total:spec - more4

In a small, unassuming office in the heart of the ITN building in central London, the tight, efficient ship that is the More4 news room is run. It's like any other office - a group of people quietly work away, with only the occasional burst of interaction.

Sitting amongst them for a Friday afternoon, as they work on that evening's show, it's hard to believe that each day such a small team of people produce a slick, half-hour programme of concise and distinctive news coverage that not only informs its viewers of the day's news, but does it in a way that compliments its sister show, the Channel 4 News. 

Forget the image you might expect of a sprawling, hectic news room with phones ringing every second, people shouting across the room and a fiery editor storming around, that's reserved for the newspaper world. Television news, as More4 News's anchor Sarah Smith explains, is a much more relaxed place to work.

More4, you may already know, is Channel 4's new sister channel which, like E4 before it, takes out the favourite programmes of a particular section of the channel's audience and puts them all together on one whole new channel. Unlike E4, though, the focus of More4 is not 'youth' TV, but 'adult' TV - drama, films and factual entertainment that has a more cerebral aspect to it. You won't find Hollyoaks on here.

It was launched last October amid great fanfare - you may remember the teaser adverts for a new 'adult' channel that made it seem like Channel 4 was venturing into erotic television. It wasn't the case. Instead More4 arrived with quality films, shows like The West Wing and The Sopranos and, of course, its own news programme.

Presented by Smith - the daughter of late Labour leader John Smith, who moved to More4 from her presenting job on Channel 4 News - it's shown five nights a week (when I ask why it's not on at the weekends, the director, Luke Brown, just puts his finger to his mouth and says, 'Ssh!') at 8pm, minutes after the Channel 4 News has signed off.

It's remit is simple - it will carry the most important stories of the day, updated from what Channel 4 have been reporting, but it will do it in a way that gives viewers ‘new and challenging perspectives’ on events.

"Inevitably some of what we do ends up being the same [as Channel 4 News]," says Smith, "because a lot of the VT reports that we play are the same ones they have. So if they have a reporter covering the EU budget negotiations we're not going to send someone as well because it's a waste of everyone's time and money. It would produce a very similar result. Instead we play a shortened version of whatever they play on Channel 4, and often reports will be the same or very similar. But we will try and interview different guests and have interviews on different stories. If they've already got the best person you can get talking about the EU budget, why have the second best person?"

The Channel 4 News room is just a quick walk away. It's much larger, more how you would expect a news room to be, and, dominated by the tall frame of presenter Jon Snow sat in the middle, there's the same level of calm and concentration you find in the More4 news room. 

More4 News monitor what Channel 4 are up to on their computers, continually checking their running order and adjusting their own or making changes accordingly. The team have their first meeting at 10 o'clock, deciding what they are going to be working on during the day. There's a second meeting at three o'clock, in which More4 make adjustments in light of Channel 4's meeting one hour previously.

"The primary function of both programmes is to be a news show, by the end of which you will have learnt the day's news," says Smith. "But I suppose as a channel More4 sets out to look for different, challenging opinions and perspectives that viewers haven't necessarily heard, so we would try and do something a little bit more risqué or challenging than they might do on the main programme. We're looking for people to interview who you maybe wouldn't hear on other mainstream news programmes, people with different opinions."

"For example, on certain subjects Channel 4 will always want to do the minister. If, say, a new piece of legislation is being proposed they'd ask the minister why he's doing this and another minister why he thinks it's wrong. We wouldn't necessarily go for an interview that was quite that obvious. We might find someone who would be affected by the legislation and who might normally support it but is against it for a surprise reason. We'd be much more interested in that person than somebody who's absolutely head on in the story."

An example of that on the show the team are working on when we join them is a story about the World Health Organisation saying it will no longer recruit people who smoke. In a surprise move, anti-smoking pressure group ASH (Action on Smoking and Health) have criticised the policy, saying that smokers should be encouraged to give up, not forced to do so.

