18.03.04
0800: Chat with News at Noon and 7pm teams. Kosovo flaring up; US Embassy alleges some of freed Guantanamo Bay suspects did have Al-Qaida links; health boss says foreign nurses are “killers”. We’re pursuing all three.
1100: Britain asked to send troops to Kosovo – it moves up to second lead after Guantanamo at Noon. Noon fine, but some tricky legals.
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1415: Kosovo now lead. Britain sends troops. Should we send a team? “M”, the Belmarsh detainee, has been freed, a week after we broke the story of his successful appeal.
1500: View film for transmission tonight made by Guardian Films through our Independents’ Fund.
They’ve tracked down the key characters involved in pulling down Saddam’s statue in Baghdad. A good watch, some minor tweaks.
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1815: Musharraf talks of a ‘”highvalue” Al-Qaida target surrounded by Pakistan troops. Our man Ian Williams is in Islamabad. Book him for live, even though we are a bit sceptical.
2000: Further plans to go to Kosovo.
Do we need armoured car? Not yet.
2300: Edging towards going to Kosovo. Team already on stand-by to fly out on Friday am.
19.03.04
0800: Agree to go to Kosovo, even though it’s been a quiet night. Long chat with correspondent in Pakistan.
Even more sceptical about suggestion that Al Zawahri, Bin Laden’s Number Two, is holed up like Butch Cassidy.
1015: Kosovo hotting up and likely to be the lead. Discussion about scoop we have for next week – revelations about British security services dealings with Abu Qatada.
1415: A story broke during News at Noon – Coke recall Dasani bottled-water. How do we develop for the evening? They say it’s because there’s too much bromate present. Will it lead to cancer or just suppressed libido? 1900: Kosovo lead. Coke boss uncomfortable.
Jon Snow is doing Who Wants to be a Millionaire? for charity. Am I willing if he needs to “phone a friend”? Only if answer is Jonny Wilkinson or Elizabeth Hurley.
20.03.04
0915: On call at home. Big anti-war demo on Iraq. Christopher Eccleston to be new Dr Who. What can we do? 1200: Tom Baker and Sylvester McCoy decline to appear. Shame.
1700: Greenpeace climb Big Ben.
Good lead – we’re talking to the Met.
1913: Startling revelation at end of show that our sports presenter Sue Turton once appeared as a monster in Dr Who. Sue bashful when Krishnan tells the viewers.
C4 News’s exclusive with the sex case army officer
21.03.04
Quiet day. Kosovo looks like being the lead. Our team have filmed smoking Serb villages “ethnically cleansed” and there are funerals today. Liberal Democrat leader Charlie Kennedy will speak after his Budget day illness.
1930: Powerful piece from Jonathan Miller in Kosovo. Charlie’s appearance won’t stop the talk.
22.03.04
0800: Sheikh Yassin, spiritual leader of Hamas, has been assassinated.
Should we go? Fly the Kosovo team there? 1245: View investigative film for transmission this evening. Gangmaster employing illegal workers in Norfolk. Some legal and production tweaks.
1315: Lunch with 4 Interactive, our partners in all new media ventures, including news for mobile phones and new broadband service. We discuss ideas for the future.
Channel 4 News nominated for a Bafta for Fall of Saddam. But Ricky Gervais will win.
23.03.04
Sceptical letter from viewer (trevor.timelord) questioning whether Sue Turton did appear as a haemovore in The Curse of Fenric. Sue reveals she was a “stunt extra” (monster was amphibian as you will recall) and so not on official BBC list of actors. E-mail reply – await response from the Dr Who fan club.
Exclusive lead from Simon Israel reveals Abu Qatada met MI5 and agreed to inform on Islamic extremists.
We look too at the science of cheating at roulette.
Should we report Blair’s visit to Libya after Gaddafi’s son reveals trip? Downing Street want to keep embargo.
24.03.04
Qatada story makes Guardian and Financial Times front pages. We have a different kind of scoop planned for tonight. We have the only TV interview with Angela McConnell, the former warrant officer involved in the Army sex discrimination case. She loses, but what a remarkable picture she paints of a woman’s life in a boy’s army.
Political editor Elinor Goodman is on the Tony Blair terror-tour. As logistically fraught as a political editor’s life can ever be. Supper in Belfast, breakfast in Madrid, pictures in Portugal and voice-track somewhere over the Bay of Biscay. She delivers, as ever, as we weigh up how to cover the teenage suicide bomber in Nablus and reports of a bomb on the French railways.
The haemovores are coming.
Where are you trevor.timelord?
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