Interview with Hugh Faupel of the BBC

Can you briefly describe your role in the media preparation for the Papal visit and on the days the Holy Father will be here?

I am working for the BBC as an Executive Producer on the Television coverage of the the Pope’s Visit to Britain this autumn. There are a number of BBC teams looking after aspects of the Papal visit coverage but I am responsible for coverage of the Papal Mass at Westminster Cathedral on Saturday 18th September and the Mass of Beatification from Cofton Park in Birmingham on Sunday 20th September. In the last few months I have been working with the Church on the details of the service, liaising with the government offices responsible for the visit and putting together a team of people to work on the BBC coverage. Outside broadcasts of this size involve a large number of technicians and production staff and detailed planning is essential – for example we have over 20 cameras on the Cofton Park Outside broadcast. We are lucky to have Huw Edwards as our main presenter and he is very experienced in this sort of work but there will also be other guest contributors and other reporters working on the coverage too. They have to be found and briefed about the coverage. At the same time I am working with designers on the look of the Studio in which Huw will interview his guests and planning a title sequence for all of the BBC Network coverage.

When the Pope arrives in Scotland I will be in London at Westminster Cathedral coordinating the outside broadcast there and Immediately afterwards I will travel to Cofton Park to be ready for the Beatification mass on the Sunday morning.

How does this visit compare with other state visits you have covered?

The Papal visit is the largest outside broadcast I have ever worked on and the number of venues make it more complicated than the last Papal event I covered which was the funeral of Pope John Paul II and the inaugural mass of Pope Benedict. In scale it is more like the Queens Golden jubilee celebrations in 2002.

Will this visit be of personal significance or just another assignment?

To work on the coverage of the Papal coverage is an enormous honour and I am pleased to be working on an event of such significance. Personally I am particularly pleased to be working on the coverage of the Beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman as he has been a hero of mine since I first read his ‘Apologia pro vita sue’ while I was a student in the 1970’s. His writings continue to inspire me today and I think he has a great deal to teach us all about the role of the church in the modern world.

To what extent do the strict security measures hinder your coverage?

Security is an essential part of any major event and although it involves a bit of time – it actually makes it easier for us to do our Job. We know exactly what is happening and where and we know that our cameras will get the best possible pictures of all the events precisely because they are in secure positions.

Who will you be looking to interview?

We will have a team of guests at the various events who have yet to finalised and we will be talking to the Archbishop of Westminster and other church leaders but I am hoping that in addition to the experts we can interview ordinary people at the various locations and find out why they are so interested in attending the Papal events.

Interview with Laurie Taylor