JY1 50 Years On

One bright Sunday morning in the summer of 1999, I arrived at the BBC TV headquarters around 7:15 a.m. to begin a day on the news desk. I was then, and remain today (Photo A), one of a small team of senior editors who make sure that what the BBC’s many news programmes want, they get. That Sunday would have been pretty quiet, with shortened weekend length news programmes and no major breaking stories.

I logged on and opened my emails. A few had accumulated since I was last in the office. We were some years from carrying Blackberries and iPhones, so it was normal to be out of touch if you weren’t at work. Most were routine. One wasn’t. It was from a movie company in Hollywood called Brillstein. I’d never heard of it.

I can’t locate the email any more, must have deleted it in some clean-up, and if I printed it, I’ve lost it. But I remember it very well. It said that they had read my story in Harper’s magazine, that they felt it had the possibility of being developed into a motion picture, and could I please get in touch if I wanted to discuss this further.

OK …

There was another email, from Universal Pictures. I’d certainly heard of them and it was in similar terms — they’d seen my story in Harper’s magazine, found it of great interest, and thought it had the potential to develop into a motion picture. Could I please get back to them?

OK again …

My first thought was that this was some friend winding me up, but the emails looked genuine enough. My head