Lebanon’s geography means it’s blessed with water but in the capital, Beirut, and its surrounding areas more than a million and a half people suffer from serious water shortages. It’s a story of chronic mismanagement in a country that has so many problems… Economically, financially and politically. Martin Patience reports.
It’s been a busy few weeks in the region and in the wake of recent events in the West bank, Gaza and Jerusalem there has been massive call for stories from all aspects of the conflict. Correspondent Martin Patience and I were tasked with doing a wider piece about the growing regional support for the Palestinian cause in the wake of what has happened.
Beirut’s Orient Queen was the cities only cruise ship… She offered an escape from the city, a family run floating party boat that was a summer haven for some and a home for the people who worked on board. On August 6th last year she became one of the casualties of the Beirut port explosion in which over 200 people lost their lives, thousands were injured and hundreds of thousands were made homeless in an instant.
On August 4th the Lebanese capital Beirut was hit by a man made disaster. An explosion so devastating great swathes of the city were destroyed. In this strange mid-pandemic world deploying to a disaster isn’t as straight forward as it used to be 2 flights and 2 covid-19 tests in 24 hours and I was finally there to join the gathering team. This was the first major foreign deployment since the pandemic started and we were all feeling our way through it.
Due to the lockdown as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic the world of newsgathering has changed dramatically. Social distancing, quarantines and lack of worldwide travel has meant that we are relying more and more on Zoom, Skype and Facetime for interviews and verified UGC for a good portion of our meaningful content. This is an example of many stories from around the world that we are having to cover from afar.
After being stuck in lockdown for a while now it was great to be shooting again. I was tasked to join a team to film at the former military rehabilitation centre at Headley Court in surrey which reopened recently, not as a recovery centre for the limbless or the battle scarred, but as a recovery centre for the patients of Coronavirus. The Seacole Centre as it is now named has opened to cater for Covid patients and others who need help with their recovery.
The global trade and transportation of oil has for many decades been at the forefront of Middle Eastern brinkmanship as has control of the sea lanes that this valuable resource travels along. In July 2019 the UK became embroiled in a political standoff with Iran when Royal Marines were sent to board and take control of a supertanker called Grace 1 as she sailed past the British overseas territory of Gibraltar. The UK had information that she was full of Iranian oil and was headed to Syria in breach of international sanctions. Tom Bateman, producer Zeynep Edim and myself travelled to Gibraltar to cover the story.
On the 3rd April 2019 Mark Lowen sat down to interview Ekrem İmamoğlu, the CHP candidate up for election for the enviable role of Istanbul Mayor. A job previously held by the country’s current President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan this role is seen by some as the precursor to becoming the next president of the Turkish Republic.
This piece about the Venezuelan gold trade was commissioned by BBC Digital at the height of the 2019 leadership crisis in the South American country. At the time Mark Lowen was the Turkey correspondent. He and I created this explainer, reporting from Istanbul.
Filmed with Sophie Raworth, I set up three cameras to shoot this VT in the wonderful cathedral of Amiens where we met and interviewed one of the relatives of a young soldier who died in the battle.
I’ve recently been involved in producing a three part series of self-authored VT’s that tell the stories of people profoundly affected by the biggest scandal ever to hit the National Health Service,
The BBC’s Sunday Politics show is about to finish for good… This Thursday I had the privilege of filming the final ever Moodbox for a Sunday show. We headed to Aylesbury to ask the public “Which side is Theresa May on… Leave or Remain?”.
This was one shoot that I’m particularly proud of and very lucky to have been asked to contribute to. BBC News Correspondent Sophie Raworth traces the story of her pioneering grandfather who was one of the brave pilots who flew in the RAF during the First World War. I had the pleasure along with Julius Peacock of filming some elements of this lovely documentary directed and produced by the amazing BBC correspondent Robert Hall.
