Tales of Tales of Television Centre

I distinctly remember ending last week's entry saying that I wasn't expecting much too happen this week, well more happened than planned.

The man himself!

Monday was perhaps the first day of interest. I was in lectures as normal, but we were interrupted by a very special visitor, Sir Anthony Hopkins himself. He once went to college (61 years to that day apparently) as a musician (but then we kicked him out). As he has been filming up in Newcastle and had a few days off before returning to the US he decided to revisit his old uni, which he did in the form of a surprise tour. He was a very approachable man, introducing himself to us all and shaking our hands, and taking an interest in our lecture; a rather unexpected privilege indeed. The rest of the week was uneventful really, bar lectures. Friday evening was spent recording my sound project (oh that was fun).

As ever I wandered off on Saturday, however not for a convention but for a uni project (I looked for a convention but found none, trust me). I am currently doing a project on the BBC's move North and had arranged to chat with Roger Bunce (a cameraman) about the move as he had been very much involved in the campaign against it. On Friday evening I received an email saying that Clive Doig (vision mixer/producer) would be joining us, as well as possibly someone else (no pressure to ask good questions then!). Despite slight delays on the train I made to London and the four of us (the mystery guest turned out to be Bernie Newnham a cameraman/producer) chatted for a good few hours about the BBC (I could have been there all day), before enjoying a spot of lunch and then heading in our separate directions. It was fascinating to talk to them and a real privilege. Having finished by about 2.30 I gave dear Peter a call and popped in to see him. We went to his favourite little cafe as usual, as well as talking about the BBC and I was able to show him a new book about one of his Doctor Who stories which he was very impressed with. After an unexpected catch-up I headed back to Cardiff after a fascinating day.

As usual Sunday was spent catching up on normality, and was my first lie in for three weeks (yep, that really was the high-light of my day).