Interviews: Andy Hessenthaler / Liam Daish

Video interviews with football managers, broadcast on BBC Kent website and BBC South East Today, August 2007

Ryman South Season Preview: web / video
New beginnings at the Fleet: web / video

Too young for cancer

Too young for cancerVideo Nation film [published on BBC Kent website June 2007]
Broadcast on BBC South East Today, 21st April 2008Video

Debbie is only 30 but is battling bowel cancer. She talks about chemo, chat rooms and recovery.

Debbie was 29 when she was finally diagnosed with bowel cancer, ten months after symptoms first appeared.

Her film follows one of her chemo 'cycles' - the crushing fatigue, the frustration and the hope.


BBC - Video Nation from Robert Leslie on Vimeo.

Cycling fans cheer on Tour heroes

Cycling fans cheer on Tour heroes
News feature [Published BBC NEWS website, 8th July 2007].

This was one of the features for which I was awarded Runner-Up in the Shepherd Neame Kent Journalist of the Year Awards 2007 [Newspaper/Online Journalist of the Year category] and nominated for EDF Feature Writer of the Year 2007

Crowds partied across Kent as the Tour de France sped through the county - arriving on the route with hours to spare to grab the best vantage points.

In Tonbridge, fans camped out at the foot of Quarry Hill to wait for their heroes to attack the first of the "King of the Mountains" sections.


Jeff Arnold, 49, and his son Tom, 16, travelled from Wales to cheer on countryman Geraint Thomas.

"We've been here since 10am and have found a good spot," said Mr Arnold.

"We're going to wait here for him. We saw the Prologue in London yesterday, which was amazing, and it's great to see that people have come out in numbers here too."

Sarah Chipperfield, 65, was from London with her grandsons Dylan, seven, and Guillaume, five, who both wore racing caps they had bought the day before in Hyde Park.

"We're really rooting for Bradley Wiggins," she said.

"One day I want to race in the Tour de France," said Dylan, clutching an inflatable cycle shirt.

The caravan that preceded the riders was a tidal wave of pulsating disco music, sponsors' vehicles and colourful vans showering the pavements with an assortment or memorabilia - pens, sweets, fluorescent armbands, water bottles and key rings.

There was a car disguised as a lion, a motorcycle inside a rubber tyre - even a cross-Channel ferry.

I managed to grab a pen but had a bag of sweets snatched from my hand by children, who swept up every goodie within seconds.

Thousands lined the High Street - a strange mix of cycle enthusiasts in bright Lycra, parents with buggies and ice-creams and children rushing around.

Joanne Given, 35, from Gatwick, West Sussex, was in Tonbridge with her two daughters:
"It's great for the children - they like to collect things - key rings, pens, whatever," she said.
"I'm just supporting the British riders but I'm also here to visit the town and have a walk along the river."

At Tonbridge Castle, costumed characters gave lessons in archery and cookery at a Medieval fair and jesters entertained children with slapstick and juggling.

Out on the sports ground there were more sporting stands, food stalls and bouncy castles.
But, even during the hour and a half delay between the caravan and the race, people stayed put, not daring to give up their hard-won ringside seats.

A calm came over Tonbridge as the leading riders approached.

The buzz of three helicopters and a stream of police vehicles from both sides of the Channel announced their arrival and the crowds fell suddenly silent.

Then they were on us, past us and away in a quiet whoosh, pedalling gracefully up Quarry Hill and on towards Tunbridge Wells.

Five minutes later and the mass of the peloton swept past, a blur of yellows, greens, reds and bright pinks.

Once they, and their retinue of support vehicles had disappeared, people lingered, not quite sure what to do next.

But then the brass band started up again, a reminder that the party was far from over.
"That was incredible," said Sarah Bailey, 24, from Tonbridge.

"Worth the wait - I just wish I could press re-wind and see it all again in slow motion."

1987: a test for the Trust

The National Trust: storm recovery
Web / video feature [published BBC Kent website August 2007]
Video feature

The National Trust's properties lost about a quarter of a million trees in one night. Find out how they responded and how the Great Storm taught the organisation some important lessons.

About 30 of the National Trust's properties were badly damaged between the hours of 2-6am on Friday 16th October 1987. Perhaps worst hit were the exposed hill-top sites at Emmetts and Toys Hill where, in places, the destruction was outright.

As Maggie Mogan, Area Manager for the National Trust in Kent, explains, the extent of the damage caught everyone off-guard:

"It was completely unprecedented and we were completely unprepared. This sort of event only happens every two to three hundred years. In one night 60 years-worth of the normal dying-off of trees happened in one go."

