I have long used this phrase for a festival – back when I was helping to run Salisbury International Arts Festival, and more recently on many, many work projects.
Now I can officially say I have a run a full marathon! It didn’t go entirely to plan… a hip flexor muscle went at about 10 miles into the run, so I elected to walk a good part of the second half and just scraped in under the Newport, Wales marathon cut off time. But I did it!
All the training, the miles on long, wet January runs, paid off and I learned loads about resilience, boredom and just putting one foot in front of the other, over and over again – just as in work and the rest of life, which I will carry with me forever.
As I write this I’m just back from three fantastic days in Liverpool with esteemed colleagues Lisa Campbell, Cheryl Clarke and Paul Leather among many other loved contacts old and new in the TV and screen industries. One of the most enduring memories – aside from lots of fun in Liverpool – was seeing more than 100 students from across Merseyside taking their first steps in careers in the screen industries, learning from those already working in those industries at the Creative Cities Convention Skills Summit.
There was so much to take away from the Convention, including big thoughts about how the BBC and Channel 4 in particular can adapt, and soon, to a future of public service broadcasting in the digital age. ITV must also get a mention for its part in the PSB landscape, with a couple of the very young cast from G’Wed, ITVX’s on-the-nose sitcom making an appearance on the CCC2026 stage.
There were too many conference partners, exhibitors, independent producers, other broadcasters and huge studios represented at the convention to mention each by name. Check out @ccconventionuk on Instagram for a taste of the action over the two days.
Since my last update, and since the marathon, I’ve also helped organise a service of celebration at St Paul’s Cathedral for hundreds of people and the @Warm Welcome Campaign. It was a lovely service, followed by a small reception for some of our Warm Welcome Spaces, volunteers, partners and funders who make up the Warm Welcome movement, giving people a warm and welcoming place to go, particularly at this important moment when we need a strong sense of community and people supporting each other rather than engaging in division.
In other news
This is alarming, about the BBC making 2,000 job cuts – I’m these days very wary of organisations trying to do too much with too few resources. Will the BBC scale back some of its ambitions because it has fewer people and less money to deliver them? Of course, the BBC must offer something for everyone. And it must adapt and be safeguarded, otherwise we will rue what we have lost.
Staff alarm at the job cuts, shared by the culture secretary Lisa Nandy, was reflected in this story the following day.
This is good about retirement. It says plenty of what I’ve been thinking about the distant vista of a retired future, free from the burdens of working in a capitalist system, essentially so that I can put food on the table and pay the bills not just for myself but for my two daughters who cannot support themselves – and may not be able to do so for some time. I continue to put one foot in front of the other.
That’s it for today. Thanks for reading and see you in June.
Lucy Rouse PR Blog 