RHEINISCHE POST Saturday, 2nd March 2002
Ben Jackson (BBC Radio Leicester): “Breakfast Show” live from the City of Silk
Research - even into Krefeld’s pubs
Picture caption: BBC Reporter Ben Jackson in a live broadcast in conversation with Thomas Scheidemann. On the left Anna Holford and Fritz Lethen, on the right Jürgen Hütter.
by Jochen Lenzen
“Would you like a cup of coffee?” Colin Cook asks, almost in a whisper, and picks up a pot of coffee from among the pile of papers, newspapers and biscuits on the table in the foyer of the Krefelder Hof. On the sofa, Ben Jackson is interviewing the former head of Krefeld’s Council and Public Relations Department, Jürgen Hütter, who has just handed back the Colin Grundy award given to him for his exceptional contribution to the twinning between our two cities. Meanwhile, the young lady-producer, Anna Holford, is holding a big clock in front of the BBC man’s face, so that he can fit his conversations into the schedule. Finally everything is transmitted by telephone link back to the studio in Leicester. For eight years every day between 6 and 9 o’clock (British time) 38-year-old Jackson has presented the “Breakfast Show” to his listeners in Leicester, Krefeld’s English twin town.
The day before: getting to know the City
The trio arrived in the City of Silk on Wednesday afternoon, so that they could bring it a bit closer to their listeners yesterday morning. Jackson, Holford and Cook (who as Twinning Secretary for many years has been to Krefeld more than a dozen times and who speaks excellent German) had been researching the city. As well as interviews done during a tram ride and on a visit to Burg Linn, the trio’s programme also included conversations with customers in traditional pubs and restaurants like Et Bröckske, Gleumes and the Nordbahnhof. Yesterday morning their recorded contributions were inserted into the three-hour long live broadcast, leaving the BBC man slots between news headlines and traffic information to broadcast two or three minute chats.
Early on in the broadcast the General Manager of the Hotel, Robert Preis, and the English waiter, Sven James, had talked and answered the questions put by the eloquent and inquisitive Briton. Then it was time for Thomas Scheidemann from the Sparkasse (Savings Bank) to be questioned about the introduction of the Euro, thinking the unthinkable to English minds. And, before Dr. Christiane Gabbert from Krefeld’s Town Marketing Department described Krefeld’s tourist attractions (museums, zoo, parks, cycle paths through leafy surroundings), Jackson asked tie manufacturer, Fritz Lethen, about the history of textiles in the City of Silk.
“Our two cities have a lot in common ranging from Roman history to their industrial base as textile towns,” Jackson said. He liked Krefeld so much that he wants to come back to our “very clean city” in the run-up to Christmas to find out for his listeners in Leicester what it feels like then. Perhaps he’ll even come by bicycle.
RHEINISCHE POST Saturday, 2nd March 2002
