What a week!

Ray Calleja

Max Media presenter and producer Ray Calleja is preparing for Minn Taghna, his new afternoon show. Interview by Zillah Bugeja

I’ve just come back from Dublin where I attended a gender awareness course funded by the Leonardo Project and organised by the Broadcasting Authority. Eight of us had a two-week placement with RTE, Ireland’s national television station. This came about because the BA set up a board headed by Brenda Murphy to help increase gender awareness both in content and the production of the broadcasting media.

When you see the percentages of female participation in the workplace you see that the higher positions are occupied by men.

The Irish are absolutely fantastic, it’s amazing how they’ll pass you in the street and wish you good morning. It was a lovely experience.

I suppose that initially, because the participants were all competitors, we were all wary of each other. I especially made good friends with John Bundy on the trip, I never knew he was such a ball to be with.

The most interesting thing to see was first-hand experience of an enormous set-up, with 2,000 employees. People are very politically correct on the workplace, correcting themselves and apologising if they use a ‘he’ or referring to the ‘camera man’ when the gender is unknown.

The RTE station set-up was huge, as well as their resources. Last year they had a 21 million deficit and have run at a loss for the past three years – they’re coming to terms with competition. What’s interesting is that to them, with a population of 4.5 million and four TV stations, they think their market is limited. Compare that to us!

Because I have an interest in comedy, I find the Irish are natural born performers. They can take the sexist jokes too, precisely because they are politically aware and correct and have this sense of seriousness. I mean, the stand-up comedy shows can be wicked! They know that a joke is precisely that and can laugh at themselves – we should learn from that.

I’ve always wanted to perform. At ten I co-presented a programme for kids called Album, then went into theatre and never touched TV again till three years ago. I used to dream I’d be on the stage for the rest of my life. Doing evening TV had made that difficult, but I intend to find more time to work with XXX Theatregroup, maybe doing comedy or dramatic stuff. It’s not easy to make people laugh, but when you do, it feels great.

We will all be collaborating with the BA. They are working on the compilation of a database, which will help us come up with women to interview and to participate as speakers. Because often we are not aware that there would be a woman in such and such a sphere, and therefore not only would an imbalance come across, but it would not be a correct representation of the reality.

Balance of the sexes refers to the workplace as well, why shouldn’t there be a balance? The number of women in upper management is low. It’s interesting that when there is a mostly male-dominated department and women start to filter in slowly, when the balance tips in favour of women, men move out and that department acquires a lower grading.

As broadcasters our responsibility is to promote balance and give the public the correct picture. My awareness of this has now been heightened and that’s healthy.

When I got back last Saturday after a whole night’s travelling, I relaxed and slept a bit, went down to Selmun and went clubbing in the evening. I nearly thought that my clubbing days were over, apparently not!

Sunday was spent in bed, and I loved every minute. I watched The Mummy Returns, exaggerated but I like a science fiction movie once in a while.

When I do have free time I like to watch TV or read. I find the quality on BBC Prime very good, and don’t watch it with the eyes of a producer, looking out for mistakes. I don’t watch local TV because I really don’t have the time to, but also because when a project is driving me, I don’t want other local programmes to influence me in a negative way. I set my own high standards because I believe in them, and put my targets pretty high – sometimes my colleagues nudge me to get back down to earth. I believe you always have to set a higher target, because if you set a straight line, you’ll tend to go down instead of up.

So this Monday my new programme will start. It’s called Minn Taghna, a magazine programme that’s taking over from Sellili – not easy. Claudette’s well loved.

As a company we’ve built a particular history with our afternoon TV and are proud of the fact. Afternoon is a good time to do TV, the evening audience is not as committed. Summer too is a challenging time.

The programme will run from 12.45 to 3.15pm, with something different every day. On Mondays we’ll have craft and DIY for everyone, men too (see, the gender awareness thing has rubbed off). Artist Daniel Attard Portughes is helping me with the set design and this segment – there will be a focus on recycling. The intention is to have hands-on stuff, with a cooking slot by Carmen Tedesco who is now synonymous with health food. On Tuesday, VIP Discussion will kick off with palm reading, exorcism and related topics, pointing out that like anything else in life, it needs to be done with moderation and balance, because there are people ready to con you. Why should we live our lives as though we’re in the Middle Ages, paying people to remove curses and the like? If you have money to throw away, give it to charity. Then there’s a pet corner with Alison Navarro.

On Wednesday we’ll have a competition, involving a make-over, but that’s a surprise for now. There’s also my Auntie Cetta in a big come-back. On Thursdays Dr Joseph Grech Attard will talk about health issues, along with nutritionist Clare Copperstone. Friday is a particularly interesting day. We’ll have teenagers and young adults aged 14 to 27, and Mariella Blackman will act as facilitator to the lively discussion.

The team has a good feeling about this programme. It’s a good buzz to see people working on a project they believe in. everyone’s anxious to see the result. This week I’ve had meetings with everyone involved to update me on progress.

We called it "Minn Taghna’, meaning ‘one of us’, because we want to show off the resources we have as a nation: this is what we can do, this is what we’re about.

Live programmes have a certain electricity about them which you can’t fake. They give it a natural feeling, and also an intimacy, which is nice.

I’m often asked whether the person I am on TV is the real me. If I were ‘myself’ and that meant that I showed my bad mood, I’d be doing it for effect and it wouldn’t make good TV. I have a responsibility towards viewers, first and foremost to entertain.

People in the street say hello and I get an initial shock, like I should know who they are. It gives you a good feeling to know that people accept you as a part of their family – either that or as part of the furniture!