Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

The Pope's visit today brings back fond memories of the previous papal visit, by John Paul II in 1982, when I was a very junior producer at ITN.

To this day I kick myself over the biggest 'doorstep' of my career. During the visit, which lasted about six days if I remember correctly, there was a bit of competition among ITN reporters to see who could get close to the Pope and get a few words out of him. I recall Alastair Stewart, for instance, getting one successful exchange on the papal plane.

Perhaps the highlight of his tour was the Pope's visit to Canterbury, the first papal visit to the Anglican cathedral since the Reformation, with symbolic pictures of the Pope greeting the then Archbishop Robert Runcie.

Anyway, I was working with the ITN reporter Jeremy Thompson. We had to wait ages beforehand, standing alongside the route John Paul II was due to take as he processed out of the cathedral.

"If you stand here, Jeremy," I advised our reporter, "then you'll be well placed to do a doorstep."

Thompson didn't agree. He treated my suggestion with disdain, in fact, and insisted on sticking to his existing place. So I decided I might as well occupy the spot which I thought was much better. And I was right.

Pope John Paul II left the cathedral and slowly walked towards me. Just at the split-second right moment I shouted as loud as I could: "Pope John Paul, how important has today been for you?"

It was a slightly complicated question, perhaps, and probably not the correct way to address a pope.

But it worked.

"Very important," he slowly replied in his deep, distinctive Polish accent. Then again.

"Very important."

I was jubilant. I rushed over to the rest of the ITN team.

"He spoke to me! I've got an interview with the Pope!"

An exaggeration, maybe, but still, I'd got four words out of him, even if two of them were repeated. It was certainly more than I ever got out of doorsteps with Gordon Brown when he was prime minister a quarter of a century later.

So we rushed the tape back to the edit truck, and eagerly watched the material. Sure enough, my question came across loud and clear, and you could clearly see the Pope answering it.

The trouble was that our sound recordist had been standing with Jeremy Thompson and was too far away to pick up the sound of the Pope's answer, which was nothing like as loud as my question. The editor tried all he could to boost the sound, but nothing worked.

My 'interview' with the Pope came to nothing. My moment of glory had fizzled away.

But the episode did emphasise a few lessons of doing doorsteps: Choose your spot carefully, speak loudly, get the timing just right, keep the question simple, avoid confrontational questions if the purpose is just to get something, or anything.

And above all, make sure the sound is being recorded.