Johnny Is On The Ball
I've changed the desk I use at Pacific Quay and now sit outside the nest of radio studios on the fourth floor. It means I get to see all the guests coming in for our programmes and, this morning, I found myself face to face with Johnny Ball, veteran presenter of Think Of A Number and various science programmes for children. I was reasonably excited by this encounter but our business manager Jenni Minto was almost hysterical. You see, her background is accountancy so Johnny Ball is to her what Pele would be to the guys in our sports team.
Johnny was appearing on the MacAulay & Co Show and then, at lunchtime, he was giving a talk to our programme-makers about his experiences in television.
People were leaning over balconies to get a glimpse of him and hear what he had to say. He worked with minimal notes and just a simple flip-chart with ink markers. He had some controversial views on environmental technology such as solar panels and wind farms...which he said were useless because they were so inefficient.
"solar panels in Scotland.., " he said, and left us to fill in the blanks.
As for television presentation, he thought the key to talent was always in the eyes of the person on screen. If they had that sparkle in their eyes and could communicate their passion without using slides and fancy animation, then they would be able to hold the attention of the audience.
He certainly proved that point today.
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