³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ

At one point I had vision of burly blokes up and down the country sitting in their cars, vans and lorries sobbing as they listened to Victoria Derbyshire's show on Five Live yesterday.

In front of me was a screen filling up with text message after text message:

"I'm a 49 yr old man with 2 grown up kids and I'm weeping like a soppy idiot; I have just tuned in half way thru. I cant stop crying now; Hello. I'm a 6ft. Geordie rugby player - harder than a coffin nail. I'm in tears. Image destroyed in front of 2 mates; I'm a hardened 38 year old copper in absolute tears at home."

I've never seen such an immediate and overwhelming reaction to a piece of audio on a programme. The Five Live listeners were reacting to an extraordinary 999 tape. It's the story of Jacob Hickman's birth and how his dad, Leo, delivered him at home with help on the phone from a London ambulance 999 operator, Katie Vallis.

Leo's wife Jane went into labour and the midwife was stuck in traffic. So we heard Katie talking Leo through the whole thing, including some scary moments when the baby appeared still in the birth sac and had to be freed with the help of a safety pin.

We played eight minutes of it with Jane and Leo listening in the studio. Baby Leo snoozed through most of it. We all looked a bit tearful.

It was an amazing listen. Not just because it was a privilege to hear Jacob's first cry but because of the awe-inspiring professionalism of the 999 operator and dad Leo's pretty cool handling of it all.

My colleague Katie Kernan had spotted the of the call in The Guardian and saw how it could become a great radio listen. London ambulance and the Hickman family agreed to let us broadcast the tape. We decided to reunite Leo and Jane with Katie Vallis, the 999 operator they only knew as CAC1821.

Twenty years old, and cool as a cucumber, Katie told us this was her first baby delivery and how she used autocards on screen to guide them through the birth. Job done, a healthy baby, all very matter of fact. But you have to hear it to understand the impact. All of us who heard it were either in tears or just stunned!

Have a listen (here). It was scary, uncomfortable, raw. It was primeval, intimate, exhilarating, and just bloody brilliant!

I think we're all grateful to the people involved for letting us share Jacob's birth. Quite simply it was joyful - and that is something you can wait a long time to hear in life, let alone on your radio.

Jermaine Jackson has a sort of Zen-like wisdom. "You can't reason with stupidity" was one his great bits of advice. But you've got to have a go haven't you? Especially if your programme is a phone-in.

So this was day three of us trying to get into the minds of the Big Brother housemates. Of course you wonder if it’s worth trying. But the calls, texts and emails from the listeners confirmed it is the right place to be. Probably because what the Five Live listeners have to say is much more interesting than most of the stuff you hear in the BB house. And you don't have to wait so long for the good bits!

Is Shilpa the victim of racism? Basic bullying? Class envy? Jealousy because she's beautiful? Or is she just getting a crash course in British culture. The listeners who got in touch had lots of different takes on it.

We got up some people's noses: plenty asked us to stop going on about it. "Do us a favour and cease broadcasting...the savings can be passed onto the hard-up licence payer".

But for every one who said "I don’t care, I don't watch, I'm off to Radio 2 until it’s over", there are many more who want a say.

It started off about racism. Was it or wasn't it? The audience was split: "everyone is missing the point - it all boils down to jealousy", "it's about class", "it's about beauty". Looks, culture, money, class...or race. In the end I think the definition of racism depended on race.

Of course I don't know what colour our listeners are when they call, text or email. But lots of the people who are telling us this is racism, are from ethnic minorities. They are telling us what they see and hear on the TV echoes their experience and they spell it out.

Some of the best calls, the ones that really tell us something important, are these ones. They show this issue isn’t just hot air, media waffle, and pedantic definitions. It's about what people have to put up with in their lives. Here's what one listener said "I am glad it raises it on TV because it brings it into the open."

But for lots of people it's just a great opportunity to be really, really rude about people. How often do you get that chance to be truly vitriolic? And the wonderful thing is the range of targets: the "celebs" of course got the worst of it. But there were delicious digs at "band wagon-jumping" politicians, manipulative tossers in the media, halfwits in the house and out of it. No one escaped the lash. Least of all us, "for falling for the most transparent broadcast scam ever".

Today the debate moved on. We asked people if they reckon BB is real Britain. Yes it is. Teachers, police officers, parents, social workers all rang in, texted and emailed to say boorish Britain is the reality. "I am a primary school teacher. Jade is not the exception, she is the norm."

"I don't blame Big Brother - it has just turned a mirror onto the country and the image that has come back is ugly."

But it’s not all hand-wringing. Jermaine Jackson has his disciples in the Five Live audience: "Being stupid is the whole point. You could put Mother Theresa and Ghandi in the BB house, and they'd bitch. If you think this is real Britain you need to get out of the house more."