“Why is Bryan dressed like an English football hooligan on the front page of the Radio Scotland website?”, wrote one of our producers in an e-mail to Paul the other day. It was prompted by the picture below.
The simple answer was that I was working at a sporting event and that’s what you wear. Either that or I could have kicked down his office door, sprayed ‘Milwall’ on his desk and vomited in his waste paper basket.
I actually like my ‘trackie top’ and whilst I wouldn’t wear it to go out clubbing ( well I wouldn’t be going out clubbing anyway i suppose) in the right circumstances it has a certain appeal.
It seems that nowadays tracksuits, hoodies and trainers are what you wear when you are aged 12-18 then you get into normal clothes before regressing back to polyester sportswear at a later stage in your life.
The interesting question that arises from the ‘hooligan e-mail’ is why didn't he just e-mail me and ask?
This happens all the time in the ����ý. Paul will often get e-mails from other producers asking if it’s possible if ‘Bryan could read this out on the show’ or ‘Do you think Bryan might be able to come along and help us with such and such?’.
We call it the ‘Does he take milk?’ syndrome. Sometimes I think being a producer is a bit like working in a care home. It’s your duty to look after the residents/presenters and to make sure all the difficult tasks are taken care of, but still make them feel like they have a degree of independence.
On the bright side, at least if I do get put into ‘shady pines’ I’ll have an unrivaled collection of polyester leisure wear to slip into.