Helping our hedgehogs.

A few weeks ago I woke up to a message from a journalist at Notts TV asking me if I would appear on the live news show to discuss how to help our counties hedgehogs. This was after they had seen my previous Notts TV appearance in July - click here to see my blog post about this appearance. Of course I said yes! I arrived at 5 o'clock in the evening to be briefed about timings and topics for the interview, and to be get kitted up with a microphone. I was told that I'd be speaking after a package had been shown, which was telling the story of a man in Nottingham who had found a hedgehog family in his garden, but didn't want them on his property, so took them to a nearby farm to release…madness!! Once we saw the first few frames of the footage playing I was rushed in to get my microphone connected. The countdown begun and before I knew it we were on air! I have always been fascinated about how the news readers can stare directly into the camera whilst still reading an auto cue, and that's why some of the viewers may have seen me staring with a rather confused face directly into the camera (one of four) at the beginning of the interview, whilst trying to figure out how they did this!! 

Notts TV has 200,000 viewers tuning in each week.

Their broadcast centre, which is linked to Nottingham Universities journalism centre.

Even though I felt a little nervous at first, I soon settled in and even started to enjoy answering the questions asked. The most satisfying thing is to know that gradually you're getting the message across to hundreds of people, and even if only 5 of those people decided to help, progress will be made. The interview was just over 2 minutes long, just long enough to get the main points in. To clarify, if you find a hedgehog out in the daytime always call your local animal rescue centre before attempting to move the hedgehog…they should guide you through the things to do.

Discussing how to help our hedgehogs by using simple measures.

To see the interview click here, and to see my previous appearance on Notts TV see my blog post here.