As the show's editor Mick Hodgkin (who is filling in for the usual editor) jokes with his team, ASH are using all the arguments normally levied at them. And so they want to get someone in from ASH to challenge them on their unexpected response to the WHO's new policy.

"It's definitely more creative [on our show]," says Smith, "and more challenging as well, as a result. We have to think a bit differently about who we can get. But even then there's always the chance that Channel 4 decide to do what we're doing. That's happened before. We've thought we were being quite clever in booking an interview and they've ended up booking the same person. So that changes things."

On the other side of the building are the offices of ITV News, which is also produced by ITN. They, however, have much less impact on what More4 do.

"We can monitor what they're doing but it doesn't actually affect us that much to be honest," says Smith. "Out of curiosity we may look at what they're leading with but it doesn't make much difference to us."

So you don't pilfer ideas?

"Oh, well if it's a good one we might," she laughs. "But it's kind of a different remit to be honest. They don't do nearly as much international news as we do, they wouldn't do anything on Sudan for example, as we are today. And they don't really do any live interviews because they're on at 10.30, which is not conducive to getting guests."

Every day Smith joins the rest of the team at two o'clock. She has a chat with the editor about the stories they plan to cover that evening and then the team convene for their second meeting of the day. It's a relaxed, easy discussion. They pull their chairs to the centre of the office and it’s pretty informal - they have a laugh amid the serious nature of the stories they're discussing. And they listen to each other well, each person gets their turn.

They have secured an interview Craig Sanders, a representative from UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, who is happy to give a pre-recorded interview to Smith from Geneva to follow up a story on the troubles in Sudan that is to be reported in the Channel 4 News. They're pleased to have bagged the interview, it gives them a good reason to run a feature on Sudan that one of the journalists, Nima Elbagar, from Sudan herself, has filmed.

"We don't work on stories in advance an enormous amount," says Smith. "For instance the Sudan piece we’re running today, we've been waiting for an opportunity to get it out, and that only came today. Although I didn't get in until two, I was talking to Mick throughout the morning about what was going on. But it's only things like arts features and such that you can plan a wee bit in advance, but even then it would never be more than one piece in a programme that would be a feature.”

As the afternoon rolls on, the team does start to get more animated, but there’s no sense of tension, or urgency, just a growing sense of focus and a need to get things done on time. Smith reads up on the Sudan story and the one about the WHO in preparation for the two pre-recorded interviews they have set up for that afternoon. She goes off to get changed and do her hair and make-up, this time herself. Later she will head down to the make-up artists to have it done properly for the actual show.

“I don’t think you can tell the difference when watching the whole thing together,” she says. “I hope not anyway.”

Brown, the director, takes us down to the studio. I ask him about his job and he simply says, “I make it look nice.” That he does. The studio is the same one used by Channel 4 News, but it’s amazing what different lighting and graphics, camera moves, and placing the desk and chair in a different position can do. There are two cameras, one moves, one doesn’t, and when you’re watching the programme, you’re given the sense that there’s a lot going on behind the scenes.

The interviews go well. Smith is direct and demanding when she speaks to both UNHCR man Sanders and the ASH representative Amanda Sandford. Off camera she is the consummate host, making both Sanders, who is talking from Geneva, and Sandford, who is in the studio, feel equally at ease. Normally they’re not too keen on doing pre-recorded interviews. They’d rather talk to their guests while the show is going out live.

“It’s just the feel of it really,” explains Brown. “I mean, there's an advantage in pre-record in that you can run it by the office and pick the questions you like, but, particularly when they’re in the studio, live is just part of the feeling of the programme. It feels a bit more instant and immediate."

Smith agrees, saying that it looks better if they’re live, and that doing pre-records makes more work for everyone. But sometimes they are necessary, particularly on a Friday when people aren’t so available at eight o’clock in the evening.

“It’s a shame you’re not here another day,” says Smith later. “We’re normally running around madly making sure the guests are ready.”