Yesterday was the day the Duchess of Cambridge’s sister Pippa Middleton tied the knot with James Matthews in Englefield and the Royal attended event had the press coverage given to official Royal events with the world’s press turning up to try to get a glimpse of the wedding party which included, Harry, William, Kate and or course Princess Charlotte and Prince George.
On Friday 7th of April I was working a normal london based news shift for ITV National News when An Uzbeki migrant decided to hijack a lorry and plough through a pedestrian street in the centre of Stockholm killing 4 people. I walked into the newsroom a short while after it happened having been called to go and cover the story
The Cross channel ferry Herald of Free Enterprise capsized minutes after leaving the Belgian port of Zeebrugge on the 6th March 1987. The tragic events that night resulted in 193 passengers and crew losing their lives in what was the biggest peacetime maritime disaster since the Titanic. Commemorations were held this weekend in both the ports of Zeebrugge and its intended destination of Dover and I was tasked by ITV News to be their shoot edit to cover both events over two days.
Last Wednesday I was tasked by BBC News to cover the final departure of the Royal Navy Aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious from her home port of Portsmouth as she sets off for a scrapyard in Turkey. She has been sold for a measly 2 million pounds and will follow the fate of her two sister ships and be broken up for scrap metal.
The ‘extreme’ side-effects of antidepressants was a piece that went out on the Victoria Derbyshire Show to highlight the suffering that some people are going through with these drugs.
Yesterday I was sent down by BBC News to the lovely town of Battle to cover a reenactment of the Battle of Hastings, commemorating the 950th Anniversary of that fateful day. I arrived at about 2pm to find that Tim and Duncan had organised a mock battle just for me to film for our piece and the action made up a major part of our edit.
BBC’s Business Correspondent Kamal Ahmad reports from Blenheim Palace on the introduction of the new five pound note. This short VT was shot and edited by me in one afternoon on location for the Six o’clock News back in June 2016.
The BBC’s Robert Hall reports on the strange visitings of busloads of tourists to the quiet Oxfordshire Village of Kidlington. This story was initially reported on local news and the national press got wind of it and the Newsroom sent us both down to see what all the fuss was about…
Another short VT from my Archive is this fun shoot with Mike Bushell from BBC Breakfast. Shot in an afternoon with Western Riding Trainer Bob Mayhew, this piece was edited by Breakfast and featured on a Saturday morning. Great fun shooting this although I really wanted to give the riding a go too!
The BBC’s Defense Correspondent Jonathan Beale reports from Estonia about Nato Exercises on the North East flank of the alliance’s borders with Russia. This report was shot by me with Jonathan in June and we edited using FCPX back in the UK for it to go out ahead of the Nato Summit in Warsaw in July 2016.
Race Of Champions Preview shoot for BBC Breakfast with Mike Bushell. The two of us went down to the 2012 Olympic Stadium in London to see the place had been transformed from running track into a 70mph road racing track.
This is a short behind the scenes video filmed as Victoria Derbyshire presented her whole show from the Junior Doctor’s…
Gunmen attacked western tourists and local workers in the Radisson Blu Hotel, in Bamako, Mali… I was called the morning after the attack and I was flown out that very night by the BBC to meet up with the team to cover the story. Our West Africa Correspondent Thomas Fessy had flown out from Dakar and was already in the city by the time I arrived.
Earlier this year I was tasked to meet a team from Newsnight in Calais to cover the possible clearing of the Migrant Camp called the Jungle. While waiting for the authorities to confirm the start of the clearing process we decided to film our first nightly piece concentrating on another camp just a few kilometres away in Dunkirk.
Last year I had the pleasure of working with the BBC team covering the Iran Nuclear Talks in the wonderful…
Another Video from Last year is this one from Covering the General Election as a member of a BBC Leader…
The task was simple… Turn up at the right time, gain vehicle access to a restricted area, meet up with Mike, learn the rules to a new sport, film enough footage for a 4 minute feature on 3-a-side tennis including 3 interviews and Voxes, stay hydrated, record voiceover in the car, edit and transmit… All in a day’s work
