BBC London counts down to 2012
As the rest of the BBC is turning its thoughts to Beijing, BBC London is concentrating on what the 2012 Games will mean for the Capital and for 12 million Londoners.
The past six months have been incredibly busy, with the Olympics budget and the logo launch grabbing the headlines, but the main lesson that BBC London staff have learnt in the two years since Singapore is that the Olympics and Paralympics are going to be a huge story week in, week out, from now until 2012.
BBC London has just completed a major week of activities as the clock counting down to 2012 hits the five-year mark. A rousing Question Time style programme, filmed in Stratford, was the highlight of the week, with an invited audience getting the opportunity to question the leading Olympic stakeholders, including Tessa Jowell and Seb Coe, on Londoners' concerns and hopes for the Games. We also ran a series of reports as part of the 2012 Lives project, where a number of people who live in and around the Games site in Stratford are keeping video diaries about how their lives are changing as East London is transformed.
Michael MacFarlane, Head of BBC London, says: "I was particularly excited about another project we ran last week involving our radio station BBC London 94.9FM. We linked up with a number of community organisations and education groups in East London to give young people the opportunity to contribute to a virtual radio service around the themes of the Olympics and East London. There were some great programmes with passionate contributions from people who have a big stake in the Olympics, but feel their voices aren't being heard."
Elsewhere, BBC London coverage of 2012 matters has been given a boost with the appointment as the BBC's London 2012 Correspondent of Adrian Warner, previously with the London Evening Standard and Reuters. As well as contributing to the TV and radio services, Adrian will be writing regularly on the BBC London website, where there's also an opportunity to catch up on the full range of 2012 coverage.
It's going to be a busy year ahead! Keep up to date with developments with BBC London - On TV, On Radio, Online.
bbc.co.uk/London
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