In recent weeks it has travelled through the North East - Alnwick, Newcastle, Gateshead, Durham, Middlesbrough, Hull, York and Carlisle - before returning to the North West through Dumfries, Bowness-on-Windermere, Kendal, Blackpool and Lytham St Anne's and coming to a temporary rest in Manchester's Albert Square on Saturday.

Early on Sunday morning it arrived in Salford. Olympic hopeful Shanaze Reade, professional BMX racer and track cyclist was one of the people who had the honour of seeing the Torch safely from Salford to Trafford in front of more than 2,000 local people.

In every town and city that the Torch has passed through, the event has brought communities together to celebrate a unique moment of history with a sense of both local and national pride.

Salford was no different. Alongside members of the British Olympic Team like Shanaze, local people have also had the opportunity to carry the torch and - rain or shine - friends, family and the public in general came out to cheer them on.

Shanaze was also joined by Manchester-born teenager Kirsty Howard, whose personal story and incredible fundraising efforts have had a big impact on many people's lives, ever since her appearance at the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games. And it was great to have Sir Bobby Charlton and Kirsty Howard live on BBC Breakfast on the day as well.

It is moments like this that make each and every moment of the Torch relay inspirational and memorable. And across this region and the entire UK, BBC local news has been on the ground bringing the Relay into peoples' homes.

Encouraging and celebrating this sense of community is at the heart of what we are doing from our home at MediaCityUK, across the entire North of England.

This weekend for example, BBC Outreach held a series of events here at MediaCityUK including a two-day showcase celebrating the end of the Salford Gardens Festival. Inspired by the fact that Frances Hodgeson Burnett, author of the classic children's novel The Secret Garden lived in Salford as a child, the Festival is a partnership between a number of organizations including the BBC as well as local community groups and Salford City Council.

The Outreach team also worked with local primary schools to create four short films around the theme of "secret places". These were screened to pupils and local residents here on the site alongside "Shelagh Delaney's Salford" by director Ken Russell which featured the famous Broughton-born playwright talking about her hometown.

And over the summer we will continue to go out into communities here in Greater Manchester and across the region. Here on the piazza at MediaCityUK for example, we are finalising plans for free events around Wimbledon, London 2012 and BBC Children's that I hope will bring thousands of people to the site.

Later this autumn BBC Radio 5 live will be out on the road with OctoberFest and BBC Philharmonic Presents will return with a series of concerts. Keep an eye on the BBC North website for details on all these events coming soon.

While the Olympic Torch may have left our backyard en route for Leeds and Grimsby next week, BBC North has an important role to play in delivering the Corporation's Olympic coverage. The state-of-the-art digital technology housed in our new buildings will ensure that the audience doesn't miss one moment of the Olympics that the BBC will cover on 26 television channels, 3 radio stations or online.The fact that our Salford-based BBC Sport online site has just amassed its biggest ever weekly reach figure - 15.4m UK browsers - speaks volumes for licence fee payers' growing enjoyment of this massive 2012 summer of sport.

In fact if you've ever wondered whether sport still has the power to unite the nation, the twenty-three million people who watched on Sunday evening for the European Championships is even more proof. As England once again succumbed to penalties, it tells you everything you need to know about why the BBC needs to stay in major sporting events.

So with an eye on the rest of this summer, the breadth of coverage on offer will be truly Olympian in its own right. Like the Torch Relay itself it will hopefully unite communities and the nation together this summer and BBC North will enjoy being at the heart of it. ]]> Peter Salmon Peter Salmon https://bbcstreaming.pages.dev/blogs/aboutthebbc/2012/06/uniting-communities-and-the-na.shtml https://bbcstreaming.pages.dev/blogs/aboutthebbc/2012/06/uniting-communities-and-the-na.shtml BBC North Mon, 25 Jun 2012 16:58:24 +0000 Preston Bus Station was the unlikely venue for the BBC's latest and most innovative live event - The Preston Passion. This sixty-minute live programme on BBC One fused mass-audience participation, compelling drama and music-making to celebrate both Good Friday and the city itself.

Hosted by Fern Britton, featuring actors like Tom Ellis and Samantha Bond in three mini dramas, Jamelia -who agreed to step in at the last moment - and hundreds of locals from across the city who rehearsed for weeks, this reinterpretation of the medieval Passion Play was a searing success. Not only did hundreds of fellow Prestonians turn up to show their support but, true to the times we live in, many watching at home expressed their pride as well as their surprise as they recognised friends and family on national television via Twitter.

For everyone involved as well as those watching across the UK, it showed what the BBC and an entire city can achieve by working together. The Preston Passion was a truly inspiring moment of community spirit as well as a strong and undeniable expression of faith. And it happened because a powerful new BBC North base, with the BBC Religion and Ethics department, Drama Productions and local programmes combined to extraordinary effectiveness.

Its success was a good omen.

Today everyone here at MediaCityUK can be proud that the final milestone in the first phase of the BBC's move to Salford has been reached.

At 6.00am today Bill Turnbull and Susanna Reid presented the first ever BBC Breakfast show from Salford Quays. And later this week their colleagues, Louise Minchin and Charlie Stayt have their first turn on the sofa in the new studio. This talented quartet is joined by Stephanie McGovern for business and Sally Nugent and Mike Bushell for sport. And Carol Kirkwood will continue to present Breakfast's weather reports from London and locations across the UK.

BBC Breakfast is a significant part of people's lives across the UK. Providing three hours of uninterrupted live news, sport and entertainment at the start of every day, it now reaches over 12 million viewers per week. We take its continued success very seriously.

And it also marks a small piece of broadcasting history. BBC Breakfast joins BBC Children's Newsround - now in its fortieth year - as one of only two network television news programmes made outside London.

The BBC Breakfast team is part a thriving community of journalists here on the banks of the Manchester Ship Canal. Regional and network news and current affairs have been produced in the North for decades but never in such numbers. From front-line coverage of last summer's riots to this year's Budget coverage and the recent Bradford by-election shock they help make the local national; the national global and the global local.

With over 400 journalists based here - including Radio 5 live and BBC Sports news - BBC North is now home to the biggest concentration of journalists outside the capital. That should effect the way the BBC looks, sounds and is perceived. Over time, I am confident we will see and hear more stories that reflect new communities here and capture a real sense of Northern warmth, humour and grit. That isn't something we need to force - it will happen naturally, carefully and organically.

So as we approach the first anniversary of BBC North this May it really does feel that we are closing the opening chapter of our Northern story.

A great deal of hard work and faith in what we are trying to do by everyone here as well as across the BBC has brought us to where we are now. No one should underestimate what has been achieved despite the challenges we have encountered.

Not only have we successfully completed a 36-week migration of staff from both the South and North but we have recruited and welcomed over 700 new people fresh and full of new ideas into the BBC. We have also started to see increased investment of the Licence Fee with creative companies across the region and begun to develop a generation of new talent in our own backyard that can have long-term benefits for the BBC and other creative industries. All this in just less than one year at our new home.

There has been no bigger single shift in the history of British broadcasting. With the first phase complete and BBC North fully operational, now is the time to focus on the future and start to write the next chapter of our story.

Performers from the BBC Philharmonic Presents...Salford Tales, based on the real life stories of people living and working in Salford (a collaboration between the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and the Salford Symphony Orchestra).

There's no denying the facts - in the eight months since we opened for business at MediaCityUK in May 2011, BBC North has so far directly employed an additional 24 residents from Salford. We have also recruited an additional 209 people from Greater Manchester, and a further 127 from across the North of England.

In the current economic climate, any talk of jobs will strike a nerve and some people and the media have criticised us for not doing enough to recruit Salford residents.

Any single job at the BBC routinely attracts scores of applications for every appointment. We also receive 180,000 CVs every year and 70,000 enquiries for work experience.

For BBC North alone, 68,000 people successfully registered via our dedicated job website for 680 vacancies. A hundred people for every job.

Like other major national organisations, and even more so because we are funded by the UK public, the BBC cannot recruit by postcode. We would be doing a disservice to our audience if our recruitment process was geographically selective rather than based on the skills and experience of the applicants themselves. The quality of our output must remain paramount.

Nevertheless, more than half the jobs we advertised at BBC North went to people from across the North. Additionally our partners on the site are recruiting local residents directly as a result of the BBC. Balfour Beatty for example, who help run our buildings, employ 90 people from the Salford area alone and even more from across the North West. So that means - including existing staff who moved from Oxford Road - we now have over 200 Salfordians in our buildings.

