This week's Football Focus programme comes live from Old Trafford. Our on-the-road shows tend to divide opinion but we've already been to Arsenal, Spurs and Manchester City so it's about time we dropped in at the home of Manchester United.
And it is an appropriate time to visit for several reasons:
It is the 100th year of the Theatre of Dreams;The ground witnessed its 1,000th Premier League goal last weekend;
And Sir Alex Ferguson celebrates his 24th year in charge this weekend.
In the meantime, I thought I would give you an idea of what a typical busy Friday is like for the Focus team. Last week involved a morning of filming, an interview in the afternoon and an early evening of script writing and tweaking.
It all started at...
0655 BST - Rise like a salmon to the strained combination of 'dada' and 'daddy' coming from the girls' bedroom. Change various nappies and have the world's fastest shave, leaving myself with a little nick under the left nostril.
0720 - Speedy shirt-ironing required. No need to do the back because I'm wearing a jumper.
0745 - Breakfast consists of finishing off my eldest daughter's bowl of cereal and a hastily prepared piece of toast with lashings of honey and marmite.
0821 - Emotional Railway Children-style goodbye at front door before I leg it to the station to catch the train to Waterloo.
0920 - Arrive at Waterloo and meet producer Emma and camera warrior Carol. They are both necking large coffees. Our job is to film the opening, which is all about the clocks going back and the arrival of winter. We knock off the link under the big clock and power walk down to the Millennium Wheel.
0955 - Film a link walking alongside the Wheel and then with Big Ben in the background. We reposition slightly before knocking off Friday Focus at the side of the Thames.
1040 - Walk back to Waterloo carrying the camera tripod. A nobbly bit at the top catches me next to my shoulder, bringing about the same symptoms as a Vulcan death grip.
1050 - Get in the van and leave for the Greenwich Observatory to film the last two sections of the opening. Hunger sets in after I see a couple tucking into some burgers.
1124 - Arrive at Greenwich and film in front of a gathered crowd of about 100. Take number three goes down particularly well and receives a ripple of applause. They are all German exchange students and want to know what on earth we are doing.
Out and about in Greenwich
1148 - Stomach starting to grumble. Consider stealing a child's packet of crisps but talk myself out of it.
1218 - Leave Greenwich and head towards West Ham. Drop Emma off at Bromley-By-Bow tube to head back to the BBC to start editing. Pick up a couple of packets of crisps and hope that Carol opts for Ready Salted rather than the Thai Sweet Chicken. Sadly, she goes exotic and I'm lumbered with the dull one.
1255 - Stop at Newbury Park tube to pick up Tim, who is producing the Avram Grant interview. Tim has Shaun from a BBC apprentice scheme with him but sadly Carol's van only has three seats so Shaun has to huddle down in the back for 30 minutes.
1325 - Arrive at West Ham's training ground. Bloke on door says "you can't bring that van in here" but the friendly press officer steps in and guess what? We can fit the van in.
1335 - We lug all our lighting guff and equipment into the press area and stop for a quick cuppa and ginger crunch cream.
1336 - Abandon crunch cream as we are asked to set up in sports hall next door while Mr Grant holds his press conference.
1348 - Waiting around in the sports hall doing keepy-uppy with a football the players have left behind.
1410 - Press officer awkwardly opens the door to tell us that Mr Grant will be five minutes just as I am getting a sweat on practising my Cruyff turns.
1417 - Grant arrives.
1435 - Interview completed, we shake hands and Mr Grant disappears back towards his office to mull over West Ham's trip to Arsenal.
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1455 - Leave training ground for long drive back. Editor rings to say Manchester United have confirmed we can do the show live from Old Trafford next week and we'll interview Rio Ferdinand on the Friday. Start thinking about how we can make the show work and what other elements we need for it. Would be nice to get David Gill on to answer some questions from supporters.
1620 - Abandon car on the A40 with Carol in dire traffic. Hop on the tube back to BBC TV centre.
1655 - Arrive back at base camp and go through the script and check various emails.
1700 - Pop down to the mail room to pick up the new Premier League football that has arrived. Boot it down the corridor, narrowly missing a fire alarm.
1715 - Call from the BBC News Channel to say I am not needed as a guest on Sportsday at 1830 because they are doing wall-to-wall coverage of the latest bomb scare.
1725 - Fiddle with the script for our weekly round-up (60 seconds in Focus) and then pop down to the edit suite to voice it. On the way back, pick up a chocolate croissant from the BBC cafe.
1755 - Drop in on the News Channel to give them some interviews for their weekend bulletins and then meet the Focus editor to watch all the pieces for the show. The good thing about this is that most of the edit suites have a selection of fruit in them and, occasionally, a three-pack of bourbons.
1925 - Back in the office to tinker with the script, discuss rough areas of chat before going back downstairs to watch the rest of the pieces.
2030 - Jump in the car and head home with everything in place safe in the knowledge that I will be back in precisely 11-and-a-half hours.
Hopefully that gives you a bit of an idea of what goes into the show. This week - as mentioned - the whole thing comes live from Old Trafford. For those wondering, Sir Alex will not be making an appearance but Nicky Butt will be our guest alongside Lee Dixon.
You'll also hear from Rio Ferdinand, Olly Murs and Kevin Doyle. We've also got an exclusive interview with Liverpool's new owner John W Henry ahead of the Chelsea game.
If you've got any questions about the show or want to suggest a classic Premier League Old Trafford goal (for or against United) then let me know.
As promised, here is the latest themed football team from twitter (twitter.com/danwalkerbbc). I give you the Oceans XI squad.
Edwin Van Der Shark
Cod Wallace
Prawn Wright-Phillips
Sole Campbell
Sebastian Bass-ong
Eels de Bilde
Japp Clam
Salmon Kalou
Oystern John
Langoustine Babayaro
Sting Ray Parlour
Julian Moby Dicks
Delroy Plaice-y
Herring Berg
Carp Ji Sung
Whale Clichy
Shipjack Wilshere
Wayne Troutledge
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/danwalker/2010/11/a_typical_football_focus_frida.html
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