Get me to the Beeb on time!
Fiona’s mad dash in police car to get to Six O’Clock News
FIONA Bruce looked her cool, collected self on the Six O’Clock News last night.
But just 30 minutes earlier she was tearing her hair out during a race against time to get the show on air. The BBC newsreader and her colleagues ended up having to call in police to help save the day.
The drama happened after a technical foulup left Miss Bruce unable to broadcast the early evening bulletin from its usual home.
So she and Mark Easton, Home Editor for BBC News, leapt in a taxi to take them the two-mile journey across London from New Broadcasting House to the corporation’s Millbank studio. But when they fell foul of a demo around Westminster, Scotland Yard stepped in to ferry them the remainder of the way.
Mr Easton tweeted photos and comments as they made their mad dash.
‘In a taxi with Fiona Bruce and editor of BBCNews at 6 heading for Millbank. Studio at BH gone down!! Traffic dreadful. Aagghhh!’ read his first message at 5.20pm, above a photograph of himself and Miss Bruce looking a little anxious as they sat in the back of a cab.
Some among his 34,000 followers on Twitter offered advice, including taking a Tube. But ten minutes later came breaking news from the scene as Mr Easton posted: ‘Now in a police car being escorted through the demo. @bbcnews is at stake!’
This was accompanied by a photograph of Miss Bruce sitting in the front passenger seat. At 5.36pm a third tweet from Mr Easton, 59, said: ‘Policeman Josh has saved the day!’
A BBC source said: ‘It was gone 5.30pm and time was pressing on so they asked the police for help. It was a spur of the moment thing with the police doing a good public service.’
Miss Bruce, 54, looked unfazed by the drama when the news was indeed broadcast at 6pm.
The BBC said engineers were working hard to resolve the technical issues. The Met didn’t respond to a request for comment.