But to make a bigger, longer-term difference, we knew we would have to adopt a 'slow-but-grow' approach to training and developing the local workforce. In Salford, with its high levels of unemployment sometimes across generations of families, we knew the challenge would be substantial.

So, in the past year we have launched two schemes for Salfordians and people from across Greater Manchester to work for and train with us at MediaCityUK and build a workforce of the future.

Our BBC North Young Ambassador and Apprenticeship schemes have been developed specifically for people with little or no job experience or formal qualifications and who might never have otherwise considered the BBC as somewhere to work.

Building the skills base is the reason we launched the BBC North Apprenticeship scheme. The principle of apprenticeships isn't new - it stretches back to the Middle Ages in England, and there is resurgence in apprenticeships today because they can address current concerns about skills shortages in specific areas.

At a time when unemployment is a serious and growing issue they offer a route into skilled jobs. For that reason we have based our scheme on the traditional model - salaried jobs with training. Our apprentices train in specific roles for between 12 and 18 months with on-the-job training in areas such as production or technology, receive mentoring and study for a qualification. And at the end of their apprenticeship, there is a job for them at the BBC. Our ambition is to offer 100 apprenticeships at MediaCityUK in the first four years. Sixteen have already started working on-site and we are about to start a second wave of recruitment.

For local 16 to 18 year olds, when even getting first job experience can prove almost impossible these days, we have launched the Young Ambassadors. At any one time we expect to have eight ambassadors employed at BBC North. During their six months with us they will work across a variety of departments, receive mentoring by a member of staff and study towards an external qualification. I believe that as many of them come to us with no experience whatsoever, these six months provide invaluable training, build their confidence and hopefully helps them on the road to either another job with us, if the opportunity arises, or elsewhere in further education and training.

And let's not forget the impact our investment in programming, training and development can have outside our own buildings. We have made hundreds of hours of drama, comedy, entertainment, factual and news for television and radio, spending millions of pounds with production companies across the North of England. And we have encouraged production partners - from Sheffield to Liverpool - to offer trainee placements wherever possible.

But it isn't just about employment. I am proud that we are in Salford and we are here for the long-term. So it's as important that we become part of the local community through projects that bring people into our buildings or take us out to them. Thousands of school children have taken part in projects with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Learning and BBC News Schools Report. From producing the first live broadcast from MediaCityUK to writing new music, it is as important to engage and inspire as it is to develop bespoke employment opportunities.

And our own staff are increasingly getting involved through volunteering and are taking a more active role with local schools and colleges directly. For example we are already working with The Oasis Academy which will be the closest secondary school to MediaCityUK when it opens later this year.

So those 24 from Salford might only be a start but, I would argue, a promising start.

Earlier this week one of the newspapers asked "Can the BBC save Salford?". Well, Salford doesn't need saving. Salford needs companies to invest in its residents for the long term. Alongside the BBC, others including The Salford Foundation, University of Salford, ITV, Peel Media and a plethora of smaller companies, not only in MediaCityUK, but across the area, are making a difference.

At the moment that difference might seem small to some people but remember we are eight months into a twenty year-project and we are just building the foundations for a sustainable and successful future. For BBC North but also for our neighbours here too.

Frankenstein's wedding. Image by Ralph Petts

Our new home here at MediaCityUK has gone from being a project to a creative and broadcast reality. We have moved almost two thousand people into our new buildings at the same time that many of them are building new lives for themselves in the region. And onsite people are making programmes for television and radio and content for online at the same time that we are broadcasting live from studios overlooking Salford Quays twenty-hours a day. Listen to Radio 5 Live, catch the Christmas Blue Peter or watch the CBeebies Pantomime if you want proof this festive season.

The evening I sang along to the MediaCityUK Community Carol concert here on the piazza last week, reminded me that a key reason for building a new creative hub here in the North of England was to get closer to our audience. This isn't only about spending the licence fee more fairly across the region, investing in programmes, training and employment, but about getting physically closer to licence payers as well.

And I believe that ultimately this isn't just for our audiences. For me, it is as important for our staff as well. Meeting the public, listening to what they have to say and simply just talking to them, can give a fresh perspective and help enrich the programmes we make and the services we offer. We all should get out more.

So this year we created a series of events both at MediaCityUK and across the region that have either brought the audience here to Salford Quays or taken us to where they live and work.

Since May, tens of thousands of people have come face to face with their favourite presenters and personalities, taken part in live broadcasts or heard free live concerts and even helped us raise money for charity. I don't imagine many had been face to face with the BBC before.

At the beginning of the year, together with a host of partners, we transformed Kirkstall Abbey in Leeds and invited the public to be guests at a Gothic-inspired wedding. Over 12,000 people braved a cold March evening to attend Frankenstein's Wedding... Live In Leeds. Nearly everyone dressed up for the occasion broadcast live on BBC Three and which has won a series of awards.

In June, the BBC Philharmonic marked their arrival onsite with a festival of free concerts in their new studio. BBC Philharmonic Presents welcomed over three thousand people to a two-week programme of free music that ranged from church and film music to the premiere of a dubstep symphony. As well as live studio audiences, over 10 million people tuned into the concerts across the BBC's radio networks or watched via red button - a testament to the originality of the idea and the imagination of our orchestra. Later in the same month, the BBC Philharmonic performed 'Music While You Work' in a factory in Salford. Originally started by the BBC in the 1940s to improve morale, the BBC Philharmonic has been associated with the initiative for decades and, I hope, made a normal work-a-day lunchtime more memorable, putting a spring in the step of the audience both in the factory and on Radio 3.

Over the summer we worked with the Manchester International Festival both here in Salford and in central Manchester, creating a series of unique events for young and old alike. Possibly the most unusual collaboration was Music Boxes. Seventy-eight shipping containers were transformed into series of music-inspired adventures for young children including CBeebies and Zingzillas, who created two very special sound worlds in their containers to engage and entertain their young visitors. Our own North-based Research & Development team combined forces with Manchester-based magneticNorth to create the Virtual Maestro. This clever piece of kit gave budding young maestros the opportunity to conduct the BBC Philharmonic. It wasn't as simple as it looked, as it seemed to baffle the most determined of parents - me included.

On the other side of the piazza, in collaboration with PunchDrunk Theatre, the BBC created an alien world as the setting for a special Doctor Who adventure - The Crash of the Elysium. Within moments of entering the exhibit, the children were thrust into a confrontation with one of the most dangerous of the Doctor's adversaries, the Weeping Angels. And for one group, the adventure was made even more memorable by the surprise appearance by Matt Smith himself. And in central Manchester, members of the BBC Philharmonic joined Damon Albarn for the world premiere of his opera, Dr Dee.

A wetter than normal Bank Holiday weekend in August couldn't deter thousands of children from coming to Salford Quays. Their objective was to meet one of their heroes, Justin Fletcher aka Mr Tumble, and they weren't disappointed. Despite the rainy weather, they watched as Justin performed a series of live shows on a specially built stage and in between Shaun The Sheep's "Championsheeps Live" game kept them entertained with a summer fair inspired assault course. That soggy concert also then inspired Justin and team to produce more than 20 new episodes of Justin's House in the studios here at MediaCityUK. The series was so successful that it went on to break all records for CBeebies.

And the following month, Alesha Dixon travelled to Salford. Stepping out from Strictly, she brought street dance to the Lowry and hosted a series of workshops as part of CBBC's new show, Alesha's Street Dance Star.

A world away from dance was BarCamp in September. Hosted by the R&D team this was the very first time the BBC had opened its door to this global free-form event. Over a single weekend over 150 people came together in one of our buildings to discuss the latest developments in technology - everything from gaming to social networking - and to share their ideas.

On a smaller scale but just as important, Mr Bloom, another new CBeebies personality, visited my hometown of Burnley. Over a single weekend, a patch of land was transformed into a community allotment that formed a special episode and was then handed over to a local Pennine charity. A moving event for all of us who attended.

Back at base we hosted out first local residents' Open Day. Our Outreach team have been out in the community since before we arrived at MediaCityUK, but it wasn't until November - once we had enough people in the buildings and were broadcasting live from the site - that we felt we would really welcome our neighbours round for a tour. Seven hundred people from the local community visited us over the weekend. It was interesting that - in spite of what some of them had read in the papers - their feedback on our new home and programme plans were broadly positive.

