Professional Schizophrenia

There is a schizophrenic quality to life when one day you're a journalist and the next a teacher, or one day a B2B trouble-shooter and the next the executive chair of an archive, debating with librarians the storage of a priceless costume. That last one is still unsolved: we have the original Ram Gopal 'Garuda'costume safely in our collection at Brunel, but we don't have the £10k to conserve and display it in the way advised by specialist costumiers:(

This week, I've been a programme maker, every hour of the current and previous days has gone on honing the BBC Daytime idea that we unexpectedly stumbled on during our ruminations a while back. Tomorrow we have a meeting with Jamie Oliver's producer, Nicola Gooch, at 15, his brilliant restaurant in Old Street. Nicola is an old friend from Six O'Clock Show days, and has been part of the Beeb's commissioning group as well as the brilliant brains behind series like General Hospital. I'm hoping that it will take just one cast of her expert eye over our synopsis, programme format, guest research and costings to spot both the jewels and the dross!

Screen Servers

In April, a friend and I launched Wisebetty, a website aimed at women over 45 who were returning to, or retraining for work. We set up a pre-election questionnaire with Survey Monkey. The responses told us that a fifth of women questioned intended voting LibDem and that 80 per cent wanted the site to include a jobsboard. This meant having a site custom-built at great cost. And taking on staff who understood recruitment, had contacts with employers and could generate ads. As we sat despondently playing with figures, a TV idea presented itself...

Initially, we devised a programme that would target the Betties: our over-45s. That morphed into a talk show idea. We spent two weeks mapping it out and shot a pilot - half an hour with the formidable Marjorie Thompson, former Chair of CND, now a political lobbyist who's joined the Tories. Why? The shoot went well and pilot looked good. But.. it felt too highbrow for today's daytime audience which lives on a diet of Cash in the Attic.

We played with the format. It morphed into a magazine show idea. We spent two weeks mapping it out. Then it morphed into a game show idea. We spent one week mapping it out. And then we had our Eureka moment..... This morning we worked out the format of a show that could run and run. We've already mapped the first ten programmes and fixed up a meeting next week with a daytime producer who knows about pitching. Watch this space.

Late afternoon, I had lunch with an old friend, my former news editor at The Guardian, Melanie Phillips. Melanie's newspaper and magazine columns can make some people's hair stand on end. You may have heard her on the Moral Maze. In my view, the most challenging commentators don't prevaricate in a constant ideological dither, they tear around the edges battling with extremes and forcing us into battle either for or against.

Catch Up

A week where work impacted on pleasure and vice versa. The good thing about freelancing is that you can take time out to do other 'stuff' so Tuesday was a hedonism fest - the celebration of a 19th birthday with brunch and, later, a barbeque for twenty. No time to catch up on sleep as Wednesday was wall-to-wall meetings. It started at the National Liberal Club off Whitehall. The Strategy Committee of the VLV (Voice of the Listener and Viewer - not to be confused with the NLVA, Mrs Whitehouse's crew) has so much to deal with that extra-curricular meetings are a must. So much is happening that impacts on public service broadcasting. Jeremy Hunt is grunting all over the place and threatening to reduce the licence fee; Sky is harrumphing and unwieldy as Murdoch attempts world domination; the fracas over seven figure salaries at the Beeb has placed everyone under scrutiny. At the heart of the equation, it's the programming that suffers. Next, Lambs Conduit Street for lunch with my partner in crime who was off to talk to TV bods about a programme idea we've got. As we sat chewing the fat on an overcast afternoon, two of her old TV friends sauntered past, did a double-take and joined us: a portent perhaps? Late afternoon, a meeting of the Corporation of Westminster Kingsway College. It was a sad meeting: one of our brilliant VPs is retiring and the student governors are off into the real world after two years sitting with old codgers arguing about quality and standards and the application of policy to resources. I crept home at 9.30, happy to hit the sack... The next two days passed in a blur: conversations with solicitors and upping the ante with estate agents. The girls and I completed on our new house first thing on Friday. I got the keys at 10 and the builders started off loading a truck of equipment at twenty past. Work begins in earnest on Monday with the instruction that the place must be habitable by mid October: I work best to deadlines, even when delegating:)

Polarities and Polar Bears

A writers' lunch in Bath to discuss a terrific new venture by novelist, Susie Barrett. Her online publishing venture, Writersreadersdirect.com, launches next month. New and established writers will upload work for a fee. Readers download for between one and three pounds, most of which goes to the author.

The site has huge potential. So many people have stories to tell. This is an opportunity for them to do so, with Susie vetting uploads to ensure a level of competence that will keep readers coming back. A number of well known writers are already offering work - a lot of it under pen names to prevent problems with their existing publishers - and Susie has procured a well received but unsold novel by a first-timer, to kick off.

In the glorious Sunday sunshine we sat high up on a hill overlooking the city, drinking Prosecco on Clare Reddaway's terrace and considering issues around content, commitment and copyright. Later we sat down to chicken and salad and talked about books, about computer hacking, about plot over characterisation and.... Jaws. Nicola Davies, the zoologist and children's writer, captivated us with her evocation of marine life, showing how the increasing demand for Shark's Fin Soup by China's growing middle classes is changing fish stocks and behaviours forever.

She also told us the best way to escape Polar Bears. They're the only mammals that instinctively hunt humans and run extremely fast. But... they overheat at around 300 yards. "You need to strip while you're running," she advised. "Bears don't understand clothing and stop to inspect discarded items, thinking it must be skin or a limb. That buys you time to put a greater space between you." We contemplated the outcome over strawberries and cream, agreeing that it is probably better to die naked in snow that ripped apart by a bear.

Frowning Street

Just back from the first Mock Cabinet meeting - part of a new initiative by the Downing Street Project to see if putting together a group of diverse people correctly reflecting modern society, will change the way we make decisions. As Minister for Education, I played things safe and tried to push through a curriculum change at Key Stage 1 Level - the introduction of a Talking Hour, to put language on a separate footing to literacy. Language is the horse, literacy is the cart. Without children first grasping the power and importance of language they can't appreciate the value of literacy. It is possible to function at a very high level without literacy, as numerous highly successful Dyslexics like Richard Branson, Richard Rogers, Susan Hampshire and AA Gill attest; it is not possible to function at a very high level if you don't have the vocabulary and the confidence to express yourself, including expressing your needs... Alas, the ministers around the table who are teachers did not feel separating the two added value, and the parents were torn over the idea that the results of Year 2 SATS tests be used only for administrative and teaching purposes. The one point they did agree was increased help for stragglers in Years 3 and 4 and there was consensus on literacy standards for teachers being raised from GCSE Grade C, to GCSE Grade A or A*. It is a paper with which I shall have to limp back to the virtual ministry and readdress!! The founder of DSP and the game that is Mock Cabinet, is Indra Adnan, a convert to, and proselytiser of, soft power. Not sure I was very soft. The chap at Work and Pensions, however, had all his ideas passed virtually unanimously: that said, who's going to say no to a 21 hour week? Quite how it works when you have the same overheads as before, I don't know, but I suspect that will be clarified in the next round of consultations.... The debate was far more intense than I'd imagined and there are some seriously bright sparks limbering up for action. Not an easy ride, which suggests this initiative might just work! More men would be good, though. So hot in London today. After nearly six hours of intense and energising brainstorming it's a relief to come home, throw off smart clothes and slob around in a tee shirt with a Shepherd's Pie in the oven...