Production coordinator Rachael Scott looks back on the last season of The Sky at Night and tells us what it takes for the TV show to run smoothly
Rachael Scott is a production coordinator in the BBC Studios Science Unit and worked on the 2023 series of The Sky at Night
The year 2023 was the 66th year that The Sky at Night has appeared on our televisions and the first year that I worked as the show’s production coordinator. The production base had recently moved from London to Glasgow and the new team were eager to fill the shoes of our predecessors who had helped make such a wonderful show. This was only the second production I’d been a part of since joining BBC Studios, and I was excited to learn more about our beautiful night sky.
Before I joined The Sky at Night, I was working as a professional dog groomer. I have a degree in zoology, which drew me to a job in the Science Unit at BBC Studios. Television was a completely new industry for me, but I had such an interest in science shows that I thought I’d make a career change. I learned so much there that when I saw a position on The Sky at Night, I jumped at the chance.
At the start of each month, our talented editorial team collaborated with our presenters to identify interesting astronomical findings, ongoing research and the best features to spot in the night sky that month. From there, the team sought out experts and amateur astronomers to chat to. As production coordinator, I looked into the logistics of filming with these individuals. Sometimes that meant organising a quick run over to the spaceflight company Skyrora in Cumbernauld, Scotland, for our episode on the UK space race. Other times it meant arranging travel to the Very Large Telescopes in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. Every month came with new challenges and new stories.
That series had eight monthly episodes, concluding with one of my favourites to work on, an exciting new collaboration with The Infinite Monkey Cage. It included a large studio recording in the Radio Theatre at London’s BBC Broadcasting House. Before the recording, our presenters Chris Lintott, Maggie Aderin-Pocock and Pete Lawrence were reunited for some extra filming and rehearsal. Even though we try t
