After the tension of the interview on a very warm day, I was glad to get home, jump into the shower and clean myself down. It was an opportunity to get out of the skinny jeans and clinging top that I had worn for work on the site and get into a nice cool flowing sundress. I was brushing out my hair and putting it into a messy bun to keep it off my face when the doorbell rang.

"Hi Jo,” Maggie greeted me, “I have a few of my friends over and we are about to watch your interview together. Have you had a chance to see it yet? I had a quick look while it was recording, and then thought it would be good for us all to see it together. I am learning to not rush you, I gave you a bit of time to get cleaned and changed before coming over to see you. Can you come?”

I was thinking that Maggie was beginning to be a bit of a stalker, being a close friend of the well-known personality that I was now becoming. In her eyes that gave her a bit of status in the community, but I felt that I needed to go along with it all and be sociable.

"I’d love to, thanks for asking me, I’ll just put on some shoes, a bit of makeup, brush out my hair and I’ll be straight over.”

It was her normal group with a few more that I didn’t recognise, but they all seemed to know each other. The interview was actually the main local news story of the day, a lot longer than I thought it would be. After thad finished they all gave me a clap and came over to congratulate me, firing lots of questions at me.

"You were brilliant. A lot of these interviews are a bit stuffy and boring, but you have a way of keeping everyone interested, and even in your work clothes to still managed to look attractive. you should do more stuff like that. I’m glad that they didn’t want to interview me, even though I was there in the background for some of the shots of the dig team at work.” Emma congratulated me.

"Actually, they only used a tiny bit of the complete interview, and are pulling together a half-hour documentary with a lot more of the shots, and with me in the studio discussing it with Carol Cameron. That will need a bit of editing so it will be a few weeks before it is broadcast.”

"What was it like working with Carol, she always seems ever so pleasant when she is on TV.”

"She was really good, keeping me relaxed and nudging me in the right direction, she even helped me change my makeup so that I would look better for the cameras.”

I was definitely the centre of attention and was never given a moment to myself when I was with them. However, I was now totally comfortable in being with a crowd of women, even in close quarters to them and in long conversations, I was just totally accepted as another woman amongst them. I had noticed on the video of the interview that I was now even adopting a lot of feminine gestures, using my hands a lot when talking, using more facial expressions, and gently brushing my hair from my face with my fingers. Jo had almost completely taken over from my previous life as Joey.

As I was leaving, Maggie pulled me aside. “Thank you for coming over to talk to us Jo, I really appreciate it. Can I ask you a really big favour?”

"No harm in asking, depending what it is I might agree.”

"Our group that goes and visits historic buildings are going over to the Lynn Museum at the weekend to see the reconstructed Seahenge (*), do you know it?”

"Of course, it is the bronze age timber circle found buried in the tidal belt of the beach at Holme-next-the-Sea, a few years ago, I’ve not actually seen it though.”

"Would you like to come with us and act as our group’s personal expert guide and explain about it to us? You seem so knowledgable and you explain things in a way that is easy to understand.”

"Actually, i would love to come with you, I have been meaning to visit it for some time. I wouldn’t call myself an expert on it though, I probably do not know much more about it than you do.”

I checked my phone for messages as I walked back over the road to home and saw that I had missed a WhatsApp message from Josie, so made myself a coffee and sat down for a video chat with her.

"Hi Josie, I got your message, I take it that you have arrived at Mum and Dad’s ok.”

"Yea, we had a good drive down on the Autoroutes, they cost a bit for the tolls, but save an awful lot of time.”

"How are Mum and Dad?”

"They’re fine, they have been very busy on renovating the place and it is looking good. I must say that you are looking good too, I love that dress, it suits you, is it new?”

"Now that I am living full time as Jo, I have needed to get a lot more stuff. I will never complain to you again about how full your wardrobes and drawers are.”

"It is all part of being a girl Jo, get used to it. I have told Mum about what you are doing and once she got over the shock, and had a look at your vlogs, she is now desperate to see you and have a chat.”

“Josie, is that Joey you are talking to?” I heard Mum’s voice in the background just before she came into view sitting next to Josie.

