What makes a good video idea for my channel?

For my regular on-location videos, a single idea or place on its own, unless it’s absolutely spectacular, isn’t usually enough to make a video. Most of the locations, places and ideas I talk about also have a story. For example, “an old nuclear bunker” or “a big viaduct” isn’t a story unless they’re also something else. A good test is if the place’s description can have an and in it. So, for example:

• It's an abandoned bit of road and the BBC sometimes film car crashes there.
• It's a massive bridge and they have to force dry air inside the cables to stop it corroding.
• It's a dangerous path across a tidal flat and it’s a military firing range.

That's not a hard-and-fast rule, of course, there are plenty of videos that don’t fit that. But if you’re suggesting a place, a good rule of thumb is that it has at least two things that are interesting about it, even if one of those is just “it looks good on camera”!

And it should have at least some visual element to it. As an example of what couldn’t work, the scent of Play-Doh is trademarked. That's a brilliant story, there’s loads to talk about in trademark law… and it’s impossible to film because YouTube does not currently support transmitting scents.

For other series, like the Language Files and the Basics: there’s a very tight needle to thread. Ideas have to be interesting to the lay viewer, simple enough to explain without losing the audience, complicated enough not to be obvious, and also be capable of having a narrative attached to them. If you have an idea, by all means do pitch it — but please be aware that a lot of the low-hanging fruit has already been picked over the past few years!