A few weeks later we hosted a day of events to celebrate Children In Need and to raise money. As well as a flashmob dance to Singing In The Rain - and typically the rain failed to fall at the appointed time - a cohort of me and my colleagues grew beards that were then ceremoniously shaved off and there were a series of other events that encouraged people to visit the site. In total the public raised over £26 million and I am incredibly proud that approximately six million pounds alone was raised across the North of England for this incredible cause - not to mention the massive Children In Need Rocks Manchester Concert.

And I could keep you here all day if I went into detail about Lady Gaga in Carlisle for The Radio One Big Weekend; Strictly Come Dancing and the big finale in Blackpool; never mind Jesting About, our entertainment search in Tyneside; or even the first ever Salford Sitcom Showcase.

And that brings me finally to the last two weeks here at MediaCityUK. In the run up to Sports Personality Of The Year this week, BBC departments across the site have come together and created Celebrate Sport.

Celebrate Sport was a fortnight of sport-related events. Two particular highlights for me involved Manchester's two greatest clubs. The very successful BBC One series Bang Goes The Theory collaborated with the reserve team of Manchester City. Working with children from two local schools they tackled the science behind the "beautiful game", looking at the things that are critical for any major player including fitness and nutrition. And at the end of last week, the BBC Philharmonic joined forces with the Manchester United Foundation Choir and the BBC North staff choir. Attended by Sir Bobby Charlton, it was an amazing concert and I don't think that there was a dry eye in the house by the end of it.

And all week the National Football Museum have taken up residence in The Studio block and run a series of events throughout the day. These have ranged from kit design, sports-themed reading sessions for young children to an exhibition of football artefacts and memorabilia that not only included the football from the 1966 World Cup Final but also George Best's Manchester United shirt and John Motson's famous sheepskin coat.

Of course, events are complicated and sometimes things don't go according to plan. Only this weekend some people were disappointed at not getting into a recording of Football Focus at Salford Lads Club. It's normal practice to issue more tickets than the capacity of a venue because it's usual that some people won't turn up. Unfortunately at the weekend - either because it was Football Focus or because we were recording at the Club - everyone with a ticket turned up and sadly some people couldn't get in. I know that this was a massive disappointment for all of them, some of who had travelled a long way. However, I am pleased to say all those who were weren't able to get into Football Focus are being offered tickets to watch a recording of Question of Sport in the New Year.

Best laid plans! But neither we, nor our new neighbours I hope, will be deterred. This year has been a promising start and we will build on what we have done and what we have learned.

We are now finalizing our plans for 2012 and naturally the Olympics - and in fact a massive year of sport in all - will play a major role in how we get even closer to the public.

We will continue to invest in programmes made across the region and as well as events here in Salford Quays that create a real sense of public space in front of our buildings, I am determined that we move beyond Greater Manchester and travel across the North.

We have already announced that the BBC will be in Preston next Easter and are putting the finishing touches to events that will take us out and about across the North.

And we will continue to organize events with universities and colleges across the region. Starting with Preston College in January, when I will attend the opening of the college's new visual and performing arts building and we have plans for events at Sheffield Hallam University and Leeds Trinity Centre for Journalism in the first months of 2012.

However, getting out and actively engaging with our audiences will be a challenge at a time when we are reducing budgets across the BBC. But this isn't the time to retreat behind the walls of our buildings. We need to both welcome the public into our spaces and go out to them. Just as the audience value and enjoy the programmes that we make, equally they take great enjoyment when they experience the BBC for real, meeting us, talking to us and asking us their own questions.

We should never underestimate the importance of the audience. Engaging with them directly - here in Salford, across the North or, in fact, anywhere in the UK - makes for a better, stronger and more supported BBC.

Peter Salmon is Director of BBC North

Not only have we said our final and historic farewell to Oxford Road - the BBC2 special TV Greats - Our Favourites From The North - paid it a fine tribute at the weekend - but we have also begun to usher in a new era of journalism from these parts at MediaCityUK. 

So it seemed timely that CBBC's Newsround arrival in Salford should be honoured by the television industry with a Special Award at the weekend's Children's BAFTAs.

It really is worth singling out Newsround's role in more detail. For the last four decades Newsround has been the only constant news provider for children. Starting with the legendary John Craven, and followed by the likes of Krishnan Guru-Murthy, Kate Sanderson and Matthew Price, the programme has become a national institution, successfully helping generations of children to learn more about, and crucially come to terms with, the world around them.

  Today's presenters - Ore Oduba, Ricky Boleto, Leah Gooding and Hayley Cutts - continue this fine tradition. As well as the lighter side of news - from the latest technological developments to entertainment news - the programme has covered the most momentous and tragic events of the past 40 years. From the famines that inspired Band Aid, the events of 9/11 and 7/7, the tsunamis that ravaged the Far East to today's global recession, Newsround has delivered daily bulletins that have guided the audience through often incredibly complex issues with great clarity, balancing high quality journalism with sensitivity. And the programme's award-winning specials have covered everything from it's recent piece on autism to bullying and alcoholism, bringing a deeper perspective to stories that all too often impact directly on the audiences' own lives. 

In today's world of instant and continuous global news, Newsround provides a safe harbour for children to learn the facts behind often sensationalised headlines and it's hard not to believe that it makes a real difference in their lives. In fact, I'm in no doubt that since that first programme over forty years ago it has kicked started and inspired the careers of more than a few journalists beyond its own past presenters. 

Another example of the BBC's high standard of journalism is to be found in our regional programmes and just yesterday the BBC's North West regional news programmes became the latest slice of news to begin broadcasting live from Salford Quays and I was one of the first guests to join Ranvir and Roger on the sofa for North West Tonight in the evening. I felt very honoured as I mumbled a few answers about our new venture.

  Our regional news teams, those journalists who work on our North West programmes as well as their colleagues in BBC Radio Manchester, have been the cornerstone of journalism across the region for decades. From the tragedies of Hillsborough and the Jamie Bulger case through to the recent riots that rocked Salford and Manchester, from the Commonwealth Games in 2002 to Manchester United's success in the triple, they have not only covered the major stories from across the region in depth and with outstanding and award-winning journalism but also given a voice to local communities.

Last week has also seen the final pieces of the Radio 5 live jigsaw fall into place. The arrival of the Breakfast show with Nicky Campbell and Rachel Burden, Fighting Talk with Colin Murray and football phone-in 606 marked the moment when Radio 5 live became the first national radio network to broadcast its entire output from beyond London.

  And over the tough weekend, given the sad loss of a close colleague and friend in Gary Speed, our teams performed strongly.

But as we begin to establish a new base for BBC journalism here on Salford Quays we also have to face the challenge of making savings and finding new efficiencies across the whole organisation. These measures will have an impact on our local radio and television colleagues across both the region and the whole of the UK but these are challenging times for everyone in the public sector not just the BBC. Inevitably there will be changes and cuts in some areas, but our commitment to reinvestment means that we will continue to safeguard and champion local journalism for the long-term, and keep the BBC firmly embedded in the communities that it has always represented. And as Mark Thompson said only last week, we continue to listen to the concerns of our audience and they still have the opportunity to have their say as part of the consultation process on Delivering Quality First.

  We are also playing our part in supporting and landing  some massive events in the North. Following the huge success of Children In Need Rocks, we are now planning another warm welcome for two of the biggest events in the BBC's calendar. On 13 December we launch Celebrate Sport where some of the BBC's best sports brands come together in a two-week festival of events that will culminate in Sports Personality Of The Year. And on 17 December, Strictly Come Dancing will trip the light fantastic with its final at the Tower Ballroom in Blackpool.

    In the manner of the best news bulletins, it seems appropriate to end with "and finally" and news about some wonderful collaboration here involving the brilliant BBC Philharmonic. Last week the BBC announced its extensive contribution to and support of the Cultural Olympiad next year. It's hard to believe how close the 2012 Olympics suddenly feel and that reality is brought a little closer to home as the BBC Philharmonic is the orchestra that will be performing with Elbow when they record their 2012 BBC Olympics signature track here in the studios at Salford Quays. It's been a fantastic year for our orchestra and this is just the icing on the cake in a year when they will have worked with everyone from Radio One Xtra to the Manchester United Community Choir, Mayo and Kermode to Morning Worship - and finally Elbow and BBC Sport.

When I was a young journalist, with my first ever BBC contract working at Oxford Road on R4's superb File on 4, if you'd told me I would have been writing this article about the above events from our new  digital home in Salford Quays, I'd have said we've taken a trip way beyond journalism into the realms of fantasy and fiction. 

