1:57pm Tuesday 3rd June 2008
By Flash Bristow
Well, I certainly had a surprise last week! Raef from the Apprentice turning up to serenade me in my front room, live on national TV! But I'll start at the beginning...
A few months ago, I received a call from a production company, making films for The One Show. They knew of my love of electricity pylons and wanted to make a short film about it. The date was set,
a friend and fellow "spotter" came down from Scotland, and one Sunday in March, we went to sit in a field next to Braintree substation.
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The presenter and political commentator, John Sergeant, was there to give me a grilling in front of the camera. Filming took all day, which meant I had no idea which four minutes from the whole
shoot would have made the edit - it all depends on what they want to portray. This meant I was really looking forward to seeing the film on the One Show...
...then on the day of the programme I received a call at 11am saying they would be coming to my house for a live interview! This was a bit of a shock - we'd just had a Bank Holiday weekend and the
place needed tidying up, plus I would now have to get my husband home early so he could keep the dog quiet. So I swiftly cancelled my meetings for the day to make the necessary arrangements.
The film crew soon arrived in the street, and after testing their satellite link-up, came into my house to set up. I wonder if the neighbours saw the dish on their van and checked they had a valid
TV licence?!
After linking to the studio rehearsals, eventually my moment came. At 7.20pm I was wired up with a microphone and earpiece, told to stare down the camera, and then I could hear Adrian Chiles
talking to me from Television Centre. My face appeared on BBC1 with a caption "Live from Leytonstone" and I was on. There wasn't time to be nervous!
I had been told to expect a few questions about pylons and a couple about The Apprentice, but instead they surprised me with a "Come in, Raef!" and there was the man himself, recently evicted by
Alan Sugar, standing in my living room and reading me a poem about pylons. Wow, how surreal was that!
In just a few minutes it was over; I spoke to Raef as the film crew packed away, and then I opened my front door to find a throng of neighbourhood kids waiting for a glimpse of him. We all posed
for photos, the crew drove away... and it was over.
All that fuss for just a few minutes of live telly!
If you missed my big moment and you are curious to find out more about my strange hobby, a clip is available here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcQynxqv6XY
Embarrassingly enough I am going to be on telly again – this time on Countryfile, on 22 June. Same topic but this time being interviewed by Michaela Strachan in a nature reserve in Wales. No alarms
and no surprises! I think I prefer it that way.
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