picked up by every national newspaper and led to an intervention from the health secretary.
Inspirational Gateshead woman Jo Milne on the beach at Low Newton
But the programme is also brilliant at focusing on people, and the interests and issues that matter to us all. So tune in this series to see a dairy farmer sell his farm because he can’t make a living from the price of milk. Learn about the Jewish refugee who fled the Nazis then ended up in Bomber Command. And see inspirational Jo Milne, who famously starred in a video last year when she heard for the first time thanks to ear implants, go on an emotional tour as she loses her sight to a degenerative condition.
Each of these stories are tailored to the region they are broadcast in but every Inside Out is available across the country on the iPlayer for 30 days.
Our aim over the next nine weeks is to inform, amaze and occasionally anger. I guarantee you’ll be surprised by the stories we tell, especially one that involves topless scything.
David Holdsworth is the controller of 主播大秀 English Regions
- returns on Monday 7 September at 7:30 pm on 主播大秀 One.
- Read the press release about the return of Inside Out on the .