It's been that kind of year...

Steve Drayton from BBC Newcastle

As I have said before, The North of England is a very funny place. Always has been. But we need to find, support and develop the next generation of BBC entertainers. That's why so much work is going on across the region with Cheryl Taylor's comedy commissioning team, who are based in Salford.

For instance, we've been doing some grass roots work in the North East. From comedians like Vic Reeves, Bob Mortimer, Ross Noble and Sarah Millican to classic shows like The Likely Lads, the North East knows how to make the nation laugh - its got a warm, dry, sly wit that is irresistible. I was reminded of this again last week when I was in Newcastle at the launch of Jesting About - Funny Gets Serious in the new comedy club, The Stand.

This is the second year that BBC North has supported this big initiative. We are working in partnership with Northern Film and Media and it is part of that wider commitment from us as well as our colleagues across the BBC to keep comedy at the heart of programme making for all audiences, particularly across the North.

This year's Jesting About will continue the search for new talent. It gives performers, writers and filmmakers access to mentoring from some of the leading lights from the comedy and entertainment industry to help them develop and hone their skills so that they can pitch comedy ideas, scripts and sketches to BBC commissioners.

At the launch last week we had the chance to catch up with some of those who took part last year. Carl Cooper, for example has been commissioned by BBC Radio 4 to make "Geordinary People" with some of those who participated last year. This is off the back of a half hour Jesting About programme made for BBC Newcastle and BBC Tees. It's been nominated for a Sony Radio Award next year and you can listen to it here. And Keith Brumpton has been commissioned by the BBC to take a comedy project to treatment stage.

We have been really privileged to have the support of some of the biggest names in comedy. Bob Mortimer signed up last year and has been a tireless supporter ever since. Bob, together with such comedic talents as Ross Noble and Ian La Frenais, have been generous giving their time and support. Bob has also given two writers from the initiative the opportunity to write sketches and questions for BBC Two's Shooting Stars, which he co-presents with Vic Reeves.

Jesting About comes hot on the heels of BBC Comedy's very first Sitcom Showcase that was supported by BBC North in Salford Quays. Six comedy pilots were performed in front of a studio audience and I was delighted when one of those pilots, Citizen Khan, was then almost immediately commissioned for BBC One. I am all the more pleased because it will be made in the MediaCityUK studios, which are fast becoming the home of a whole new slate of comedy programmes. As well as Citizen Khan, Sarah Millican will also be in the studios working on her new series for BBC Two early next year and Will Mellor arrives with his promising BBC1 sitcom In With The Flynns.

And Jesting About is just the start of a long-term commitment to investing more in programme making in the North East of England. Not only did we film BBC Children's hit drama series Tracy Beaker in the region but we have supported events like The Great North Run that bring us closer to our audience and we expect Inspector George Gently to be followed by more drama investment there for BBC One.

And just this weekend BBC Radio 3 was at The Sage with their Free Thinking Festival. The likes of Jimmy Whales, the founder of Wikipedia, William Hague, Maximo Park and Margaret Drabble came together to examine the world of ideas through talks, interviews, debates, original drama and performance. On Saturday night there was a cracking R5L/ R3 joint broadcast looking at what constitutes News in the age of Twitter and Internet gossip.

Anyway, back to the seriously funny stuff. And I don't mean CBBC's Crack-A-Joke, created by Newcastle-based digital agency Th_nk earlier this year. It's definitely worth a visit for any aspiring children's party entertainers.

If you have more than a funny bone in your elbow, we definitely want to hear from you. This year Jesting About will focus on entertainment and sitcom ideas for television and radio. The closing date for entries is Monday 28 November so click here to apply.

Eric Morecambe, Glenda Jackson and Ernie Wise in 'Morecambe and Wise Christmas Show' (1972)

'Hello, my darlings'. The first television words I ever remember. Spoken by the pint-sized comic Charlie Drake. It could easily have been Captain Mainwaring's 'Stupid Boy', courtesy of the immortal Arthur Lowe or something from Hylda Baker. And let's not forget that other Hilda, Coronation Street's Hilda Ogden - my nomination for the funniest performance on British television for 50 years.

Catchphrases and comics lit up my childhood and now we are searching for next generation comedy artists. And the North is a great place to start looking.When we think of great, iconic comedic talent, a whole host of Northern names immediately spring to mind. From classic entertainers like Morecambe and Wise, Les Dawson, and of course Hylda Baker, we can chart the history of comedy through the likes of Victoria Wood, Vic and Bob, Caroline Aherne, Peter Kay to performer including John Bishop, Lee Mack, Ross Noble, Sarah Millican, and the extraordinary Steve Coogan.

It continues to provide a rich seam of new talent like promising North East comics Jason Cook and Chris Ramsay. Both of them will be in action at the Sitcom Showcase this week, where six new sitcoms will get their first outing in front of a live audience at MediaCityUK.

But it's not just on-air that the talent flourishes in the north. There are the writers as well. Great writers such as the three Alans - Bleasdale, Bennett and Ayckbourn -as well as Willy Russell, Tim Firth and John Godber to name just a very few. Some funny, others with a blacker sensibility.

Even the soaps here have humour at their heart - look at the differences between Corrie and EastEnders for example. You could never imagine someone on Albert Square proclaiming "Hey Stan look, we have two taps." God bless Hilda Ogden, they were her first words and established her life- affirming character for the next twenty-three years.

So, why is television comedy so important to people? It's simple. It makes us feel better. Cheers up the nation. Sometimes, I think it should be prescribed by the NHS!

BBC research shows that audiences in the north see humour as their 'default' setting - it's part of who they are and how they get through every day of their lives. Not an add-on or luxury item. Memorable sitcoms like Open All Hours, The Likely Lads, Bread, The Royle Family, Phoenix Nights, Dinnerladies and The League of Gentlemen, were amongst the many sitcoms with a strong Northern flavour. Yet for the BBC, comedy is the very thing that audiences we don't naturally attract, love to watch. It gives the corporation a warmth that our Reithian traditions sometimes frustrates.

So investing in comedy is one route to appeal to some parts of the UK and licence-payers we can struggle to reach. In fact, ambitious UK comedy - especially on BBC One and BBC Three - has a major role to play as part of the BBC's editorial priorities moving forward. While we meet the challenge to find the recently announced 20 percent cutbacks, we will ensure that comedy remains a priority for the BBC.

Of course the BBC doesn't have sole claim to entertaining audiences with unforgettable comedy. Granada Television in Manchester has been the home to terrific comedies across the years with shows like Nearest and Dearest, Wood and Walters and Surgical Spirit. Whilst over the Pennines, Yorkshire Television enjoyed success with the much-cherished Rising Damp as well as A Bit Of a Do and Hallelujah.

No one should underestimate the debt owed to Coronation Street here. The rich tradition of comedy characters from Ena, Minnie as well as Hilda and Stan, through to Jack and Vera, Percy and Phyllis and latterly Becky and Steve and Roy and Hayley, and Blanche of course, delivered hilarious comic dialogue amidst the pathos.

Following stints on Corrie, a number of their writers then set their sights successfully on narrative and in some cases, typically Northern bawdy and larger-than-life comedy. Paul Abbott joined Linda Green to create Shameless, Jonathan Harvey gave us Tom and Linda in Gimme Gimme Gimme and as well as the characters in Beautiful People and Carmel Morgan worked on Drop Dead Gorgeous and The Royle Family.

Other Northern talent took a different route. Victoria Wood, Steve Coogan, Peter Kay and Paul O'Grady with his alter ego Lily Savage added to the mix with their big, warm characters. And even before them, let's not forget the likes of Russ Abbott, Cannon and Ball and even the Grumbleweeds .... All part of a broader northern comedic culture.

But while it's good to reminisce and celebrate the North's comedic heritage, we also need to look forward and nurture and support emerging talent to find the next laugh.

For us at the BBC it means replacing long- runners from Last of The Summer to Two Pints of Lager. While Northern comedy is still going strong - from ITV's Benidorm to Shameless and Sirens on Channel 4 and the very promising Trollied starring the multi-talented Lancastrian Jane Horrocks on Sky - a raft of new and emerging comedy productions will also be making an appearance on viewers' screens.

