Back in the day…

I’m sat here thinking back down the years at the hundreds of people I’ve interviewed, some for radio, others on camera, and the many different characters that I’ve had the pleasure of getting a glimpse into the lives of, albeit often for the length of time that the tape’s been running.

There was the professional footballer who kept his hands in his shorts for the whole of our interview, the professional footballer who said ‘you know’ on five separate occasions during an interview that lasted about fifteen seconds by the time he’d been edited, maybe there’s a theme here that I should avoid talking to footballers!!

I always enjoy interviewing people who have lived longer than myself, they normally have plenty of tales to tell (mainly when the record button is off!!), I feel I learn a lot from them,  but also they tend to seem at least, a lot more comfortable in their own skin than the younger ones.

For a good year or so, my job was to film adults with a learning disability, which was often the most inspiring experience, okay they didn’t have the advantages of so called ‘normal’ people but were mainly the most genuine and friendly people you can imagine, in fact when I’m having a low day, it’s those videos I will want to watch, as the always put a smile back on my face from some of the personalities that I was lucky enough to meet.

I remember the morning I spent with a mother and her daughter, her daughter has what the experts call a profound and multiple learning disability. This meant she was in a wheelchair and could only communicate through blinking, but that didn’t stop her being able to go to a Ronan Keating concert, which she enjoyed as much as anyone.

The hairy cornflake

Have I met any of my heroes? Well Dave Lee Travis was fantastic, exactly what you’d expect from a broadcasting legend, as you’ll see from watching this short film of the two of us:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8NlAcNSq3k

Like any good celeb, he made you feel like you were the most important person in the world, and I’d say the same for Ricky Tomlinson.

The boyband Blue were better than I expected, Sir Jackie Stewart was shorter than I expected and as for any stars that weren’t quite as they should be, well I’ll save that for my tell all autobiography when I’m famous but not quite as rich as I want to be!

If you want to see more of what I’ve been upto, why not visit www.youtube.co.uk/buckinghamshirecc, there’s plenty more fun stuff coming from me in the months to come,

Thanks for reading,

Andy