Glamorgan students launch Moore Show on satellite TV

Undergraduates on media courses have been putting their
training into practice for the new series on Showcase TV

BBC News South East Wales  - 10 June 2011

A team of university students in Cardiff is launching a weekly chat show on satellite TV across the UK.

The Moore Show features a mix of celebrity interviews and unexplained phenomena, produced at the University of Glamorgan's Atrium campus.

Executives from the Showcase channel approached presenter Kevin Moore after hearing him on community radio.

Future guests lined up include actor William Roache and singer Tony Christie.

Mr Moore, originally from Slough, is on the final year of a BA Honours degree course in television at the university's Cardiff School of Creative and Cultural Industries.

Big break

Soon after arriving in the city he joined the community station Radio Cardiff to present the original version of The Moore Show, a series on strange phenomena which has since been broadcast on 18 stations. He was then invited to meet executives from Information TV, who run a number of digital satellite and terrestrial channels including Showcase.

"Someone heard the radio show and asked me to see them in London," said Mr Moore. "A 15-minute interview ended up lasting two hours and they said we're going to offer you a show, give you a break."

The company signed a one-year contract for 52 episodes, produced by a team of 17 undergraduates in Cardiff.

The first show is 1800 BST on Friday.

The students, all volunteers, have pooled their skills to build the set and prepare, film and post-produce the programme using the Atrium's fully-equipped HDTV studio.

Hands-on experience

They began production of the first seven episodes in the Easter holidays and are moving to a pattern of weekly production.

Senior lecturer Julie Kissick said: "This has been a tremendously exciting project for Kevin and the other undergraduates who have acted as crew for the programme. They have all had the opportunity to put what they have learned on their courses into practice in a professional environment. Before we started recording the first programme I warned them that they were about to be challenged in ways that they would not have experienced in an academic environment. I'm very proud of the way everyone responded to those challenges."

Future guests on the series will include astronomer Sir Patrick Moore, Star Wars cast member David Prowse and psychic medium Colin Fry.

Mr Moore, who hopes to launch a TV production company, said the university's support was crucial to the project.

'Brilliant opportunity'

"We've been able to record this in HD, we've got a professional environment that would have cost so much to hire. If it wasn't for the university in the first place I wouldn't have had the radio show, if I hadn't had the radio show I wouldn't have the TV show."

Alex Brent, 21, from Weston-super-mare, who directed the programme, said: "Doing this show is a brilliant opportunity for me to get my name out there. My ultimate goal is to become a successful TV director and I could not ask for a better start than this."