The LJ Rich Official Website

Experience is Everything

I first started in TV at age 6 when I was in the audience on TISWAS in pigtails with Chris Tarrant and Lenny Henry… ! Years later, I was working at PWL and Davina McCall (who was still working at MTV at the time) came to the studio to interview a band that eventually didn’t make it. I was utterly fascinated by both the gadgetry and the process of making television – up until that point, I thought I wanted to be a sound engineer – then I realised that I wanted to be in front of the camera.

A few months later, News at Ten wanted to interview Pete Waterman about a song by the Spice Girls sounding like another song. I appeared on the news as the piano-playing “proof” that the songs were similar, and I felt totally comfortable chatting away to the nation! After PWL, I got a job working for the BBC’s training department as a presenter – anything from doing the weather to holding a quiz show while people learnt to operate cameras, lighting and directing. I edited together my “best bits” and sent them off to anyone and everyone who was holding an audition.

This all happened while temping in the daytime at the NHS, gigging all over the country evenings and weekends at army bases, and in between that attending various auditions until Bid-up.tv called me back for a second audition. I duly arrived a week or so later and I can remember thinking “everyone else is taller than me” (not that surprising, considering I’m 5ft1½). We were given 2 minutes to talk about something with no autocue, no real chance to prepare (very similar to presenting live). I’d watched absolutely loads of QVC and practiced at home, but it still felt a bit like being on stage with an expectant audience… and the gig could go either way… I reasoned that I may as well be myself and try to do as well as I could, and whatever happened would be for the best.

First Proper Job

The next thing I knew, I was called up and asked to arrive for work! I was absolutely overjoyed… funnily enough Andy Hodgson and I were the first people to broadcast on bid-up, even though it was an accident – our signal went out to the satellite one time we were rehearsing –I remember hearing in my earpiece “Stop! Stop everything!” and it turned out that we were on air!! …and we know this because someone called the number on the screen and attempted to bid!

I stayed at Bid-up for 6 months, and I look back fondly on the friends I made there – highlights of bid-up include interviewing Darth Vader as I was pretty much the only sci-fi fan with the relevant qualifications, and also a certain incident involving a bouncy castle and a fake bruise provided by Louise in the make-up department…

Star Wars, Shopping and Steam Trains

I left bid-up to join a tv company called “whereitsat.tv”, this was a channel targeted at the elusive 16-24 year old age bracket. I wrote, anchored and presented for this channel and got to interview people like Kenny Baker (he was R2D2! He told me some great Star Wars behind-the-scenes stories, to be uploaded later), I also interviewed inventor Trevor Baylis (Trevor had turned his shoe into a mobile phone charger – every time he took a step, the pressure of his foot on the shoe would “squirt” electricity into his phone battery). One of the shows I presented and co-produced was called “Weird Wednesdays” – one of the highest rated shows on the channel, specialising in science fact and fiction, the occult, witches, lookalikes, alien abductions and music and movie reviews. I had my aura read, learnt how to engage in “gut-barging” and also learnt how to smash roof tiles with my bare hands from a Tae-Kwon-Do champion. Wow! I also presented and co-produced “Juiced Up”- a gadget show assessing new electronic items on the market, which was mainly an excuse to play with new technology before it was out. The closest I can get to describing the atmosphere at whereits.at was a ”Big Breakfast” style noisy studio - no autocue or script, just a running order – so I had to think on my feet pretty much continually! I remember “filling” (ad-libbing) for 17 minutes when all the video tape machines malfunctioned, the guests were late, and nothing worked – so I grabbed a microphone, jammed with the band, interviewed whoever I could find and basically did whatever I could, short of actual tap-dancing, to keep the show on air…. I’m still quite proud of that moment!

Whereits.at ceased trading in 2001, and I made some good friends there, and still look back fondly on the best bits of my time there. I moved to Simply Television, an informercial and shopping channel, where I presented 45 minute shows live in the studio and on location. My favourites were interviewing Jeff Banks the (fashion designer) live at his headquarters – we did 4 x20 minute shows in 2 hours, giving me the nickname “one-take wonder”!, I also presented on the football pitch at Selhurst Park, on the “Rameses Revenge” ride at Chessington World of Adventures and in a virtual studio, which is mainly green with green lights, green tape and green everything. When you come out of a virtual studio, everything is purple for about 20 minutes…

QVC

I’ve been able to grab the much-coveted job of technology expert at QVC, the UK’s biggest shopping channel. I get to play with gadgets and then talk about them – one of the things I like to do is to break down the jargon so that someone who might not describe themselves as “technical” can still enjoy mp3 players and cutting edge technology. I’ve always loved techie paraphernalia, and I’ve managed to turn my anorak enthusiasm into a day job, which is great! I’m really touched when people come up to me and say that they finally understand stuff when I explain it – it means I’m doing my job well, and helping people benefit from the cool stuff that’s there to make life easier.

Channel 4

I did a trick for a series called “Magick” which featured two very nice Scottish chaps, who turned out to be extremely talented at strange gory magic tricks. The section that I was involved in took half a day to film, and involved me getting out of a limousine, performing a short magic trick that ensured one guy was set up (he “by chance” picked the silver key, and consequently got into the limo), and that was it. I later found out that the trick was that when faced with 5 attractive young women, his favourite would turn out to be male. This programme was on immediately after Derren Brown’s live “Russian roulette” programme, and once edited, the story goes like this…. I get out of this limo and set up this poor chap who gets taken to a dark warehouse, and has a trick played on him.

Harry Potter’s Secret Locations

This was fun, although rather tiring. On an increasingly tight schedule, I went on a tour of the UK looking at where Harry Potter and JK Rowling were born, and finding out where everything was filmed, for example Alnick Castle, location of Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, was also the location for the Quidditch Match in Harry Potter! I also got to go back to Christ Church College, Oxford, which is the inspiration for the banquet hall, and also the steps up to the hall itself. Most cool of all, however, was the opportunity to drive the Hogwarts Steam Train in Pickering (near Scarborough) – the engine driver was very accommodating, and I was allowed (after a lot of sweet talking) to operate a Black no. 5 steam locomotive (with Camera Operator Henry, and Sound Guy Nick) on board. Wow! What an amazing feeling of power behind this machine! I’d always wanted to drive a steam train. I want to thank the steam train enthusiast who explained how a steam train works – If I wasn’t able to point out the regulator and the reverse, I might never have got a go on it! It’s very tiring shovelling coal into the kiln, though. The next day, one of my arms felt like it was touching the ground.

On TV in the USA

One of the products I sold on tv in the UK is called “powerjoy” , an arcade games machine you plug directly into your tv ( http://www.powerjoy.com ) and I was flown over to Philadelphia, USA to appear on TV there. QVC USA is the 5th most watched channel in America, and I absolutely loved presenting on it! The atmosphere is really buzzing – you feel “part of” something… and the people there are wonderful…. When you first arrive at QVC US, you realize it’s actually a “Studio Park” and the studio itself is about half a mile past the sign. Walking into the building (and through security), you have to walk for a good 5 minutes in a straight line before you get to the studio itself – passing convenience stores and offices and cafés set into the complex. There’s milk and cookies in the dressing room and huge sofas to relax on… all this for about 8 minutes on air! You are on air with another presenter, who chats away with you – and I loved every second of it! People all over the USA phoned up to say how much they enjoyed this product and I got to play arcade games 3000 miles away. It was a surreal experience – everything was the same, but different to QVC UK, but still lots of fun. When I landed in the UK, the first thing I did was to have a nice cup of tea and some Cadbury’s chocolate.