Behind the scenes at Scrum V

Those of you reading this who are Welsh rugby fans may remember that Sunday 12th February 2012 was the date of the Wales vs Scotland match at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. I’ll be honest, I’m not a massive rugby fan, I love watching the Wales internationals and get really into them, but club rugby has largely passed me by for the last 20 odd years. It probably goes back to the time I played for my school against Cardiff High School; we lost 38-0 and I touched the ball twice. The match stopped and started so many times with the referee/ teacher explaining things with every blow of the whistle I was probably not the only one losing interest in the game as we played. To me, we were a football school, with ex- rugby player Games teachers and a history of unhappy boys being forced to play rugby when most of us would rather play football.

Despite this (well, they weren’t to know), I got asked by Buzz Magazine ( if you don’t know what Buzz is you can pick one up in many places in Cardiff and South Wales or go to www.buzzmag.co.uk for the online edition) if I’d be interested in taking some photos for a behind the scenes piece on Scrum V, which you can see if you click on this ridiculously long link —–>http://content.yudu.com/Library/A1vsdb/BuzzMagMARCH2012/resources/index.htm?referrerUrl=http%3A%2F%2Ffree.yudu.com%2Fitem%2Fdetails%2F482353%2FBuzz_Mag_MARCH_2012 . Of course I would. And it would give me a chance to catch up* with Jason Mohammad, who I once had a conversation with about John Squire in Brannigans in Cardiff about 15 years ago, then a few years later recommended a Spiritualized album to him when he came into Virgin. I may bump into him again in 7 or 8 years, who knows?

Anyway, enough of my top drawer name dropping.** Buzz editor Gareth and I got to the studio for 6:30 a little ahead of the presenters to watch the rehearsals, then had a tour of all the editing suites and production rooms and trucks being used for the show. It has to be well prepared in order for it to run smoothly, and with the show airing a few hours after the match there’s only a small time frame in which to get everything right. So after a couple of rehearsals of the introduction and a couple of links and tweaking of camera shots, we went to the green room for interviews with the presenters and guests and some photos, as the audience was let in to the bar. The last time I went to the BBC Club was for Bethan Elfyn’s Christmas gig with Gruff Rhys, H. Hawkline and Alex Comana a couple of years ago (you can see the photos here  http://www.flickr.com/photos/simonayre/sets/72157625633778760/) and the transformation into a rugby club for Scrum V was quite impressive.

As the room filled up we were asked to go and take our places in the audience for the show, which I didn’t feel entirely comfortable with as I prefer to be behind the camera, but it was all over in about 50 minutes. An enjoyable show with great guests (Andy Nicol, Jonathan Davies, Robert Jones and Kingsley Jones) and a great atmosphere, due as much to the BBC team as to the result of the Wales v Scotland match.  I didn’t really enjoy all the sarcastic “nice tank top” texts and tweets as I switched my phone back on after the show though! The curse of being sat in front of a camera…

Many thanks to the BBC/ Scrum V team for being so welcoming and letting us in to do our thing despite a tough live schedule.

Jason Mohammad goes through rehearsals for the live broadcast of Scrum V, Feb 12th 2012

Buzz Magazine Editor Gareth Ludkin in conversation with Scrum V presenter Jason Mohammad

Lisa Rogers in the make up chair, ready for the show.

Guests chat and sign rugby balls in the green room.

Robert Jones, Welsh rugby legend!

Jason and Lisa pose for a photo after the studio lights are switched off.

* When I say “catch up” I really mean say “Hello.”

** I haven’t even mentioned chatting to Ron Howard at the Roller Derby a few weeks ago. That’s mainly because I didn’t chat to him, but I was in the same big hall in Earls Court/ country.