Council leader in college chat show

The leader of Barking and Dagenham Council visited Barking & Dagenham College to take part in a student chat show.

ClIr Dominic Twomey was the special guest for the show, filmed in our Idris Elba Film Studio, and was led by the students themselves.

Creative Media learners took on different roles to create the film, including Daniel Green, age 18 and Lewis Taylor age 17 who were the show hosts. Other learners took on various roles in the production including cameraperson, vision mixer, director and floor manager.

Lewis Taylor, age 17 kicked off the interview by asking ClIr Twomey about how he first started his role as a councillor; ClIr Twomey explained that himself and other local residents were very concerned that the BNP were trying to get elected in the borough and, in a bid to drive them out of Barking and Dagenham, they joined the Labour party and put themselves forward to be councillors. He then became a councillor in 2010 and for the past 10 years has been the Deputy Leader of the council, becoming leader when Darren Rodwell stood down in September.

A Q&A session followed, with the audience made up of fellow learners asking plenty of great questions and sparking engaging debates.

Creative Media student Leah Peppiatt, 19 relished the opportunity to be the floor manager, saying: “This was my first time working in the studio to film a live session, but it was made so much easier as we have such fantastic equipment! Cllr Twomey was the ideal guest, so professional and encouraging, he led a great debate and even spent time afterwards chatting with us and has even agreed to return for another BDC Broadcast session!”

Zoe Richardson, Skills Events & Development Manager at BDC explains the importance of such activities: “Events like this help to give students real work experience, by taking on various job roles to complete a project as a team. The end result, which can be viewed on the College’s YouTube channel is very impressive and this provided all the students involved with the opportunity to learn industry skills in a professional studio setting and allows them to understand the importance and responsibilities of the roles required to crew a production.

“A huge thank you to ClIr Dominic Twomey for joining us and to all the learners involved in making this project a success.”

It was a real pleasure to spend some time with such an engaging, aspirational, and talented group of young people who are working incredibly hard to achieve their career ambitions. I was struck by the attention to detail and professionalism displayed by everyone involved and I look forward to going back soon.