Woman of the Hour (15 page)

‘Time to get Fizzy into position,’ he said.

Henry took Fizzy along to the children’s ward which we had selected as the ideal place to open the show. It was a cheerful ward with nursery rhyme figures painted on the walls. Little Miss Muffet sat next to Humpty Dumpty on his wall while Jack and Jill were climbing a hill with their pail between them. There was a play area at the end of the ward with lots of small red and green chairs set in a circle. Fizzy was seated on one of these mini-chairs with the children grouped around her. She had brought along a stack of her photo-cards and the children were asking her to sign them and she was adding smiley faces and kisses to her signature. It was a good icebreaker in the build-up to going on air. Fizzy explained to the children that once the red light on the top of the cameras came on they would be recording and they would be on television. The children were wriggling with excitement and the nurses in attendance looked almost as excited. I wondered if the children would go quiet and shy when we started rolling, because cameras can have that effect.

I hurried back to the truck and five minutes later the PA was counting us down to go on air. The opening shot looked good with Fizzy sitting in the midst of the children. She stood up and welcomed viewers to St Eanswythe’s hospital. She gave a few facts and figures about the community it served and how many patients the hospital had treated last year. Then she sat down with the children and chatted to them. Most of them had at least one cuddly toy with them and Fizzy wanted to know the name of each toy. She told them she still had her blue bunny which had been her favourite toy when she was little. One little boy wanted to know the name of the blue bunny and Fizzy replied Smelly Bun. I don’t know if she made this up on the spot but the children thought it was very funny.

‘Time to move,’ the director said into Fizzy’s earpiece.

She stood up and all the children waved to her as she walked with a ward sister showing her the way to an adult ward. When she got there she sat on the beds and talked to two adult patients who had been vetted in advance and who had interesting stories to tell. More to the point, they were comfortable talking to her. They looked thrilled to have her there so close to them, the famous Fizzy Wentworth. It was time for Fizzy to link to our first ad break.

‘There’s lots more to come from this wonderful hospital serving its community. Be sure to stay with us,’ she said.

‘So far so good,’ the director said.

We were coming off this ad break to the kitchens in the basement and we had four minutes to get the second and third cameras down there to do the Ledley and Fizzy item about hospital food. It was tight but the cameras were handheld and we’d had a rehearsal. The crew got the cameras set up in time. Three members of the hospital cooking team had been selected to talk to Ledley and Fizzy about the challenge of producing food for the patients. It was hot and airless in the basement kitchen. It would have been hot in there anyway but the lights we had rigged up had increased the temperature even more. There were pungent cooking smells too. We came out of the ad break and Fizzy did the opening link on autopilot. She had turned waxy pale as if she might faint.

‘Fizzy’s ill!’ I said.

‘Move the camera onto Ledley,’ the director said.

I spoke urgently to Henry via his earpiece.

‘Get Fizz out of the kitchen now. She’s not well.’

The cameras were now on Ledley who had realised what was happening and he took over without a moment’s hesitation. He ad-libbed with the hospital cooking team and drew them round him to look at his ingredients. Later, Henry told me that Ziggy stepped in and off camera she had got Fizzy onto a chair and some water to her white lips. Fizzy sat forward and put her head between her knees for several minutes. Then Ziggy helped her out of the hot kitchen and into a room with a window, opened it wide and sat with her.

Ledley was superb. He kept the banter and the laughs going with the hospital cooks for far longer than was intended. He revealed the special ingredient that he always used in his Jamaican patties.

‘I add turmeric to the flour, which gives the pastry that nice yellow colour,’ he said. He took a tray of yellow-gold patties out of the oven and laid them on the surface. ‘I made these with ground beef and scallions. Come and try them.’

The cooking team each took a patty and bit into them as Ledley watched with a smile. As they gave the thumbs up he looked into camera: ‘And for pudding I’m making pineapple upside down cake.’

When I saw that Ledley would be able to keep this going till we reached the next ad break, I ran out of the truck and found Fizzy. She was sitting on a chair by an open window. I had five minutes to decide what to do.

‘I had a terrible wave of nausea,’ she said.

