Last Saturday I presented my first ever Match Of The Day. I know what you're thinking... you turned on at 10:20pm and Gary Lineker was sitting on the sofa.
But while the MOTD overlord was doing his usual business down in that there London, the new Salford studio was being tested up north.
Moving an operation like MOTD to an entirely different location is quite a task so our job was to test all the facilities in the new place and make sure that all the technology worked a treat.
The new studio is the same place that Football Focus comes from, just as it did in London. The cameras are the same too, but all the lighting changes, and MOTD also has its own rather snazzy set of graphics which I'm sure you will like. Sadly I can't tell you anything about that yet because I would be skinned alive by a high-level BBC executive.
Match of the Day is preparing to head north to a new home in Salford
The slightly surreal aspect of the day was that we had to produce, write and present a programme just as the real MOTD team did in London, but while theirs was watched by five million people, ours went out to precisely no-one.
Having said that, we did have a much nicer production office than they have in London, and one which has been designed with everything in mind. There is a giant TV wall to watch all the games coming in (you can also switch one of the screens to watch Robbie Savage on Strictly at the same time), a little table with a kettle on it, and Mr Hansen will be very pleased to hear that there are a couple of comfy sofas for that "at home" experience.
Talking of pundits, ours were slightly different to the regulars you get on MOTD. We had Tom and Dom, who produce a Bradford City podcast called Bantams Banter. Considering it was their first bit of TV they were brilliant and brought their own twist to the art of punditry with comments about the length of Mick McCarthy's face and profligate use of the word "doosh".
There were a few scary moments which hopefully won't be repeated when the real show moves to Salford in November. We had no sound on any of the matches until about two minutes before kick-off and some of the graphics need a tweak but overall the new look is gorgeous and I'm sure you'll enjoy watching it when it hits your screens in a few weeks' time.
In other news I thought Gordon Strachan was excellent on the show on Saturday. He struck the perfect blend of insight with a sprinkling of humour and he and Dr Dixon worked very well together. If you missed the Focus Forum with Gordon this week, it's well worth another look.
This week we have another lively studio, as Peter Reid will be alongside Lawro. Mr Reid was in charge of Manchester City when they finished above Manchester United in the league in the early 1990s, and thinks it will happen again this season. I should mention that he said that before the 6-1 last weekend!
You'll also hear from Roy Hodgson, Darren Bent, Emmanuel Adebayor, a report from the Football Black List awards plus Kasabian doing predictions and Liam Gallagher singing Blue Moon, as well as a round-up of all the goals from the Carling Cup in midweek. We are on at the normal time of 12:15pm on BBC 1.
I've got a fun one lined up next week. I'm hosting Sir Alex Ferguson's 25th anniversary celebrations in Manchester, which is a real privilege. There are all manner of big names in town for it and I'll be having a sit-down chat with the United manager as part of the evening.
Now, bearing in mind the moderators are very speedy on this blog, if there was one question you could ask the man what would it be?
Feel free to put your question below or chuck in a comment on another issue and I will get back to you throughout the week.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/danwalker/2011/10/salford_gears_up_for_match_of.html
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