We'll be making a pilot of Pearlygate, a new sitcom directed by David Jason here in Salford, and later this week we will announce and pilot six studio comedy pilots, some of which may be broadcast on BBC One, BBC Two and BBC Three. And given that comedy has a natural home here in the north, I would be incredibly chuffed if Salford became the new home of great British comedy production. As we open our big studios for business, Coronation Street moves cobble by cobble to our site and The Comedy Carpet gets rolled out at Blackpool, maybe its time got a lot more northern funny business again.

Peter Salmon is Director of BBC North

It's been a week of 'firsts' here at BBC North. Our first one hundred days on site. The first Blue Peter and R5L shows last week. The first File On Four and BBC Manchester programmes this week as well as the first students arriving at the University of Salford. And last weekend, the first visit by a Prime Minster. But more about that later.

As one journalist tweeted during last week's visit by the Broadcast Press Guild - 'I'm a Salford virgin'.

Join the club.

As we approach the half-way stage of our migration, there are now over 1,200 staff working on-site. And as more and more people arrive not only to work and study but also to be part of a studio audience or simply to enjoy live events on the piazza, there is an ever growing buzz of excitement and sense of community around the place.

Only last week, and never a programme to do things by halves, Blue Peter presenters Helen Skelton and Barney Harwood cut a dash as they arrived for their first show from Salford Quays. While Barney cruised down the Manchester Ship Canal on a jet ski, Helen touched down in the piazza courtesy of a Royal Navy Sea King helicopter. Joined by Barney the dog in their new, purpose-built studio, this marked an exciting start to the next chapter in Blue Peter's fifty-three year history.

Later that same evening, Tony Livesey's lively late night Radio 5 live programme also began broadcasting live from Quay House. Tony and his team had been based in our offices down the road in Oxford Road for a while so it was good to welcome them to their new home and also Stephen Nolan and his colleagues who arrived successfully over the weekend too - his broadcast from a Wigan A and E unit was outstanding. During the next few weeks we look forward to welcoming the rest of Radio 5 live to Quay House.

And tonight File on 4 - one of my old shows - go live from Salford. This flagship BBC Radio 4 series has a long and proud history in the North West of England, having been made in Manchester since it was first commissioned 34 years ago. And next weekend BBC Manchester itself will begin broadcasting live from the site, marking a real milestone in making MediaCityUK the new home for news both for the North West as well as the whole of the UK. That will really feel like a special moment.

Barney, Helen, Tony, Stephen and Gerry join a growing list of presenters and programmes broadcasting live from here joining Football Focus as well as the presenters of CBBC and CBeebies. And currently in the studios we have Justin Fletcher charming an audience of excitable pre-schoolers with his antics in his brand new series, Justin's House. Following in the footsteps of entertainment studio pioneers MasterMind and Question of Sport who were recording earlier this summer.

And it's a week of political firsts too. Not only do we have Young People's Question Time for BBC3 and BBC One's Question Time ahead of us this week, but the Prime Minister was interviewed here live on the Andrew Marr Show.

During his visit and speaking on the programme, David Cameron was clear on his support for what we are doing here in the North of England. He commented on the show that it was a "really good thing" that the BBC was investing in a new creative hub here in the region, along with our neighbours ITV.

Getting programmes to air and votes of encouragement balance the more ridiculous claims that continue to be levelled against us. In the last week alone we've been accused of everything from fostering Cheshire love nests to increasing the divorce rate and even banning telephones in our buildings. How silly these claims seem in comparison to what we are actually achieving.

Yet while we all know that there is still a great deal more to be done, I feel really proud of everything that has been achieved so far. We have done so much with great teamwork - more than 1,200 of us in the North team so far, each one playing their part.

Now I wonder if I can get a ride on that jet ski?

When I was a little lass, the world was half a dozen streets, an' a bit o' waste land, an' the rest was all talk.

After all these years, the words of Violet Carson, Coronation Street's legendary battle-axe Ena Sharples still echo in my ears. For me, that line perfectly captures that fine balance between grit and fantasy which has always been particular to the best Northern drama - storytelling with a hard edge but a soft heart.

More recently, I was struck by two articles in the national press about that special relationship between drama and the North of England. Both Mark Lawson in Grimetime TV: why the North rules in the Guardian, and Leo Robson's FT article Why Auntie still has a southern accent, pay tribute to the strength of programmes that had either been inspired by the North or written by people who had their roots in the region.

So it seems particularly appropriate, as we bid a fond farewell to Waterloo Road, to remind ourselves not only of its own success on BBC One but also of its place in this rich Northern heritage.

Like many others, I am lucky enough to have grown up with so many outstanding dramas from this part of the world, such as Boys From The Blackstuff, Auf Wiedersehn Pet, Our Friends In the North, Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit, Born To Run, GBH, Cracker, Cold Feet, Band of Gold, Shameless and Clocking Off. It's been great to work with some of the wonderful writers associated with these dramas on occasion as well - people like Jimmy McGovern, Peter Flannery, Debbie Horsfield, Victoria Wood, Pete Bowker, Alan Bleasdale, Mike Bullen, Paul Abbott and Kay Mellor.

I also take pride that the BBC, supported by some of those writers, has a real commitment to new and emerging talent. BBC Writersroom for example helps writers to find their voice and fine tune their talent which can result in a new piece for the BBC and a career in the industry. Only recently BBC North supported one of their events, The Writers Festival 2011 in Leeds, and I was stunned not so much about the wealth of new talent in the room but also how established writers there including Paula Milne, Tony Marchant and Gwyneth Hughes were willing to share their knowledge and experience - and by their collective conviction that drama can change peoples' lives.

The BBC and ITV continue to make dramas that celebrate the Northern spirit: United, about the Busby Babes; The Road to Coronation Street; South Riding; Eric & Ernie; Accused; The Street; 32 Brinkburn Street; Moving On - to name but a few. Filmed across the region, with local talent both in front of and behind the camera, not only do they continue to entertain audiences, but often challenge them to see contemporary life or recent history from a different perspective.

Since its first troubled term in March 2006, Waterloo Road has taken viewers on a journey, tackling some of the grittier issues of the day - suicide, drugs, bullying and alcoholism. But at the heart of every story, in each of the seven series, Shed Productions, the scriptwriters and the actors themselves ensured that the characters involved were very real and utterly believable. It is this strong, confident storytelling coupled with finely balanced and sympathetic acting from the cast, that ensured that Waterloo Road walked away with Most Popular Drama at the National TV Awards earlier this year as well as prizes from the North West RTS.

We have an ongoing aim at BBC North to train and excite new talent by giving them exposure to dramas being filmed in our area. For last year's Waterloo Road we worked with four schools from across the North. Pupils from Gateshead, Grimsby, Sheffield and Preston worked with the scriptwriters to create, film and star in their very own five-minute mini-episodes. I went to a special screening event in Manchester to showcase the finished works and was very impressed by the talent and energy of all those young people involved. I hope the experience will inspire some of them to become the next generation of Northern writers, actors, directors or producers who will continue this strong drama tradition.

So, after seven very successful series, Waterloo Road is moving to Scotland. Having been made entirely on location in Rochdale, filming of the current series will end soon and from next April it will start filming in a new location, with a new story line, in Scotland.

But the North continues to inspire the very best with a strong slate of new and promising dramas.

First and foremost, we should not forget the immense contribution made by BBC Children's. It's always had a very rich drama tradition, and I'm particularly pleased that this Autumn - as the department moves to Salford - three big series are being made across the North of England. With stories ranging from sibling rivalry and vampires to care home antics, they prove that CBBC is nothing if not diverse.

Brand new to CBBC is The 4 O'Clock Club. Two brothers - teacher Nathan and pupil Josh - clash over the younger brother's dream of becoming a rap star. Currently in production in Bolton, the show mixes music and drama and stars former rapper turned comedy actor Doc Brown. Incidentally, 'club' in the title is the nickname of the detention room where the two brothers seem to spend most of their time. It's Flight of the Conchords for a kids' audience.

Also coming back to CBBC are Young Dracula and Tracy Beaker Returns. Both are big with the CBBC audience and it's good to see them set in Liverpool and Newcastle respectively. Who could have foreseen back in 2002 that Jacqueline Wilson's original story about a feisty young girl in a care home would be such an abiding success with young audiences? That's innovation for you.

And this Christmas CBBC will be unwrapping The Lost Christmas. Filmed in Manchester and starring Eddie Izzard, it's a heart-warming story about one man's unique talent to transform the lives of five ordinary people whose lives have been affected by decisions they made in the past.

