Title:SPIO MOBILE TEAM PRESENTATION: GORDON WILLIAMS [Main Title]
Film Number:WOY 8409
Other titles:UNITED KINGDOM LAND FORCES COLLECTION - BRITISH ARMY 1980s [Allocated Series Title]
Summary: Gordon Williams, a civilian Senior Public Relations Officer (SPIO) for the Army's Mobile News Teams, explains the role of the teams.
Description: The Mobile News Teams are the biggest single source of positive army coverage, and help to keep the Army in the public eye. One such three-person team is seen covering a tank run by 4th Regiment the Royal Tank Regiment. Coverage of NATO exercises and other activities - including a visit to Kenya - are shown; "editors love the exotic". Assistance is also given to foreign journalists. Each Mobile News Team is "one of the most efficient and cost-effective PR outfits in the business.
After the main programme is a short pause, followed by unedited footage at the Defence Medical Equipment Depot at Ludgershall. Storage areas are shown. Boxes of medical equipment are voaded via forklift trucks onto lorries, ready for transhipment to the Falkland Islands (to replace equipment destroyed after a fire at the hospital there). This footage is followed by local television news items (TVS, HTV West) incorporating the footage.
Alternative Title:UNITED KINGDOM LAND FORCES COLLECTION - BRITISH ARMY 1980s [Allocated Series Title]