"Hello Joey, or as Josie insists I must now call you Jo, just like when you and her were younger. Stand up and let me have a good look at you.”

I stood up gave her a twirl which actually flared out the skirt of my dress in a very feminine way, brushed the skirt behind me as I sat down, and tucked my loose hair back behind my ears.

"What do you think Mum? Are you shocked to see me like this.”

Josie did warn me, and I have seen your videos, but you are even more like her than I expected, and just as beautiful. You seem to be settling in to your new life and are doing well at your work, but are you sure that you are ok with all this, I mean, it is not normal is it?”

"Mum, the opportunity to work for the museum at the dig was just too much to turn down. Ok, it means for a few years that I have to wear skirts and makeup, but I have adjusted to all that now, and getting dressed like this has just become routine. I was embarrassed at first, but I am now over that, everybody just sees me and accepts me as Jo. In a way I am actually enjoying my life at the moment, I have made lots of friends as Jo, more than I ever had as Joey, and get on with people a lot more comfortably.”

"Just make sure that you stay in control and that Jo does not totally take over your life, remember who you really are. Are you going to come over to see me and let me meet my new daughter or do I have to wait until Josie’s wedding?”

"It’s difficult Mum, I obviously cannot use my passport.”

“That’s no problem,"Josie interrupted, "we are coming back at the end of next week, you can use mine, you look as near to the photo in it as I do.”

"I’ll think about it and see if I can fit in a visit. All of you take care, bye for now.”

It was not something I had been looking forward to, but my talk with Mum went ok, no hysterics or “What have you done to yourself?”, however I thought that the first time meeting my Dad would not be as smooth.

Saturday morning, I was up bright and early, brushed out my hair and tied it up high at the back, applied a light makeup, put on my short denim skirt and a lemon puff-sleeved sweetheart top, and open sandals, picked up my woven tote bag, and went over to Maggie’s to meet the rest of the girls for our day out.

As there were ten of us squeezed into two cars, it was not a particularly comfortable journey, but we arrived safely at the museum in King’s Lynn. As there was a big group of us I thought it best to let the museum staff know what we were doing so that we didn’t disrupt other visitors.

"That’s fine we often get that problem when tour buses arrive. We are not too busy at the moment. If you wander around in smaller groups in the other exhibitions, we can arrange to close the Seahenge gallery when you are in there. If you don’t mind me asking, are you Jo Johnson from the Ostia dig?”

"I have been caught out, but I am not here today in any official capacity. I am just here with a group of friends who have roped me in to give them the benefit of what little I know about Seahenge. Just because I am reporting on the dig they look on me as some sort of expert on all things archaeological.”

Our group were soon in the gallery where the preserved original timbers had been re-erected as they were found in the mud and sand. After we all had a quick look around at the general displays and information boards, they gathered around me and I gave them a bit of a background to how Seahenge, or Holme 1 to give it it’s official name, was constructed about 3000 years earlier, and how it survived without total decay preserved in the waterlogged mud and peat that covered it over the centuries.The girls were quiet throughout my general introduction but then followed up with lots of questions about why it was built, what was it’s purpose and who were the people that constructed it.

“The bottom line, is that we will never know, there are lots of theories, all we know for certain is when it was constructed, Carbon-dating of some of the timbers gives us a very good idea of when the trees were cut down for the construction.

I changed the subject describing how it had been difficult and time consuming to uncover and remove the timbers as they were located in the tidal belt of the beach and work could only be carried out for a few hours each day around low tide, relating it to some of the areas we had started to work on at Ostia Septentrionalis. There we had seen evidence from the aerial scans of what appeared to be pier props leading from the beach, down to the estuary, and the problems they had at Holme and how they overcame them would be useful starting points for our own excavation work.

When I had finished and the girls were gathering around congratulating me, I was approached by an official-looking forty-something woman dressed formally in a pants suit, blouse and court shoes who I had noticed standing in the gallery doorway during our session.