And Northern stories continue to make their mark in the peaktime BBC schedules too. Decades after the first larger-than-life characters were tearing up the screen, producers from across the region have fresh stories to tell.

The prolific Red Production Company who, working with AbbottVision, brought John Simm and Jim Broadbent to BBC One in the excellent Exile this Easter, is currently working on Anthony And Cleopatra to be filmed in the Yorkshire Dales. Written by Halifax-born, former Corrie writer Sally Wainwright, also author of ITV's Manchester-based Scott and Bailey, it's a poignant tale of love and second chances for two people in the sunset years of their lives.

Also in Yorkshire, Kay Mellor, who heads up Leeds' Rollem Productions is about to film Syndicate for BBC One. It's a feel-good piece about a group of supermarket workers and a massive lottery win. It charts the impact the win has on their lives and how it changes their fates for better and worse. Just down the road, Tiger are filming in Sheffield, one of the region's most versatile cities. It was such a striking part of the wonderful Channel 4 series This is England '86, and for the BBC it's the backdrop of the tough new series Prisoners' Wives, a fresh take on some sparky women and their turbulent lives.

Closer to new home, Salford's own Christopher Eccleston returns to BBC One in Bill Gallagher's new psychological thriller, The Fuse, filmed and set in Manchester. Eccleston plays a council official hiding a murder behind a façade of public success.

From the pen of talented writer Jimmy McGovern comes a new series of Accused that takes stories and people from every day life and transforms them into the searing, heart-stopping dramas that have become his trademark.

And finally, from BBC Writersroom alumnus Stephen Butchard, whose credits include the Five Daughters, House of Saddam and Vincent, is Savage. Set in Liverpool, it's about the conflict between revenge and public duty. Again, it films for BBC One this autumn.

Both Mark Lawson in the Guardian and Leo Robson for the FT were searching for reasons why the North of England often leads the way in great drama writing and magnificent actors. Is it our heritage, culture or landscape? A spirit of innovation, education or nostalgia? Immigration, the economy or just the power of family life? More likely it's a potent blend of the lot - a tangle of characteristics that is as dense as the weave of Ena Sharples' hairnet.

What is indisputable is that those great Northern-based dramas from the past, with their strong storylines and memorable characters, have had a huge impact. They defined a dramatic generation, created stars on screen and off and made audiences think about and question the society that they lived in. I would like to think that both the BBC and ITV, partners at MediaCityUK and working with production companies across the UK, are keeping that tradition alive for all our audiences.

So while we bid the cast and crew of Waterloo Road adieu, a farewell tinged not only with sadness but with a real sense that it has made a difference, I look forward to sitting back and watching new and bold Northern dramas unfold.

Peter Salmon is Director of BBC North

• News and information on the BBC North web site.
• The picture shows Violet Carson, Ena Sharples in Coronation Street.

Every project has its naysayers, and BBC North is no different. Before the first stone was laid at Salford Quays the national and mainly Southern-based media claimed it was a vanity project; a political deal; that it would never succeed and that no one would go.

Despite the almost constant barrage of negativity everyone involved with the project carried on because they believed in the endgame. That we would build - together with our partners on the campus and across the North of England - a state-of-the-art, digital creative community that would not only be part of the long-term and sustainable future of the local economy, but would forge a new and closer relationship with audiences across the North of England. And just as important, that it would help create a new BBC for the digital age.

Even before we opened our doors at MediaCityUK, we began to slowly embed ourselves in the Northern community. We invested in new commissions across BBC Childrens, BBC Sport and BBC Radio 5 live. For example, next weekend tune into Radio 5 live for the first part of Cancer Trials - Behind The Scenes at the Christie. This is a remarkable piece of journalism from Blakeway North in Manchester and a direct result of our Kicker Fund investment in new programmes for the network. I defy anyone not to be humbled by the bravery of everyone featured in the programme. And at the other end of the spectrum click on the CBeebies and CBBC websites to see how our half a million pound investment in digital companies from across the North of England is taking shape with Mr Bloom's Nursery from Sheffield-based The Workshop and CBBC's The Joke Theatre from Newcastle's Th_nk.

Earlier this year we worked with numerous partners (BBC Three, BBC Cymru, Leeds city Council, Welcome to Yorkshire, Marketing Leeds and Phoenix Dance Company) to bring Frankenstein's Wedding...Live In Leeds to thousands of people at Kirkstall Abbey as well as to BBC Three's audience. The ambition of the Frankenstein team was duly recognised when they were awarded Best Live Event at the Broadcast Digital Awards. More recently we brought the piazza outside our buildings to life with a series of audience events. In June, the BBC Philharmonic Presents festival launched the orchestra's first ever free music festival for local residents. Over two weeks Salford audiences enjoyed everything from Baroque to Dubstep, and each concert was broadcast on BBC radio. And only a few weeks ago some of the BBC's most popular characters took part in the Manchester International Festival. CBeebies' Zingzillas were a major feature of Music Boxes and Doctor Who thrilled and terrified audiences who visited The Crash of the Elysium.

We've also been laying the foundations for partnerships with local universities and schools through Connect & Create. Over two hundred students have completed work placements with the BBC and we have run specific placements with Vision+Media North West as well as Salford University. And as vitally, we are making a real commitment to local employment and training. So far we have recruited over 400 new people to BBC North and launched dedicated apprenticeship and ambassador programmes in the Greater Manchester area.

And all this before we even began the 36-week process of relocating our staff to Bridge, Dock and Quay Houses - our new offices on Salford Quays.

To date over 700 people have moved in, and by April 2012 there will be 2,300 BBC staff working at MediaCityUK. These aren't only staff from London and Manchester but new staff who are joining the BBC for the very first time. And from London alone the combined total confirmed as moving is 55 per cent - significantly higher than the national average for a move of this scale, which stands at 35 per cent.

So far, everything is going according to plan and we remain on time and on budget.

But we are not naïve enough to think that there won't be the odd bump or graze between now and next April. On a project of this scale and ambition - the biggest that the BBC has ever undertaken - we should be prepared for every eventuality and that's why we asked every department to list their worse case scenarios on our Risk Register.

Some of you will be acquainted with the BBC's Risk Register. Every big organisation has one and every department at the BBC is required to keep it updated. It lists any and all hypothetical risks to the business, but that doesn't mean that they will happen. By virtue of what departments are asked to consider, the risks can and do range in terms of scale and potential severity but they help ensure that the BBC is able to effectively manage and deliver its projects successfully. Indeed, it would be negligent not to have a Risk Register that covered every potential scenario.

So last week when, under a Freedom of Information request, we issued the Risk Register for BBC North to www.whatdotheyknow.com, it was only a matter of time before a naysayer discovered it. And it didn't take long. This weekend, The Sunday Times pulled together a story under the misleading headline 'Auntie Fears Making No Friends In The North'. Inevitably they were very quick to list the most attention-grabbing risks listed in the register - everything from the loss of key staff and the potential reduction in programme quality to failing to understand Northern audiences or meeting efficiencies. Needless to say they didn't - for the sake of a more balanced report - make clear to their readers the precise nature of the register or the mitigations listed against these risks in their story.

It would be nice to hope that even our harshest critics could take a step back and look at the bigger picture, to stop their hectoring and begin to embrace a future that isn't London-centric. Of course, London will always remain central to our national Creative Industries, but good things can and are happening beyond the capital too.

The North is amazingly rich with talent, people with promise and companies with amazing ideas like Sumo (Sheffield), Brass (Leeds), Amaze (Manchester), Conker Media (Liverpool), Pearl Works Productions (Yorkshire), Soundscape Productions (York), True North (Leeds) and Red (Manchester) to name but a few. All of them are making a real contribution to the future of television, radio and online and BBC North wants to help encourage, support and work with them.

That is our ambition and - touch wood - we remain on track to realise this. But if we do encounter a bump in the road, or have to swerve unexpectedly for whatever reason, we should be confident that the Risk Register will help us find a solution.

Peter Salmon is Director of BBC North

• You can read the BBC's response to the Freedom of Information request that triggered the Sunday Times article - including the risk register mentioned - on the What Do They Know web site.

Editor's note: between 1997 and 2000, Peter Salmon was Controller of BBC1. During his time there he commissioned a drama called The Lakes - SB.

