As previously mentioned, the demonstration at BBC Broadcasting House this past Tuesday was a great success. Maureen, (justacockeyedoptimist) who was our on-site leader, has written up all the details of the day for us (Thank you Maureen)! It's a wonderful, encouraging read. I'd urge everyone to have a look! - Ash
Save the Hour Flash Mob, Tuesday May 28, 2013:
(photos courtesy of Maureen)
So if I’m being honest, when I woke up this morning I wasn’t hopeful…the weather was terrible, I was certain no one would turn up, and even if they did, no one would listen to us. How wrong I was! Goes to show that I should never stop believing what Freddie and Bel taught me: if you have a cause you believe in, never stop fighting for it and you can make a difference.
First of all, please enjoy the top photo!!! Anna Freakin’ Chancellor guys…Lix Storm…..was there.
So, I met up with the lovely bunch of girls who joined me outside the Oxford Circus tube station at half eleven, and from there, we walked down Regent’s Street to the BBC. Fairly shortly after getting there and taking some photos next to the BBC signs, we were told that we couldn’t hold demonstrations of any kind on their property, but we were welcome to stand just across the way on the church steps in plain view of everyone entering and exiting the building. The lady speaking to us was also very helpful. We asked if we could go in and speak to anyone, and she went in and tried several avenues/made inquiries for us, but no luck. She did get us another information phone number which we called and were also informed there was no one in the building we could get permission to see.
So, we decided to start campaigning on the steps. From the get go, we generated a mild interest, with security guards approaching us and asking us about our cause and giving us a very positive response about what a potential difference even our small(ish) actions could make and that they’d be sure to pass on our presence/what we were all about to anyone they encountered inside. Another guy came out and quizzed us for awhile on how we thought BBC reacted to/addressed the needs of hardcore fans (of BBC programming in general) and whether we thought they did enough…
From there, we got many smiles and shouts of encouragement from various people in BBC lanyards/credentials walking by (as well as many questions about what we were doing from confused tourists). Several people, including BBC employees, asked if they could take our photo to tweet, send to news outlets, etc. (and I guess it worked because check out the Guardian and Digital Spy articles!!). In general, we were met with positivity and well wishes of “good luck” or “love that programme” or “that was quality TV” from various passerby (BBC employees or not). One man asked about where he could sign the petition even!
One lovely lady passed by and said “Go ladies! Bring back those lovely frocks to our screens.” Turned out that it was Helen Boaden (as another employee following behind her informed us) — the Director of BBC Radio. So, that’s huge that she knows we’re out there and exist.
And in general, we did seem to get a lot of notice from all of the staff entering and exiting the building for lunch and leaving work (we were there from 12 until 4:30)…so even if we didn’t verbally interact with them, who knows what kind of word of mouth might be generated inside the offices?
And finally, the story of the day. We’re calmly standing around when we notice another lady approaching us (and I assumed it was someone else about to ask us why we were there), and then as she got closer, I did a double take and realized it was Anna Chancellor (we were pretty much bowled over in shock and surprise). She’d been driving past, seen our signs, and pulled her car off to the side of the road near us (which I seriously cannot believe she did…just stopped at the side of the road in the rain and London traffic. How can you not love her forever now?. She asked, “Is this our Hour these signs are about?” very cheerfully, and we were more than happy to assure her yes indeed it was. Then, she asked if she could take a photo of us with her phone so she could text it to the rest of the cast!!!! Obviously, we obliged! So theoretically, now Romola, Dominic, Peter, and the rest know about us now too (not just Ben, Lisa, and Oona). She was just beaming and lovely the whole time — it was clear she was very pleased to see us out there on behalf of this programme. We asked if we could take a picture with her to share with the online campaign, which we briefly explained to her (and she confirmed she’d heard rumors of its existence). Yeah, so basically Lix Storm helped out at our flash mob today for a brief second and that alone makes it so worth it.
But to top it off, we then got some great media coverage from Radio Times, The Guardian, and Digital Spy (which also linked the petition)! Check out the links Ash has already shared! So, this is the most media coverage we’ve gotten in one go to date!
So, in summation, basically, today just reminded us that “it’s not impossible when it’s possible” and that just maybe BBC, The Hour is possible, it’s possible with you…
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