‘I thought you were going to faint.’

‘My legs were going. It was so hot and it stank in there.’

She looked less white but there was sweat on her upper lip.

‘You’re not well and you don’t have to keep going, Fizz. Let me get a car for you. Ledley can do the rest of the show. You know how good he is with people.’

She lifted a determined chin.

‘I’ll be OK in a minute. I want to keep going.’

I made a snap decision.

‘OK, but I’m going to run the standby tape to give you longer to recover. And get make-up here now,’ I shouted.

I spoke to the director via my mouthpiece.

‘Run the standby tape of Naomi Jessup off the ad break. Ledley will have to link into it and we’ll get him up to the oncology ward now.’

‘OK. I’ll get camera four there now,’ the director said.

I turned to Ziggy.

‘Get Henry and Ledley to the oncology ward now. I need to brief Ledley urgently.’

Ziggy raced off. I looked at my map of the hospital and ran to the ward. Ledley would have to ad-lib the link into the Naomi Jessup interview. There was no time to prepare autocue. But I could at least write Naomi’s name in large letters on a card so he got that right.

I saw Henry, Ledley and Ziggy hurrying towards me and camera four was setting up. It was going to be a complete change of mood for Ledley who had been laughing and joking in the kitchen minutes before. I told him that this was a very moving tape of a young woman who was dying of cancer and he must link to it carefully and sensitively. Ledley nodded as I wrote Naomi’s name on a large piece of card which Ziggy had fetched for me. Henry put Ledley into position. He had taken off his chef’s whites and was wearing a dark patterned shirt underneath which looked all right. Make-up powdered his forehead and cheeks to get rid of his shine as I listened to the PA in the truck counting down to his link. The director had run a thirty second StoryWorld promo straight after the ads and that extra thirty seconds saved us from crashing the link. My heart was hammering because by doing this I was defying Julius. The camera moved in on Ledley’s face as he started to speak.

Ledley’s intro was sensitive and heartfelt. He got it exactly right. We had four minutes while the tape ran to get Fizzy into position outside the operating theatre for the next interview. She was due to speak to the hospital’s head of surgery. We had asked if we could shoot inside the theatre but Connie had drawn the line at that. You could see parts of the surgical machinery through the window. Fizzy looked almost back to her usual self because make-up had put some blusher on her cheeks. The consultant was everyone’s idea of such a figure, a distinguished-looking man in his fifties with hair greying at the temples and Fizzy was faintly coquettish as she asked him about his work. This interview led in beautifully to our next pre-recorded package which was the story of Dirk and his amputation. I headed back to the truck and watched as the director played in the Dirk tape. He glanced over at me.

‘That was a close-run thing.’

‘Yes,’ I said.

‘But it was worth it. The standby tape was very good.’

‘Thanks.’

We made it to the end of the broadcast with Fizzy doing the rest of the links, though we let Ledley distribute his patties and cake to the patients without her involvement as she was still feeling queasy. As the final credits rolled the director and I exhaled with relief; it had been a tense last forty minutes.

‘Is she OK?’

‘I’m sending her home now,’ I said.

I got out of the truck and told Ziggy to get a taxi for Fizzy. Fizzy was sitting by the catering van sipping a bottle of water. Ledley was still in the hospital signing autographs.

‘Straight home to bed for you,’ I said.

‘I think I’ve got a stomach bug.’

She sounded subdued.

‘You were a true pro, as ever, Fizz. Thank you.’

She got to her feet slowly and I wondered if I should send Ziggy in the taxi with her.

‘Will Loida be there when you get home?’

She has a cook-cum-housekeeper called Loida who works at her house most days, does all the cleaning and shopping and is protective of Fizzy.

‘Yes, she’ll be there.’

I saw her into the taxi. Then I walked around and thanked every member of the team for their fantastic efforts. Molly was so happy that her story had been transmitted.

‘The director thought it was brilliant,’ I said.

‘I hope Naomi was watching,’ she said.

‘How is Naomi?’

‘She hasn’t got long.’ Molly blinked several times to stop the tears that were pooling in her eyes.