‘“Let me introduce myself Jo, I am Jean Metcalfe, the Director and Head Curator here, can I have a few words with you please if I can tear you away from your friends? One of the staff recognised you from your TV appearance and vlogs, and told me that you were going to make a presentation to your friends. I have been trying to get one of our staff to do something similar to your vlog, but they are all camera-shy. Would you consider doing something like that for us here?”

"Thank you for asking, but I am quite heavily committed at Ostia Septentrionalis, besides I am not sure how my director would feel about it.”

"I know Jacqui quite well, and am sure that she would have no objection but I will clear it with her if you are interested.”

"If I agree, and Jacqui doesn’t have a problem I can do a one-off for you then we can see how it goes. I have an idea assuming I can get everyone to agree. Why not film me doing a repeat of what I have just been doing with my friends, including the question and answer sessions with them and I will do a direct-to-camera introduction and wrap-up to go with it, how does that sound?”

"Actually that sounds brilliant, check it out with your friends, and I will go to get our video camera and sound recorder. If you all have time, we can close the gallery a little bit early and film it when the public have left.”

I told Maggie and the girls what we were proposing and they were all up for it.

"Ok everybody this is just a trial to see how it all comes across. Just act natural and ask the questions you did before, no need to put on posh voices or play up to the camera, just be yourselves. If this works ok you might have to do it again with a professional film crew.”

It was all set up and we soon had completed the talk and my intro and wrap-up and we left the museum to find somewhere to get something to eat. The girls were still on a buzz with the thought of being on a video presentation and vlog, and there was a lot of excited chatter in the café and in the cars on the way home.

Again we all stopped off at Maggie’s, she was enjoying being the hub of all these new experiences and was glad to play hostess once again. The Lynn Museum had sent me a link to a raw draft of the presentation and we all sat down in anticipation to watch it. There were lots of excited shrieks of ‘Oooo, just look at me there’ and such like, but it got a very good reception.

"Before I get on to the museum, you have the chance to ask them cut any bits out where you don’t like how the camera has caught you. Otherwise I’ll tell them to post it on their website.” There were no problems, so I phoned Jean at the museum and told her to load it up and everyone went home happy to watch it all again with their families.

I phoned around to Josie, and my various colleagues and friends to let them know and for the rest of the evening, my phone never stopped ringing with everyone wanting to talk about it.

Monday morning I got a text from Jacqui, ‘Please come into the office rather than going to site, we need to talk’. With some concerns I made my way to her office, but rather than an uncomfortable discussion that I expected, I was greeted with a big smile from her as she introduced me to another visitor in with us.

“Jo, this is Charles McNaughton, the Chairman of the County Council Cultural and Leisure committee.”

"Glad to meet you at last Jo, I’ve heard a lot about the work you are doing and over the weekend I have been reviewing your vlogs and the presentation you gave on Saturday at the Lynn Museum. I will be discussing this with my committee colleagues when we next meet, but I wanted to see how you would react first. Since Saturday your presentation on Seahenge has already had more views than the Lynn Museum normally get in a month, it is going viral amongst people that already follow your vlog and they are sharing it with their friends. You are sparking a lot of interest in our heritage and culture.”

"That’s really good, we have a lot of rich history in this area, and local people should know about it.”

"If you agree, I would like you to visit several more of the county’s museum and heritage sites, not just the ones we run, but others too, pick out what you think is interesting and do similar presentations.”

“I have two questions. Can I use the same format, with the same group of people, it wouldn’t be as natural using actors following a script.”

"You are more expert at these presentations than I am, if that is what you want it is not a problem.”

"Secondly, I don’t want this to interfere with my work at Ostia Septentrionalis. Unless Jacqui thinks differently, I would only want to do it at most one day each week.”

There is no rush, for a while we have needed to get all our museums a higher profile, another few weeks will make no difference.”

"I have another suggestion, I am appearing on a documentary special with Anglia East about Ostia Septentrionalis. How about if I talk them into filming the presentations as a basis for a series of programmes, it would be much more professionally done. Obviously you would have the rights to show the programmes either directly on your website or via a link to theirs.”

"Talk to them, see what they think, if they are interested fair enough, if not we could still get it privately professionally done, and we would like that to include a professionally filmed rerun of your Seahenge visit.”

