Remembrance Sunday: The Cenotaph

There comes a point in every researcher job when you feel like Everest would be an easier summit to reach, against the mountainous pile of decrepit post-it notes to your left.

That moment has come and gone and come again.

The BBC broadcast of Remembrance Sunday at the Cenotaph is such a mammoth logistical task for all parties that it can only take time to work your way through - only there is no time.

With 3 days to go, I was still piercing together the notes from over 262 contingents taking part, listing wreath layers, confirming live interviews and working my way through far too many chocolate biscuits. Of course, a lot can happen in three days. For 2 weeks I'd been in the office 12hrs a day. Because this is one you want to get right.

Not only are you working with broadcasting legend David Dimbleby, you are entrusted with the knowledge that for some of those on parade, it will be the last time. Many WW2 veterans are too elderly to walk the 2km route or stand for 2hrs, and many have sadly crossed the bar in recent years. A whole generation who fought for our freedom, will soon be lost and it is you who are given the knowledge of who is taking part in the event this year and who may not be here to see in the next.

Ernie Searling

The oldest veteran on parade is WW2 Royal Marine Ernest Searling at 99yrs. Broadcasts like this are our last chance to walk with these men, and women, as they salute those who did not grow old with them. It is an honour to read, hear and learn about the experiences of so many.

Ernie said during the programme: 'I feel very humble seeing so many hundreds of men and women on parade today. So very, very humble. And I'm thinking of those who are not with us on this parade today and some of the fine, fine people I served with and we've lost them. But all I hope is that the future generations can see this parade, see some solidarity in it and see that the betterment of mankind, in England, especially Great Britain should be at its highest level'. It is hard not to realise then, how lucky we are to have heard from men like Ernie and to have witnessed the solidarity embodied by this event each year.

Speaking to Heather Wood, who lost her husband Charlie in Afghanistan it made me realise how important the good times are, how serving women and men like Charlie give their lives so that others might live a better life. 'Don't be bitter, be better' she says. And I have taken on those words in my work. I am not bitter about the long hours I've chosen to work because I know that to the 8700 people on parade and to those watching at home, it means something.

And that is the overwhelming feeling when working on events like these. That you don't want to miss a moment, whether it is a serving bugle major's last hours in the job, or a man who will march carrying the photo of a fallen comrade. Whether it is an injured serviceman who has defied the odds or a firefighter who won a gallantry award for placing his life in danger for the service of another. Or if it is the daughter marching in memory of her father who at 18 was on the field of battle in Italy and last month sadly left us, or a Falklands veteran who lost his friends on the islands and who plays his pipes in their memory.

A WAAF wireless operator receiving a message in morse code.

I have spoken to a lady who wrote the orders for d-day, a serving woman who suffered PTSD following service in Northern Ireland and Afghanistan and has since competed in the Invictus Games. I've spoken to ladies of the special operations executive, and women who worked in anti aircraft batteries defending Britain at home and another who traveled from America by ship in total darkness so as not to become a target for the enemy and spent the weeks leading up to her 17th birthday sitting on the steps outside the WRNS office until she was old enough to join.

'When I am laid in Earth...remember me, remember me'.

There are men marching who survived Far East prisoner of war camps - remembering so many of their colleagues that did not. There is a captain from C Company, The Rifles who remembers the men he lost in Afghanistan and a Navy veteran who remembers the men who died aboard HMS Coventry.

For many, Remembrance Day is every day. And I feel the weight that falls on my shoulders to give each story their moment. We want to capture it all and of course, every year, we fail. Because every person on parade at the Cenotaph, in the hollow square, in the service, in the march past, has their own story. And every one of them are fascinating.

It has been a pleasure to immerse myself in their world for a short time. They are each an inspiration.

Reggie Yates: Hidden Australia

A new series from Reggie and the team is something I always look forward to and they certainly lived up to my expectations. It seemed a challenging series for Reggie, coming face to face with addicts of all kinds. The series asks him to delve deep into people's stories and understand why they turn to substances and other means of escape from everyday life. Reggie is honest, he asks the questions, he listens to the answers and he challenges where he thinks he should. It's been great to see another two-part series hit the screen because I just can't get enough.

Episode 1 - Black in the Outback
Reggie is sad to find that the first people he meets in Wilcannia - a town with an 800 strong population where 80% are indigenous - are alcoholics. The programme follows him as he tries to unearth the origins of this stereotype and ask if there is more to this town than meets the eye. What he discovers is that this problem is not a recent one and stems from a vivid segregation from 'white' society. It is a town where business has gone away, employment has followed it and alcohol is about the only form of entertainment. Young people feel as though there isn't much hope for a future and many want to leave the town as soon as is possible. But it's not just the negatives that get the spotlight. We do meet some great characters, the owner of the only supermarket in town, the local radio station, a young teenager who made music as a young child that traveled the globe
A middle aged man dedicated to keeping the indigenous culture alive

Social deprivation is one thing, but so is the spirit of the younger people who live there. There is hope but there is also no denying the damage that yeas and years of institutional racism that has plagued Wilcannia.

Episode 2 - Addicted to Ice
Like Reggie, I find it hard it to completely understand drug addiction. I do understand however, the desire to remove ourselves consciously. I have suffered from depression and I suppose in a way, from addiction too. It took the form of self-harm and perhaps it took me a while to see it as a coping mechanism, a way of escape. Three years on, depression is no longer a problem for me but a new battle takes it's place, this time, it's anxiety. There are days I wish I could turn my brain off, make the anxiety go away. Days I shake or feel overwhelmed at the simplest things. That need for escape is strong and it's easy for me to understand how some are drawn to drugs as a way out of our heads.

The range of people we meet really bring the issue home. Brett, once a successful tri-athlete representing his country, but for whom nothing was ever good enough. He turned to Ice and everything changed. We meet mother-of-two Sharni who wants to get clean for her two twin boys and who has had by her side a real rock of an aunt along the way. We meet residents of Gatwick House who freely use on camera and seem far from wanting to get out of their dangerous relationships with Ice.

It's an episode that really hit home. It reminded me to stay vigilant about the desire to escape my anxiety and to do so in a healthy and positive way. More than that though, it left me wishing that my own relative's story could have ended like Sharni's in the programme. I only wish that he could have run out of rehab into the arms of his family having come so far in just 9 days. The outcome of his story was sadly different and I struggled to make it to the end without a few tears.

A great piece of television with some honest Reggie-style film-making. The kind of programme I aspire to make and one to watch to anyone who wants to understand addiction.