I have never taken a motorway exit at 80mph

It was great being a runner and under 25 it meant that you didn't have to drive the hire cars. The only down side is the fact someone else was and not always competently!

smallest car

As a runner I have driven many a hire car and they always come in one extreme or the other. Either the company is trying to save as much money as possible and you end up with the worlds smallest car or your expected to drive everyone around and you get a MPV. there rarely is a middle ground.

There's the old joke isn't there "What's the fastest car?..... A hire Car!" well it certainly isn't any hire car I have driven. I recently had a Vauxhall corsa hired to me for work, I predominately had to use it to get to and from the big cities on the motorway. There was just me and my friend Whippet (I'll explain the name in my next blog) so a small car wasn't a problem to get everyone in, the only problem was with my foot to the floor trying to join the motorway was a life threatening situation. My own car is a moderate one and easily handles the speed required to drive anywhere, this hire car however had clearly never heard of 70mph. With whippet clung to the dashboard eyes closed it would have been easier if the footwells disappeared and like Fred Flintstone and we could run.

Legs out the footwells to go anywhere!

Before I was 25 though it was no safer. On one job we where traveling in an MPV to Wales. It was a cold October and raining. My best friend Dimmock  (after meeting my aging Grandparent they announced she looked like Charlie Dimmock, she doesn't and they are going blind but still!) and I were in the back and the window wipers were working flat out. The runner driving although had passed their test many years ago lived in a city centre and didn't have a car. Not used to driving let alone driving a MPV full of people the journey was never going to go well. Ugly betty was already on location and waiting for our arrival. With no Sat Nav it was a miracle we where heading in the right direction.  Heading down the motorway rain lashing down Dimmock and myself began to look at each other in horror as we swerved violently between lanes the driver not even looking round to check it was safe. Turning the wheel suddenly as if driving a rally car we where thrown around in our seats.
abruptly we flew off the motorway round a sharp bend almost rolling the MPV, as the window wiper flew off Dimmock and I closed our eyes and held hands, this was our moment, this is how we were going to die!
No we where just leaving the motorway this was our exit! I have never taken a motorway exit at 80mph and will never be doing so again. Heart in my mouth I looked at Dimmock and nearly cried. As the journey continued in the same violent manor Dimmock reached for her phone. sending a message to Ugly Betty "We are all about to die!"

Finally shaking and without minus a window wiper we arrived on set, Ugly Betty greeting us with news that they had put another runner on the insurance and they would now drive!

Hire cars do have a benefit though, you get to test drive lots of cars and know which ones not to buy for yourself!

This is what we do it for.

This is the reason we do it. The reason we stand in the snow, rain, wind and sun. Hour after hour trying to get that shot.

This is the moment.

The nervous anticipation.

What will the show finally look like?

What will others think?

Will my name be on the credits?

Ohhhhhhhhhhh the excitement. The nervous butterflies before the show is aired for the first time. THIS is why we work in TV.

Six years of making tea, standing for hours and working hard have lead to this point. The moment your show is broadcast to the nation. In this day of modern technology and social networking its easy to gage the public reaction to it too. What are people on twitter saying and the ratings arrive the next day instead of weeks later.

My first credit as a Camera Operator will be tonight and I am just a little excited about it. I worked hard making the show and survived some appalling conditions which I will blog about soon. Shared showers and banging doors just a blot in my memory now but whilst filming they were the reality of tight budgets and fast turn around TV.

"I'm sorry sir but this is a large hotel and we do experience some flush back."

When working in TV you often have to work away from home.
Most of the time it is overnight and you can get back to the luxury of your own bed the next day but sometimes it can be for a week of even a few weeks.

Usually you stop in a local hotel or on location itself.

Both can be a hassle. And both can result in some amusing situations.

There has been many a time when I have turned up at the hotel after a very long day traveling and working to find I have no room as it was not booked. This is not amusing when your tired and feel grotty and all you want to do is have a hot shower and chill out in front of a TV. After some negotiating between you and the production manager and the front desk you eventually get a room but your in bad mood by this point and hate the hotel.

In my time I have also experienced the classic front desk mistake which always happens to at least one of the crew on any shoot I have been on. The double booking. You check in, take the lift 6 floors up, trot down a maze of corridors following signs for your room, (inevitably the last on the corridor), slip you keycard in the slot, open the door and find someone else's luggage in your room. Last year on a Children's show I worked on this was a weekly occurrence for most of the team and it was always the monday morning joke of whose room you had gone into the night before. The Presenter managed to walk in on the director asleep about three times.

Hotels are a luxury though, except on one occasion when the Presenter walked into their room settled in and went to the bathroom to find a poo floating in the toilet. Trotting down to reception to complain that the room had not been cleaned they were met with this reply. "I'm sorry sir but this is a large hotel and while your room has been cleaned we do experience some flush back."

Sharing rooms is also a productions trick to save money. when your on location with the same people all day the last thing you want is to be stuck with them all night, often with runners you will never have met the other runner you are sharing with either. This is a nightmare, do they snore? Will they hog the bathroom? Will they be tidy? On one production they decided to stick the runners in their own cottage, two girls and three boys all sharing one working shower that was located in the girls room. Hideous. Having boys wondering into your room in the morning to shower and leaving bits of themselves in there.  Disgusting. But this was luxury compared to my next accommodation.

I'll tell you about this in a later blog, it gets worse. For now all I'll say is be prepared to rough it as a runner.