As a young 24 year old BBC journalist freelancing for BBC Radio Newcastle and earlier with BBC Radio Durham -- in the days that Kate Adie was a producer there -- I was invited to come and work as a sub-editor on the BH GNS desk, and will always remember the great days we all had as "Rip and Read" news bulletins were written every hour and telexed to all the BBC's newsrooms.
The main Radio Four bulletins always set the news agenda with Alan Ashton and the team of Senior Duty Editors and all of us all working together so well.
I also had many shifts on the Radios 1&2 summaries desk, and together we were a team grappling with the days of IRA bombings in London, the Flixborough disaster on Humberside, the situation in Cyprus and many, many more major stories every day.
They were good days for me and it was an honour to be there for a year in a career which took me to Northern Ireland, first on the Belfast Telegraph and then as the Daily Mail's Belfast-based staff correspondent, returning to BBC News on the Radio Ulster newsdesk and Good Morning Ulster, where I worked for over five years.
Thanks for the great memories - and for the experience of being there.
Graham Bardgett (www.bardgettmedia.co.uk)

Not so much exciting - your words - but tragic. We at the centre, then, in the BH Newsroom in London, were handling the whole newsgathering operation, from our own correspondents and the staff of the regions. That's why having had a year at BBC Radio News it was important for me to work in Northern Ireland, nine years on the Belfast Telegraph, five years as the Daily Mail's man in Ireland, and then five years with the BBC in Belfast, reporting the horror of human tragedy, ie the husband of a loved one who spoke to me in ICU after his wife had her legs blown off, and the astonishing scenes in Milltown Cemetery when Michael Stone mounted his gun and grenade attack on mourners at the funeral of the Gibraltar terrorists, and four days later the murder of the two Royal Signals Corporals, not to mention the Enniskillen IRA Poppy Day bombing or all the rest of the incidents we all had to report at first hand.  Not exciting - tragic.

GB

Alan Ashton, How are you?. Where are you and what are you doing now?.  It was the Sports Producer Colin Mason who brought me into BBC Radio Durham and paid me for helping with the Saturday afternoon production.  I was Editor of the Reyrolle Parsons power station turbine generator group employee newspapers - and then later with BBC Radio Newcastle I became involved there.  A thoroughly rewarding time working alongside very good people.
GB

Always wondered what happened to Bardgett of the BBC. Enthusiastic tigger of the GNS desk. Good to see that all worked well for you - it proves that there is a life after the BBC! Yes, it was exciting and we covered tragic events but it was done damn well by a hugely professional team all round. The club on Friday lunchtimes was a good barometer of letting off the steam of the wek.

TAustin