I was in the TV studio later in the week for the programme already filmed about Ostia Septentrionalis. Rather than the casual appearance I had in the site interview, before going into the studio, I spent a lot of time in the make-up room. Obviously with the strong lighting and close-up shots this was a lot heavier and more dramatic than I would normally use, but it all went with the more formal full-sleeved above-the-knee dress that I had chosen to wear.

This was a much slicker affair than the interview on site, with a prepared script and question&answer sessions and took most of the day with run-throughs, the actual programme filming, and re-takes. By the time it was all over I was feeling a bit uncomfortable with the glare of the studio lighting and the heavy make up they had applied to me, and was glad to go back to the Green room afterwards with Carol and Jim, and just relax.

Over a glass of wine I opened up my laptop and showed them the presentation at the Lynn Museum telling them them about Charles McNaughton’s suggestion of me doing a series of similar presentations at the various sites around the county and my idea that they might want to run with it and take care of the production.

"I like that,” replied Jim, “I think we could make that work, it would be a good local interest topic. Let me have a chat with the producers and the production team, after all we are a commercial station and it would need to be marketable to our advertisers.”

Jim went off for a while to discuss it with his colleagues, and came back beaming. It was all agreed so I left them to arrange schedules with Charles McNaughton and the various museum teams for me and the programme researchers to visit to see what was of interest, and on the way home I phoned to break the news to Maggie.

"Maggie, can you get the girls together again, there is something I need to discuss, I will tell you all about it when I get there. Don’t bother doing your normal cakes and sandwiches, I will bring something over with me.”

When I arrived they all gave me questioning looks, and could hardly wait for me to sit down and explain why I had asked Maggie to get them together.

"Ok girls, there is good news, better news and wonderful news.” I tried to drag it out a bit to build up the dramatic effect, they they were all desperate know what I had to tell them.

"I did the studio interview with Carol at Anglia East and we discussed the full edited version of the site filming at Ostia Septentrionalis with Emma and Jane in it in the background. The programme will be aired next Tuesday, so don’t forget to set your recorders, you might want to keep a copy to show your family and friends.”

"What about our visit to Lynn Museum.” Maggie asked, she was really looking forward to seeing herself on screen.

“The video of our visit to see Seahenge is already up on the Museum website, and those of you who want to see the finished article should have a look at it.”

"Now for why I called you’ll here. The County Council want me to do a series of similar visits to other places in the area in the same format as the visit to Seahenge, and I insisted that you all continue to be the crowd that I am conducting the presentation to.”

There was a gasp of surprise and amazement and looks of excitement from them all.

"The icing on the cake is that the filming, production, and direction will be with the Anglia East team for a series they will be broadcasting, you will all be on TV. It will be like you being regulars on ‘Gogglebox’, you will all have the chance to have your say. Obviously there will be some payment for your appearances, but that is still to be negotiated.”

There was stunned silence for several seconds while it all sank in, before Jane and Emma rushed over to give me a big hug.

"Thank you so much, it was so good of you to think of us and get us included. I for one, will be the first in the queue to sign up to it.” gushed Emma. She was followed by all the others, none of them seemed to be camera shy or worried about any reaction from their family or friends, it was to be one of the most exciting experiences of their lives.

The rest of the evening most of the discussion was about the likely filming dates and where we would be visiting as they all wanted to make sure that they had their hair done and look their best. "Don’t forget that you are just a normal set of women, having a day out, they will want you to look your usual selves, not like you have just come out of a beauty parlour, and you just have to behave naturally, no playing up to the cameras.”

They all left in really high spirits desperate for me to confirm dates to them. I went back home to have a quiet think about what I had committed to. It had all started with me taking on a low-key backroom job at the museum which had now mushroomed into me being a presenter of a series of TV programmes, albeit only intended to be screened locally, based on visits around the county heritage sites. It was getting more and more difficult to unravel myself from a life as Jo, with all the likelihood that questions about my background would start to surface and the whole thing could be blown apart.

To be continued.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seahenge
https://www.explorenorfolkuk.co.uk/seahenge.html