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.
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