Making an impact and staying committed to the story are the real drivers for success, say BAFTA-winning BBC breakfast show editors Richard Frediani and Megan Bramall.
“Success is often if you’ve done something that’s impacted or affected somebody” said Programme Editor Frediani. “The Motor Neurone work that we’ve done with Rob and Kev and Rob’s family has literally been game-changing.”
Leeds-born Rob Burrow and Kevin Sinfield are famous professional rugby league players and friends. Rob’s life was tragically cut short by Motor Neurone Disease.
“It’s probably the best example I could give anyone of staying committed to a story and keeping in contact,” Frediani went on to say. “We didn’t know Rob and his family before we came across the story. He was diagnosed in December 2019.”
BBC Breakfast covered the story once, intending it to be a single day’s news. Yet they stayed in contact with Rob and his family and friends, covering more news stories of their efforts to raise the profile of this debilitating disease. It was the depth of their relationship with Rob and his wife Lindsey that led to their idea for a documentary, which aired on BBC 2 in 2022.
Frediani and Assistant Editor Megan Bramall are together responsible for nearly 30 hours of live TV every week covering both the Breakfast Show and News at One, as well as documentary making. In those hours they cover everything from the micro to the macro, balancing the news agenda with awareness-raising of issues in people’s everyday lives.
Careful to highlight their impartiality, Frediani calls it ‘the challenge and opportunity’ of people watching for different reasons creates the perfect place to bring compelling issues to the forefront, to be seen by those who can make a difference like politicians or to bring meaning or knowledge to the lives of people watching. It can break down barriers to public understanding and profile issues that go otherwise unseen.
The Rob Burrow Centre for Motor Neurone Disease officially opened in Leeds on 3 November 2025.
“The building of the Rob Burrow centre and the opening of that in just five years, that primarily came through fundraising and awareness that we were the primary driver of, is a level of success that I would regard as probably more important than any award that you could win,” said Frediani.