As I prepare to interview Jimmy McGovern, one of Britain's greatest writers, it takes me back to when I commissioned his drama The Lakes. To be honest, it was one of the several times I thought I'd get sacked when I ran BBC One. I had just worked with Jimmy at Granada on the searing Hillsborough drama, and The Lakes was a tough drama serial that I decided to schedule on Sunday evenings. Unsurprisingly, there was more than a little outrage and a bulging mailbag of complaints.

It might not have been the kind of genteel drama that audiences normally expected on a Sunday evening, but it was classic McGovern. It was real, honest and a bit raunchy. I loved it but it was too much for mainstream audiences and the critics who felt it was too raw for Sunday evening viewing.

But I had spotted an opportunity to ring some changes. I wanted to see if he could create a long-running series, serving up a fresh taste of the North, anchored fast in the lives of Northern audiences.

I secretly hoped it would lead to a creative push for the BBC in the North and that together with EastEnders it might have done what Coronation Street and Emmerdale do for ITV every week. But sadly it didn't get beyond a second series, the debut of John Simm, notwithstanding.

So when I interview Jimmy and his new drama partner Sita Williams at the RTS North West Tony Wilson Lecture event this week, I will definitely ask the question. What would it take to come up with a new, regular, community-based drama serial from the North? And if so, does he have the appetite and the stamina to create one for a new decade and a new audience? And just who will be the new John Simm?

Peter Salmon is Director of BBC North

• Peter will interview Jimmy McGovern and Sita Williams when they give the 2011 Anthony H Wilson Lecture at 6.30 pm on Thursday 30th June at MOSI in Manchester. More information on the RTS North West Facebook page.
• News and information on the BBC North web site.
• The picture shows the cast of The Lakes in 1997. John Simm is on the left.

What they will find, and you will discover when you visit us, are working spaces that have been designed to foster creativity. We are exploiting the latest technology both in our buildings and in the studios to remove the barriers that have traditionally hindered closer working between colleagues and departments.

As we begin to settle into our new homes, find our way around Salford Quays and get to know our neighbours, it's hard to believe that in just four years we have gone from pipe dream to reality. It's been an exciting journey and not without it's challenges and difficult choices for many people. Yet I think that we have arrived at an important crossroads. If we take the wrong turning, allow our enthusiasm and commitment to be lessened, curb our ability and willingness to take creative risks, create a fortress and not an open and honest environment, then it will be our audience who lose out.

I firmly believe that all of us, those moving from Manchester and London, as well as hundreds who are joining the BBC for the first time, will choose the right direction. Working together we can create a new BBC that will forge a new contract with our audiences across the UK, build stronger relationships with our partners and most importantly, continue to make the very best content for TV, radio and online.

It's something that we have been doing for some time now. We have invested millions of pounds across the North of England, from Newcastle to Sheffield, from Liverpool to Leeds in great programmes, digital content and truly memorable events. From the synchronised dancing of the Kirkstall Abbey audience at Frankenstein's Wedding...Live in Leeds and great dramas like South Riding, United and Eric & Ernie to the enchanting online adventures for young kids with Mr Bloom's Nursery, BBC North has played a part in showcasing the creativity, talent and diversity of this region to the whole nation.

Visit the BBC North web site

Yet this is only the beginning. Last week we announced BBC Philharmonic Presents, a major new festival here at Salford Quays. For the first time in the BBC's history, all of our major radio networks will support and broadcast live from the orchestra's new home. From dubstep to church music, each night will be music night as local residents enjoy these concerts absolutely free. And following a summer of events across the piazza, bringing to life some of our most loved Children's BBC brands, at the end of the year sport is coming home with the live broadcast of the the fifty-eighth Sports Personality Of The Year from Salford Quays.

And alongside the new people that we will be employing across all the departments that will be based at Quay, Bridge and Dock house, we plan to make a real and long-term difference through our new apprenticeship and ambassador schemes.

And to mark the opening of our buildings today we are launching the online tools for people to find out what is going on behind the glass as well as tell us what they think. A BBC North web site and a Twitter account will hopefully become destinations that will engage with people and encourage them to join us on the journey and help us furnish our new home with fresh ideas and suggestions.

So as we throw open our doors, we face an exciting future. Of course we can expect a few unexpected bumps and scrapes, but let's not forget, home is where the state-of-the-art is.

Peter Salmon is Director, BBC North

I don't think anyone with a heart can not have had it broken by the terrible scenes from Japan. Our news outlets continue to report from the region, with Shelagh Fogarty's Radio 5 live reports poignantly capturing the concern and shock. It really brings it home when our own BBC Philharmonic Orchestra was caught up on the fringes of it all in Tokyo. Their tour has now been cancelled and they have returned home, safe and unharmed, to be reunited with their families in the North West.

Closer to home we continue to forge a path towards opening the doors of our new home at Salford Quays. The journey hasn’t been without its challenges but if I look back over the last few weeks, there is so much that we have achieved that we should all be proud of.

It’s a story of future opportunity, new content, two Archbishops and a hat trick.

Just today we announced the launch of a new apprenticeship scheme at BBC North. In the next three to four years, we will offer one hundred apprenticeships across the departments that are moving to Salford Quays. We are fulfilling an important pledge about jobs for the local community. These are deliberately not jobs for graduates, but rather for people in the Greater Manchester area with few or no qualifications or experience, or indeed who might not have thought of the BBC or the media generally as a potential employer. From September this year when we welcome the first wave, they will get on-the-job training, receive coaching and mentoring. Not only do I hope that they will realise that the BBC is as much a place for them as for anyone else but for the BBC it is a significant and important commitment to diversity and difference. This is exactly what I mean when I talk about changing the DNA of the Corporation itself. And that change will start at MediaCityUK.

Just over a fortnight ago, with my colleagues, I was at the University of Central Lancashire in Preston at the BBC’s biggest training conference organised by BBC North’s Developing Talent team. The theme was “Talent & Technology” and it gave us a chance to express our thoughts and hopes alongside those of the hundreds of students who attended. Better still we were able to tempt Britain’s most Oscar-laden film-maker, Nick Park as well as Victoria Wood, the star with most BAFTA awards, to share a few home truths with us too. Nick told the audience – “I didn't think Preston boys like me went to The National Film-school" and Victoria thanked Rochdale Council for her break into teenage drama. Almost 400 hundred delegates attended workshops on Radio 1 with Andy Parfitt, the booming games sector and CBeebies production hits and I think they dreamed – like the younger Nick and Victoria did – of big careers and some glittering awards. All in all, it was a great day, particularly to hear from the students themselves about what they wanted from the future as well as from the BBC and I got a real sense that they will play an important part in the future of the region.

And lest we forget, the move to MediaCityUK in Salford has never just been about the North West. It's about the whole region thriving in the digital media age with some help from the BBC.

So it is terrific to celebrate a series of new programmes across the region. From BBC Daytime comes yet another new drama that is being filmed in Liverpool and Manchester. The Case tackles the thorny issue of assisted suicide. It’s been written by David Allison and will continue to build on the terrific fiction - like The Indian Doctor, Moving On, Missing and Land Girls – that has become a signature theme of BBC Daytime. Incidentally The Case is made by Merseyside's Lime Pictures who, through their digital media company, Conker Media, is our partner in the Digital Fiction Factory.

Last weekend at the North East RTS Awards, held in the remarkable Gateshead Sage Centre, I announced that CBBC will make a fresh batch of Tracy Beaker Returns locally this summer. 
Also, just down the road in Durham, 1960's smoothy Inspector George Gently returns home later this year for four more specials for BBC One.

And this weekend, the big television event of the Spring - Frankenstein's Wedding… Live in Leeds. Coming on top of BBC One’s recent and beautifully-made South Riding, it helps mark a bit of a creative Renaissance for our Yorkshire-based output. And Frank – as we affectionately call him – is a ‘monster’ partnership too: The Phoenix Dance Group, Welcome to Yorkshire, Leeds City Council plus our very own BBC Wales, BBC Learning, BBC Yorkshire and BBC Three have come together with 9,000 wedding guests for a wonderful gothic celebration brokered by us.

And the two Archbishops? Those gentle men of Canterbury and York toured Greater Manchester at the beginning of March and visited MediaCityUK to ask the simple but probing question – Can there be faith in a MediaCity? The resounding answer was ‘yes’ but there was an acknowledgement that there would be challenges, but challenges that could be met and overcome if we all work together.

And that challenge includes moving forward creatively in the uncertain times that we all face.

