Law in Action: the early years

My misguided attempts to save the BBC money

Readers of the first episode in this pre-anniversary saga will recall that I had denied myself the chance of producing a new programme about legal issues for BBC Radio in 1982 by becoming a news reporter instead. As nobody else wanted to make the programme, Radio 4 was perfectly happy to put the proposal on hold, perhaps indefinitely.

Some in the BBC could not understand why I should want to transition, as we might say now. In cricketing terms, producers were gentlemen and reporters were merely players. In career terms, producers went on to become editors or managers while reporters simply carried on reporting.

Of course, I wouldn’t have had it any other way. All those bosses were sitting behind their desks just so that I could stand up somewhere and tell the world what was going on.

Reporting from the Falklands in 1983 (not really: the microphone was not plugged in)

After a year or two as a general reporter, I had become sufficiently well established for editors to let me take long trips abroad. I wrote here last year about the month or so I spent in the Falkland Islands, at a time when the islanders were trying to resume the obscurity they had previously enjoyed. Another month filling in for the New York-based reporter led to some fascinating trips.

I enjoyed the challenge of speaking authoritatively about topics that I knew nothing about. Once again, though, the fates had other ideas.