Hodgkin congratulates his team on bagging the interviews – he says both are good for More4. Compliments flow freely here, whenever someone is impressed with their colleague’s work they will say so. Later on Smith is appreciative of Elbagar’s work on the Sudan feature to Hodgkin when she finally sees it.

But there’s plenty of mickey-taking going on as well. Talking about her Sudan piece and how the country has had only nine years of peace in the 50 years it’s been independent, Elbagar says wryly, “I’m so proud of my country.” One of the editors immediately picks up on the comment. “You’re so proud?” he says, with a big grin. “Shut up, Thomas,” replies Elbagar, laughing. “We take things seriously.”

From next door to the More4 office comes the sound of people taking something very seriously. The shouting from the office has been growing in volume all afternoon. It sounds, at first, like an unhappy editor, but in actual fact it’s the bellowing of an excitable TV presenter. More4’s unlikely neighbours are Big Game TV, a 75p-a-minute phone-in channel which holds competitions for its viewers to win prizes. It’s the most shouting you’ll hear in the ITN building.

Smith heads down to hair and make-up where make-up artist Lisa Connell, along with her colleague Liz Jones, start working their magic. Smith likes it in here, it’s the calm before the storm, and it’s fun, she says. They talk about the celebrities that have been into hair and make-up. Rowan Atkinson has been in this morning. But, after being told they’d get to meet Westlife, Connell and Jones’s hopes were dashed when the band didn’t appear.
As Felicity Barr, a presenter on ITV News, joins Smith in front of the mirror, talk turns to Big Game TV.

“The shouting is mildly distracting,” laughs Smith. "They get more excited as the day goes on as well. By the time it's 7 o'clock you can hear them yelling."

"They definitely earn their money,” adds Barr. “They do three hours solid, no breaks. There’s no commercial breaks and he just keeps talking about absolutely nothing. It’s a real art, I tell you."

Richard and Judy are on in the background and when Jon Snow appears in the ad break, trailing that evening’s Channel 4 News, that’s Smith’s cue to head upstairs for More4’s five minute news summary at five to six. She shows me the marks on the floor where she has to stand. They’re indistinguishable from those for Channel 4 News and Smith says she does get them confused. You’d never know if she did, though.

Having worked here since 1998, when she joined Channel 4 News as the show’s Scotland correspondent, reporting on the first elections to the new Scottish parliament, she knows exactly what she’s doing and knows how to appear in control even when she’s not.

“Anything can go wrong at any time and frequently does,” says Smith. “You can never let your guard down or relax too much. But doing live TV is not something that sends dread through me, thank goodness. I would hate to do something if I was absolutely dreading it all day."

While she’s on screen Smith watches what’s going out on a TV behind the camera so she knows if something goes wrong and can apologise if it does. It went horrendously wrong one evening not long after the channel had launched. The computer developed a fault that wouldn’t allow the VTs to play. As Smith read the lead-in to the first report, she had to apologise when it didn’t start and move on to the next item. Again the same happened.

“It took us a while to realise the problem was with the computer and not the VTs themselves,” says Smith. “It started to get pretty farcical. It's a pretty big problem on television news when you can’t play out the reports, so I was sat there blathering away for about five minutes telling people things they might not have known about our top story. Fortunately it was something I knew a fair amount about, so I was able to talk and talk until one of these pieces would finally play. There were men crawling under desks with spanners trying to make the thing work."

How do you feel when something like that happens?

"You haven't really got time to feel anything,” says Smith. “You’re too busy trying to think of something to say about the news story and keep it going. What you can’t do is stop talking."

Smith began her journalism career as a trainee for BBC Scotland. She says it was invaluable training.

“It was something I wanted to do for a long time, from a reasonably young age,” says Smith. “It looked like it would be interesting, different, and it's lived up to that. There's been a lot of travel, a lot of different challenges. You find yourself in situations and experiences you wouldn’t in any other kind of job. It keeps you on your toes.