Though we have made our big public commitment to Out of London production and our state-of-the-art Salford base – in the shape of a 20 year lease – we are not immune from the speculation and indeed the potential impact of Delivering Quality First to budgets and output from 2013. There's been a lot of speculation in the newspapers about Radio 5 live, local radio, daytime programmes and sports rights – and nothing is either firmly on or off the table whatever you may have read.

However, a great deal of planning and thought went into deciding which departments would move to Salford Quays and we have made a long-term commitment to the North of England to build and develop a workforce in Salford that is among the best trained and most flexible in the media.  That is our best safeguard in these tough financial times.

Looking back on all this and looking forward to Leeds this weekend, I have to admit to feeling just a little weary. Or perhaps that is the result of the fund-raising football match I played at the weekend. Against the odds, this 50-plus striker scored his first-ever hat trick of goals in a 5-4 win. But that final ball in the net landed me with a slipped disc.

Perhaps I should have stuck to some advice I once received – Stick to making content, Salmon. 
Quit playing – while you are even vaguely ahead...

Peter Salmon is the Director of BBC North

These days canals seem so leisurely. All fisherman and holiday makers. A far cry from how they once were.

I grew up next to the Leeds and Liverpool canal, once a bustling highway of traffic, filled with energy and enterprise, and it’s strange to think that these vital waterways will soon be back at the heart of my working life.

Our new home in the north sits on the banks of the 36 mile long Manchester Ship Canal, built between 1887 and 1894, and one of the industrial wonders of the world – it was audacious, politically controversial and fraught with engineering challenges.

In fact it all sounds painfully familiar….

But it is not just the tough business backdrop that draws parallels with our move, the comparisons between the BBC’s big move to the north and the impact the canals had over a century ago are tempting to draw.

Once again the north can lead the way in terms of ambition - creativly and technologically - that will benefit both the region and the whole UK. Particularly important in these tough times.

Canals were part of a revolution - building trade routes and business, making connections and creating networks where previously none existed.

And although MediaCityUK might not deliver a revolution on the same scale, it is a key part of the ongoing northern renaissance.

In the same way that the canal system offered a real time connection that took the North West to the world and brought the world back, MediaCityUK can do exactly the same for the BBC across the region.

It can be a mainline for our audiences into the heart of the media, using the most advanced technology and innovation to connect in new and creative ways.

It can be a place where people and ideas come together and where ambition and experience stand side by side.

The Ship Canal should be an inspiration for what the BBC is hoping to achieve, and although the three new buildings that make up our new home have been affectionately known as A,B and C for the past few years, these names must now make way for something more fitting. Something of a tribute.

A reminder of what has been before and an inspiration for what is to come.

That’s why we have chosen to give each of our buildings a simple name that roots it in the history and drama of our extraordinary waterside home.

BBC Bridge House, will be home to among others Blue Peter, BBC Bitesize, Mastermind and Dragons’ Den, helping capture the imagination of audiences of all ages.

BBC Dock House, the new base for teams including Songs of Praise, Research and Development and The Radcliffe and Maconie show will connect with licence payers through the interaction of great content and technological innovation.

BBC Quay House, where output from the likes of BBC Breakfast, Radio 5 Live, Match of the Day and North West Tonight will take up residence, will be a home for live and event content that aims to capture the imagination of the whole country and bring the nation together.

Talking of old and new transport systems coming together, the tram line that runs into MediaCityUK opens next week and although you won’t be able to get into our buildings yet, as we are installing some pretty complex technology, just seeing it up close for yourself reveals the size of our ambition and brings to life the scale and complexity of our task.

Even the builders of the extraordinary ship canal would have been impressed by the studios and post production facilities, cutting edge digital technology, 24/7 newsrooms and radio networks, television platforms and some of the best websites in the world, all in one area ready to relive those past glories.

And although the London based press have spent the past few weeks printing pictures of the site from 6 months ago and passing them off as current, the photo below taken last week by Peel Media, shows just how far along we really are. Indeed the site took another leap forward this week when the whole BBC Philharmonic Orchestra came together for the first time in their brand new purpose built studio, serenading the few remaining builders with some simply majestic Rachmaninov.

So we are marching on and the buildings are looking and sounding pretty impressive - perfect representations of the kind of BBC we want to be in the region.

Big but not brash

Open and inviting

Creative and ambitious

New and exciting, but comfortable in our surroundings

Peter Salmon is Director of BBC North

• The BBC North recruitment drive continues

• Northern locations get greater exposure

• The rise of BBC North at MediaCityUK

In the coming years we will be looking to recruit over 500 people from entry level to the most senior to work in areas as diverse as BBC Sport, Children's, Radio 5 live., Learning and Future Media and Technology. It really is a Herculean task - but one that brings with it a very rare opportunity.

A chance to help the BBC change its DNA.

I have said before that BBC North is an experiment in creativity and collaboration - and fundamental to our success will be the team that we recruit, both from inside the BBC where there are many staff whose current jobs aren't moving but are still keen to be part of our journey, and crucially from outside the organisation as well.

The process has already been a hard one, and we will be losing some very talented individuals who have decided not to make the move. This disruption and heartache for so many puts even more emphasis on the need for us to get it right and ensure our new workforce produce world class content and services in new and ambitious ways to strengthen our relationship with audiences across the UK. It's a big challenge, but one that we are ready to take on.

We want to open up the BBC to people who previously had neither the opportunity nor likelihood of working here - who have perhaps assumed that the BBC wouldn't be interested in them. We want to be better at celebrating diversity, to actively encourage difference, to hear unfamiliar accents and voices and to be challenged. And that means we need a renewed focus on values and behaviours as much as on CVs. We are looking for people  full of original thinking, open to new ideas, who take ownership and responsibility, have a can do attitude and who are focussed on engaging with audiences and communities.

Let me be very clear - this is not box ticking or political correctness by another name, it is very simply about making sure we recruit the right person for every role.

So we will be looking for experience and potential. People who have spent their careers in media and people who have barely even considered it before. People from our own backyard, and talent from across the UK.

It is only by recruiting this unique mix that we will be able to deliver our ambitions. And to make this possible, we need to spread our net wide and be very proactive.

We can't wait for good people to come to us, we must go to them. So we are splitting our recruitment focus between the specialisms we know we will need and the communities and groups that traditionally don't see the BBC as an obvious career.

You will see our adverts in the Media Guardian and on CWjobs.com, but you will also see us on YouTube on regional media websites like How Do and events across the north. Looking for people whose fresh ideas will have an immediate impact but also that can be nurtured and trained for the future.  

To deal with such a high number of roles, we have changed our recruitment process to make it simpler and more efficient for candidates and for hiring managers.

BBC jobs always get a healthy number of applications, and with the new online system boasting a range of exciting opportunities to a hungry jobs market - we expect demand to be very high. Make no mistake, securing an opportunity is bound to be tough. 

Only a modest number of those people who register interest will get through, indeed the new online assessment will rule out some candidates early on in the process so that we have a manageable number of applicants, but it is important to remember this chance is not a one-off.

We are planting our feet in the north for the long haul so recruitment and opportunity will become a way of life for the BBC in the north of England.

We have already begun outreach and training schemes to start preparing the ground across the region. The Media Foundation Placement scheme, The Mentor Project and Apprenticeship Scheme have all begun to make inroads in helping make the BBC and with it the wider media sector, more accessible.  We want to deliberately increase the number of flexible contracts we offer to help create a more fluid workforce.

We want to help build careers for people across the northern media sector and to develop the depth and range of the talent pool in the region. No longer will opportunities be restricted to those that can or must move to the capital to work in media. All roads will not lead to London.

BBC North should be one of the stamps that you want on your career passport. A place that helps you express yourself, develop with some of the best training in the industry and acquire and share knowledge.

But it should also be a springboard to other things.

Some people have expressed concerns that the scale of recruitment could be a talent drain on the north. I actually think we can be a talent irrigator, providing the media landscape with well trained and ambitious journalists, technologists, content makers, production managers and writers, growing and developing on the landscape that is already there. It ought to become a breeding ground for great new talent, a finishing school for rough diamonds and a place that everyone in the media recognises as fresh, collaborative and open to new ideas.

None of this is going to be easy, and things are not going to change overnight. But I believe that if we can get our talent mix right, then by 2015 we will have a workforce and a sector that is a creative engine for the whole UK and which will be good for the region and for the BBC. Exciting times ahead.

  
To apply for opportunities at BBC North go to www.bbc.co.uk/jobs/north

Peter Salmon is Director of BBC North