Creating the magic of television in Bristol

It’s 8.30am on a recent Tuesday morning and already the newsroom inside the BBC’s Whiteladies Road base is humming with activity.

BBC Radio Bristol are broadcasting live from their studios at the back of the room, while researchers put in calls to set up interviews. The TV screens on the walls are all silently tuned to BBC Breakfast news, while at the Points West desks, assistant news editor Dawn Twentyman, who will produce today’s programmes, is in early, leafing through the morning papers with a coffee.

Senior broadcast journalist Sarah-Jane Bungay comes in from her penultimate live broadcast of the morning, bright-eyed in full make-up and a suit, and sits down at her computer.

“My first bulletin starts at 6.25am, so I get to the office at 5am to look through the stories and write my script,” she says. “There are always things to change or tweak, and often stories have developed over night, so it can be really busy and hectic.

“We tweak the bulletins from one to another, including the photos,” she explains, tapping away on the keyboard. “I don’t want it to sound like Groundhog Day!”

At 9.15am sharp, a dozen people enter a meeting room with Steph Marshall, head of regional and local programmes, and producer Dawn, to briefly reflect on yesterday’s programmes and then move on to their plans for today.

Dawn talks through possible stories: a man who lost his limbs after being electrocuted, a policeman who pulled a sickie to go to the races, a skeleton found in a suit of armour. Some are deemed too challenging to arrange, while others are discussed in detail.

Dawn Twentyman chairs a meeting about the content of the evening show

The reporters take notes and chip in with ideas – social media videos for the digital platforms, whether one story might work better for radio, and whether correspondent Clinton Rogers should be made to put on fancy dress for a story about Jane Austen.

As the meeting ends, Dawn heads back to her desk and immediately gets onto the phone to send out her team of reporters. “If this one is a non-starter, try this other one,” she says to Andrew Plant, pressing a briefing sheet into his hand and firing off emails as she talks.

By 10am, emails and press releases are flying in thick and fast; stories are being confirmed or binned; interviews are set up, fall through and are replaced.

“In the morning it’s really busy, but it calms down once you have a plan,” Dawn says as she types while simultaneously flicking through the BBC News app on her phone.

“Once the stories are in place, then you can think about producing the evening show and being creative: who will be live, who will be out, what will be prerecorded, who will sit on the sofa.”

The stories are added to an online feed, to be claimed by the national newsroom, the local radio stations or the digital team; stories are currency here, and none are wasted.

At midday, presenter Alex Lovell makes her way into the smaller-than-you’d-think studio to rehearse the lunchtime bulletin. The studio has had many incarnations over the years. In the 1960s it was the home of Animal Magic, and retains its original wooden doors – but recent renovations have chopped it down in size to fit meeting rooms and a new high-tech gallery that’s all LED screens and glittering lights.

Watching from the gallery, mic’d up so Alex can hear everything that is said through her earpiece, the director starts a timed rehearsal. Drama school-trained Alex gets through the headlines in the ten allotted seconds, but grabs her throat afterwards and makes a comic face at the camera. “Too many words!” she laughs, and the director adjusts the script.

The woman controlling the autocue scrolls back up to the top and the music plays: Alex dances in her seat. Big Ben’s ‘BONG’ sounds are written into the script, and Alex suddenly switches into work mode like an actress as she takes it from the top again – this time for real.

As 1.30pm approaches, everyone sits up a little straighter. Alex is live and in full flow about schoolchildren in Swindon as the cricket results come in, and the script is edited again. She flawlessly segues into a section she’s never previously seen, before the broadcast ends and the studio is plunged into darkness.

In the newsroom, Alex’s co-presenter David Garmston has come in and logged into his email to check if there were any complaints from last night’s show (there aren’t). He pulls up the viewing figures next: “236,000,” he says excitedly. “Look, we beat both Eastenders and Corrie.”

Points West presenters Alex Lovell and David Garmston

Before they’re herded into another meeting, Alex and David sit down to talk about Points West’s upcoming 60th anniversary on September 30.

“I think the two stories on that first programme in 1957 were about the flu outbreak and Post Office closures,” says David. “We’re still doing Post Office closures, although we haven’t had a flu scare for a while,” he deadpans.

“The variety is phenomenal when you imagine the number of stories we’ve done over 60 years. I’ll never forget the Fred West murders in Gloucester. Then, we’ve had the great floods in Gloucestershire and Somerset; hurricanes, snow – I suppose the weather ones are stories that stand out. All life is there. It’s amazing when you dig through it.”

Alex nods. “Our archive is really special,” she says. “Whenever we put it on social media, it really takes off. Everything looking so different – the voices of the reporters were so posh – although some people would say we’re quite posh…”

A peak behind the scenes of the busy newsroom

“Nah, I’m common as muck,” says former newspaper reporter David, who went to Cotham School, and they both laugh.

“Michael Buerk’s worked for us, Kate Adie, Jonathan Dimbleby, David Dimbleby, John Craven, Anne Diamond – it’s almost an encyclopedia of British names in TV,” David continues. “There’s been a huge throughput of talent. I think Bristol tends to make a mark on people; people are fond of it, and it’s the programme they often say they had happy times at.”

The hallowed archives

Down a set of stairs is the hallowed Points West archive, plotting both the history of the programme and the technology of the past 60 years: shelves of enormous spools in tin cases with copperplate handwriting give way to chunky VHS tapes.

They contain not just the recordings of the Points West programme, but tape that date back to the Second World War, and events from Bristol’s collective consciousness, including the day the SS Great Britain limped home from the Falkland Islands as a rusty shell in July 1970.

We’re now a couple of hours from the evening broadcast, and footage is flowing in from the roving reporters.

David works on the script for the evening, as producer Dawn inputs camera shots and detail into a complex running order sheet. From the vague plans of the morning, the shape of the show is developing by the minute.

Behind the scenes in the gallery during a live broadcast of Points West with Alex Lovell

At 6pm, everyone takes up positions in the gallery and studio again. Dawn sits in, watching everything unfold, as the live reporters practice their lines outside schools and cricket stadiums.

The video footage for the top story hasn’t yet come in, but no one is visibly panicking – except, probably, the roving reporter desperately searching for a WiFi signal.

Alex and David are live, doing what they do every night with a smooth, practiced friendliness. They skillfully ignore everything being whispered into their ears, as segments are shunted up by the missing video footage.

As a shorter-than-expected clip plays, the presenters have just a few seconds to make their way across the studio to the sofa. David fumbles with his ear piece as the gallery counts down from three seconds to two, but, just in the nick of time, he begins to read the autocue flawlessly. The lost video arrives and is slotted in at the tail end of the programme.

As the closing music runs, everyone breathes a sigh of relief. “Thanks for staying cool, calm and collected, everyone,” says Dawn. “That wasn’t easy.”

The team emerge, blinking, into a newsroom emptying for the evening. In a few hours, Sarah-Jane Bungay will be back for the morning and the cycle will begin again – as it has done for the past 60 years, supplying the West Country with stories that define each day.

Read more: Points West celebrates 60th anniversary with guest presenters