Inside line
A bit of a first yesterday for News 24: we went to jail. Our home affairs correspondent Jane Hughes was granted exclusive access to Britain's biggest prison - Wandsworth in South London. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it's the first time anyone's been allowed to broadcast live all day from behind bars.
But it wasn't easy getting to this point.
It was back in February that the first contact was made with the Prison Service press office. "How about letting me in?" said plucky Jane. "You seem like a trustworthy sort of cove," came the reply. She then had to undergo detailed questioning from the Prison Service, the Governor of Wandsworth and assorted other officials - some of whom were extremely wary. She had to send a formal written proposal to the 91Èȱ¬ Office, which eventually acquired the ministerial seal of approval. At last, Jane, her producer and the technical team went for a full day's "recce".
It was all going rather swimmingly. But then the row over foreign prisoners blew up and Charles Clarke resigned - the day before we were due to go live from Wandsworth. Frustratingly, but not surprisingly, the 91Èȱ¬ Office told us the deal was, temporarily, off.
Yet more negotiations finally got us to Tuesday's live broadcasts.
Our team had to arrive with all the technical kit you'd expect: cameras, lights, cables etc - but they also turned up armed with a ladder, a saw and lots of rope. Which caused much amusement among some of the older lags. Especially when the engineers had to saw a hole in a door and throw a rope over the perimeter wall - all to facilitate the live broadcasts, you understand. They've not had so much excitement at Wandsworth since 1965 when Ronnie Biggs jumped the wall.
Comments
A really good idea - and much more interesting in the time used than the 91Èȱ¬ One show "Behind Bars" earlier in the year.
The interview concerning the radio project was quite interesting too.
I don't know much about OB's and uplink trucks, but I'd have thought some sort of wireless technology would have been available now avoiding that sort of need for long cables?
I was about to reply with the same comment as James (1), if you can send live pictures via sat from Iraq, then surely you can use a microwave link and get line of sight from a prison cell (window) to an OB truck outside of the prison walls?
James, I doubt they can take the bandwidth required. All the mixing is done in the OB truck, so thats feeds for every camera, mic etc plus stuff for the reverse - feedback to the on-site crew (so they can see whats going out) and comms etc.
There would probably be a way, but I doubt prison walls are very good at letting in wireless signals, they don't even work too well in my house!
Leave it to 91Èȱ¬ to get a story by breaking INTO prison.
Well, I had missed the show but your description really gave me the idea of show. Anyways it's not easy to make report as it seems. Show might have hit up.
CheerS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Are they still in there? They did well negotiating their way in, but did anyone think to say they wanted to be let out again?
Thanks for the reply Ed. I thought I'd seen some sort of wireless before... Could have always been taping in advance of setting up or something... I suppose the local radio vans with the big aerials require much, much less bandwidth too.
In the prison I think they had at least two cameras inside, not to mention the feedback. Even so - you make a good point about the prison walls. ;-)