“I was very lucky to get on to the BBC training programme, which was great. From the start you get a lot of different experience working in different departments, and get a chance to see all the different things you might want to do."

Smith worked for the BBC for a long time before moving to Five News where she was a reporter for two years. After moving to Channel 4 seven years ago, she has covered stories ranging from the US presidential elections, the Madrid train bombings (for which Channel 4 News won an Emmy in 2004), and conducted an exclusive interview with Saddam Hussein’s defence lawyer. She’s seen a lot of changes in the industry.

“Mostly technological,” she says. “The news is easier to make with fewer people and less money. There are far fewer people with far smaller bits of equipment which are much easier to travel with. You can get to places faster in a way that you never could before. Five years ago you wouldn't have been able to do More4 News with this number of people, you’d have needed twice that many. And 10 years ago you would have needed an army the size of the Channel 4 news room to do it. People are able to do far more things at their desk. Producers are now editing. Even more so on More4 than Channel 4 news, a lot of our films are shot by the producers, and probably reported by them."

Is there a lot more pressure on news programmes now because people have a lot more access to news through rolling news channels and the internet?

"It means that for a programme like ours, you've got to think a bit more about bringing an interesting analysis to it,” says Smith. “We’ve got to give the proper treatment to a story. Not everybody is sitting and consuming news all day. You’ve got to assume that your viewer is coming in after a day at work not necessarily knowing what's been going on in the world. But at the same time you can’t just repeat a string of facts. That's what these other continuous outlets are for. You have to craft it into an interesting programme and make sure you have a wide variety of stories that are treated well, and that you’re supplying an analysis and expertise that’s much harder for continuous news channels to provide.”

And what does Channel 4 itself demand from its news programmes?

"The news," laughs Smith. “I know it's obvious but that's 90% of what news programmes are. You can make a terrible mistake by doing a lot of features and different things and trying to look completely different from everyone else. It's easy to look different from other news programmes but do you necessarily have the news in it? From us, Channel 4 is looking for greater analysis and perspective on events.”

What about the future of television news, what changes do you anticipate?

“Fewer and fewer people and smaller and smaller bits of kit," says Smith with a smile. "I can’t imagine that it won't change. Each one of us is having to learn more skills and become more acquainted with the technology. A lot of people resist it at the beginning but then you realise that it makes it all a whole lot easier to be able to just do something yourself rather than involve a long chain of about four different technicians. That speeding up of things is what I imagine will happen, as the technology allows that."

So there will be less people and less jobs.

“Yes, but there seems to be ever growing amounts of news channels."

The summary done, Smith returns to the office to go through the script for the half hour show, to make sure she understands the stories, check they translate well when read aloud, and, last but not least, check she knows the correct pronunciations. Around her a sense of urgency begins to creep in as the clock ticks. They’re still working on stories right up until eight o’clock, with minutes to spare, but they still do it seemingly calmly.

“I wouldn’t say we’re calm,” says Elbagar. “Just quiet.”

Having returned to the studio, Smith is raising concerns about her jacket. Is it too blue? It may be the case on the very blue set, but there’s nothing she can do about it now. Wardrobe is an important aspect of her job, and one that is left completely down to Smith to take care of.

“It's got to be right,” she says. “When I'm stood in the studio I need colours that work with it. I learnt that on Channel 4 news and have had to work it out along the way. I have to worry about all of that. I have to find it, choose it and pay for it, unfortunately."

The show itself runs smoothly. Brown calmly directs the cameramen and lets the floor manager, Rebecca Bryant, know where to put the furniture. Over the headphones he discusses the reports with Smith, more compliments are made. They are all completely unflappable. Without the headphones all you can hear are Smith’s authoritative tones when she’s talking to the camera.

Otherwise it’s quiet, and hard to believe that what is going on in this room is being broadcast to hundreds of thousands of people. Bryant checks Smith is okay as a report is playing. “Yes I am, I’m absolutely fine,” she says. And you know she absolutely is.