July 18th 2014

 

It was the hottest day of the year so far, and the hottest place was London. I was in London! I was so glad therefore to be spending most of the afternoon in a recording studio in Acton, the Soundhouse Studio's. I was there, in a splendid check shirt I'd say, to record the first months 'Tweet of the Day' for Radio 4. Next to me is Gerry the sound engineer and of more importance through the glass Sir David Attenborough. Such is the professionalism of Sir David that we had the studio booked from 2pm to 6pm to record 30 scripts, each 90 seconds long or so, and read through twice. So that's about 90 minutes then. Because of the traffic Sir David was slightly late, we began at 2.15 and by 4.45pm, the job was done. Which is pretty good going. Hardly any go-backs and well at 88 he is the most astonishing naturalist to work with. I had no idea this photograph was being taken by Shauna Todd who joined us from the Radio 4 commissioning team, and I love it. It tells a story I didn't plan myself. Thank you Shauna.  Recordings completed, some books signed and Sir David left. I love working with someone who comes in, briefest of chats, job done, a brief thank you and goodbye. I left the studio's myself at 5pm and well as can be seen by the car thermometer, (even taken into account inaccuracy) it was a hot day - it stayed at 32oC through my drive to the M4. (Official temperature for today was 32.4 in Kent). Arriving home at 8.30pm in Somerset it was 22oC and sitting in the garden cooling off I could reflect on a perfect day.

 

 

Or at least an almost perfect day. Having arrived at the Industrial Estate the studios were located in, a solidly locked gate confronted me. A call to the studios 'Oh not Jenner Lane again, did you follow satnav or map instructions'. Turned out I was at the back entrance and the only way to enter was to re-join the complicated one way system, over and back across the A40. Instructions given to me were perfect, sadly I got into the wrong lane and, unable to move out of it, ended up on the A40 heading west to a gridlocked Hanger Lane Gyratory, scourge of all travel bulletins. Eventually thinking this is not going well, and with no possible way off, I went even further away and by luck took the only residential road that not only got me off the A40, but by using cunning and logic, travelling many a side street and residential area, I managed to find my way to Acton and so retraced my route back to the correct entrance. 4 miles and 45 minutes to go from the back to the front, and in that heat!! I arrived and Freddi the organiser of the day ran out saying 'we were getting worried' Lovely people to work for at the Soundhouse Studios.