I was especially pleased with Ziggy. She blushed when I told her that Henry had said she had acted fast and helped save the day. I then went to find Connie Mears. She was delighted with how well the hospital had come out of the broadcast. We said warm words to each other. I asked Simon to stay behind to help Henry who was overseeing the de-rig of the OB equipment.

I sat down by the catering van with a cup of tea for a few minutes. I had had such an adrenalin surge at the point of crisis that now I felt completely wrung out and I still had the rest of the working day to get through. I knew we had delivered an excellent OB but I had yet to face Julius who had scheduled a meeting to discuss the broadcast back at StoryWorld. Julius hates being defied and I dreaded what awaited me.

StoryWorld TV station, London Bridge

As I had expected Julius called me into his office before the meeting on the OB. He launched straight in.

‘Why did you go against my express instructions?’

‘Before you say anything else you need to know that the Naomi tape was our standby tape. When Fizzy got sick I had to make some extra time for her to recover and that’s why we screened it.’

‘You chose a tape I had said not to transmit as your standby?’

‘Yes, but obviously I didn’t think we’d use it. I mean it’s the first time I’ve ever had to use a standby and—’

He cut right across me.

‘I’ll say it again; I tell you
not
to transmit a tape and yet you make it your standby.’

He was working up to sack me as he had sacked Sal. And there had been an element of defiance in my choice of that as the standby tape. My mind was racing. If he sacked me I would employ a lawyer and fight it every step of the way.

‘But it worked fine in context,’ I said.

The phone rang on his desk and he snatched it up in a fury.

‘I said no calls!’

I heard Martine’s voice saying something and Julius said: ‘Put him through.’

It was the sponsor. A fairly long conversation ensued in which the sponsor appeared to be heaping praise on the OB and the very moving stories we had produced. Now I felt my legs begin to tremble because if the sponsor was happy I would be spared. Finally Julius put the phone down.

‘We have a satisfied sponsor,’ he said in a neutral voice.

He stood up.

‘The rest of the team are waiting.’

I followed him into the meeting room.

The director of the OB was in there with Henry, the PA and the senior cameraman as well as Bob. The director gave his report. The links had worked well throughout, he said, but if we had had five cameras in operation it would have eased the pressure on the team. He heaped praise on Ledley for his masterly change of mood and said he thought the Naomi Jessup tape was outstanding. I winced when he said that because it was like pouring petrol on the flames of Julius’s anger. I was glad Fizzy was not present. She would not have liked how much praise Ledley’s performance was getting, his humour in the kitchen and his sensitivity when linking to Naomi’s interview. In fact, he had been the star of the OB.

‘Well done, Liz,’ Bob said.

I felt it was important to act low-key as I did not want to provoke Julius further.

‘Thank you, it was great teamwork. Did the sponsor spot Fizzy’s wobble?’ I asked Julius.

‘No, he didn’t mention it. What was it?’

‘She thinks she’s got a stomach bug. She was great to keep going and I’d like to send her a big bunch of flowers.’

Bob looked concerned as Julius nodded.

‘Of course; send her all our love.’ He stood up. ‘My thanks to Liz and the team for their work on the OB; it delivered on its objectives.’

He swept out of the room and Bob glanced at me quickly. He could see that Julius was not happy with me. I headed out of the room and Martine got up from her desk.

‘Can we have a quick word?’ she said.

‘Sure.’

She looked irritated and I wondered what was coming now. I could feel the vein in my temple throbbing which meant a stress headache was on its way.

‘Will you have a word with your new researcher, please?’

‘Harriet?’

‘Yes. While you were at the OB she was hanging around here, again. It’s not the first time she’s sought Julius out and she needs telling it’s not appropriate.’

‘The thing is, she knows him through her father.’

‘Maybe, but it’s not how we do things here,’ Martine said.

‘I’ll have a word with her.’

‘I’d appreciate that.’

Chalk Farm flat, 11 p.m.

Earlier in the evening Flo had asked me again if she could go to the Cat and Mouse with Paige on Friday. She hadn’t been rude this time but she was impatient when I wouldn’t agree.

‘I’ve had the most full-on day ever, Flo, and I’m knackered.’