BBC AND SOUTHBANK

Wednesday was a day filled with new adventures.

For starters for my Media and UK Politics class we took a field trip to the British Broadcasting Corporation more commonly known as the BBC. The tour was super informative and I felt important because I got to wear a BBC lanyard (lol). 

The tour guide explained to us the purpose of the BBC and showed us the newsroom, which was awesome. At one point during the tour she asked for three volunteers, 2 to read the news and 1 to tell the weather forecast. Naturally, I let my shyness get the best of me and didn’t volunteer but I wish I would have because it was super cool. 

After that part of the tour they took us into one of their studios where they film the British version of Good morning America. It was a tiny room with a huge window for a wall, and outside the window is where the performances would be. She explained to us that most studios are really small but the wide camera lenses make it appear so much bigger and that’s why people can look 10lbs heavier on TV!

 
After the studio we headed to a small concert/show hall, the BBC only pays performers 66 pounds to play there. So you must be thinking the artist that go there are crappy but they aren’t…some include Elton John, Justin Timberlake, Michele Buble!

My favorite part of the tour was the radio studio; it was unlike anything I have ever seen. In London and I’m sure all of England, radio dramas are very popular so they let my class record one! Five people or so read the scripts and one person was the sound effects. Being in control of the sound effects was a job in itself because if the script said they were walking you would be in a box walking on rocks, when they had champagne you had to pop the top off one, it was real cool.

Since I was already so far from home after my field trip I decided to stay out and wander the streets of London, it didn’t hurt that it was an awesome day. I walked around from 11-4 passing by Carnaby Street, Picadilly Circus, Big Ben, Parliament; I even walked through St. James Park, which was already starting to bloom with flowers!

After the park I decided to walk down Southbank and it was in it’s prime bustling with so much life. For those that don’t know Southbank is a walkway on the side of the River Thames and it has parks, the London Eye, a merry go round and a lot of street performers. Walking down Southbank was one of the best things I’ve done in awhile, it made me realize how lucky I am to be here and made me feel so alive.

Enjoy the show!

-AMV