"People looked around and couldn't believe there eyes and just didn't know where to start. There was lots of sadness and lots of tears - for a lot of people it was their lifetime's work - gone," she says.

Many people felt compelled to donate trees and money to the National Trust directly after the storm. Their Disaster Appeal raised £2 million in 1987 and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher even donated trees to Chartwell, the former home of predecessor Winston Churchill.

Learning

Of a total 15 million trees lost in the south east [10 million conifers, 3.25 million oaks, 1.75 million beech], the National Trust estimates that it lost over 250,000. The initial reaction was to immediately begin clearing up but the Trust soon realised there was much to be gained from leaving the tree carcasses in situ - to return their nutrients to the soil and act as habitats for insects.

"One thing we have learned is perhaps to have a lighter touch," continues Maggie. "Not to go in so quickly and think about whether we needed to intervene - so it has had some really good long-lasting effects."

Great Storm of 1987: Emmetts Garden

Great Storm of 1987: Emmetts Garden
Web / video feature [published BBC Kent website August 2007]
Video feature

Emmets Garden, near Ide Hill was devastated by the Great Storm - losing 95% of its mature trees. We look at the lasting legacy of October 1987 on this formal Victorian garden.

After the storm had past, the light of day revealed a changed landscape at Emmetts. Head Gardener at the time George Fillis was living in a lodge on the grounds at the time:

"I didn't hear any trees falling - just the roaring of the wind. When it became light, I could see there was a total change to the skyline, where all the big timber up the driveway had disappeared."

It's thought that 95% of the trees at Emmetts were blown down. Plants previously sheltered from wind and sun found themselves exposed, while seeds that had lain dormant for decades fed on the sun's rays and grew with enthusiasm.

Shade loving bluebells died back - only to return years later as the tree canopy recovered.
"It was obviously a shock to us," says George, "but because there was so much work to do, you didn't have time to dwell on it."

Opportunity

The storm clouds did have a silver lining - here was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to re-plant from a bank canvas, to enjoy new views and to plan for the future.

"Everything you could see initially was just flat on the ground but it gave us opportunity - once we'd done the clearing up - to replant."

"Although we wanted to keep it within the context of a Victorian garden - a spring garden - we took the opportunity to put in autumn colour plants, giving us a double season," says George.
But nature was also keen to re-build. Fast growing trees such as birch were quick to capitalise on the blue skies, populating much of the woodland, accelerating above and beyond the slower-growers.

Twenty years on, the birch trees are still in control but they, over time, will be surpassed and out-lived by the more mature oak and beech species.

It may take another 100 years for all evidence of the Great Storm to be erased and for the natural hierarchy of our woods to re-assert itself.

Bredgar & Wormshill Light Railway

Bredgar & Wormshill Light Railway
Web feature [published August 2007 BBC Kent website]
Video feature [published on the web and broadcast on BBC South East Today, August 2007]

Video feature
BBC South East Today broadcast

It's a train set with a difference. For a start, the engines are real, there's over half a mile of track and it's been 35-years in the making.

It all began with a passion for the golden age of steam and the challenge of bringing new life to century-old locomotives.

Since the 1970's a group of friends - a rather peculiar league of gentlemen - have met once a week to stoke, build, paint and polish. The result being firm friendship and a bewildering display of engineering and craftsmanship.

The group of about 15 men - most of them now retired - meet every Thursday and set about their labour of love, before settling down at the end of the evening in the 'mess' hut at Warren Wood station.

For much of the year, this gem remains hidden to the public but for a few Sundays every summer, the gates are thrown open. As well as more than half a mile of track winding through cool woods, there's the collection of locos in the engine shed, traction engines, old cars and vans.

Tynemouth to launch new surf contest

Web feature / Video report

Published BBC Tyne website July 2007
Watch the video report

Tynemouth to launch new surf contest

The disappointment of losing the British National Surf Championships to Devon last year - and the threat of missing out again - has led to the creation of a brand new competition for the North East.

Flat seas in 2006 meant that the O'Neill National Surf Championships had to be re-located at the last minute to Putsborough, Devon.

This came as a big blow to organisers and surfers in Tynemouth, one of the North East's principal surf spot. Ironically though it was Newcastle boy Sam Lamiroy who took last year's title, perhaps a sign that the north still has a hold over this prestigious event.

Four Corners
But what about 2007? Well, the competition organisers have still not committed to Tynemouth for this year's event and one local surf shop has decided to take events into its own hands by organising its own event - the 'Four Corners' championships.

The new event will include four separate events - the first in Tynemouth, then one in Scotland, one in Ireland and one in Wales, with competitors scoring points at each event.

Watch our video featuring Four Corners organiser Nathan Bulsh from surf shop Rubber Soul in Tynemouth.