From YouTube to making TV shows: this January 2018 channel update explains how Roberts London reached a new stage. Over coffee and toast at home, I look back at the videos’ beginnings and discuss the year ahead. The plan was to make a monthly show for Amazon Prime viewers while sharing more of the work behind it on social media.
First published on 13 January 2018, the film records the ambitions and experiences of that moment. It also explains who I had in mind when making the London films: the armchair traveller, watching for a little slice of life in the city.
Watch: from YouTube to making TV shows
First, coffee and toast
Before the plans, there is breakfast. I have been to the baker for fresh bread, and the opening follows the coffee-making and toasting. Then it is time to sit down at the kitchen table, with a pot of coffee and buttered toast, and explain what comes next.
Why I started making London videos
The story began with jewellery. I explain that I had been making and selling my own designs through online marketplaces, then decided to build a website of my own. A blog and social media would help people find it. YouTube appealed because I could embed a film in a post and write around it.
At first, the idea was to show the business behind the scenes. However, I found that less enjoyable to make than filming what I did in my spare time. London became the subject. Those films were fun to create, attracted viewers and helped bring visitors to the website.
Building an audience on YouTube had not been the original aim, but it became part of the story. By the end of 2016, I was also thinking about distribution beyond one platform. That led to sharing films on Facebook and, later, making a show available to Amazon Prime viewers.
Making TV shows for Amazon
In the update, I describe the extra work involved in preparing episodes for Amazon. Early submissions needed further edits for technical or content reasons. Rather than abandon the idea, I saw that process as a reason to improve the films. The trade-off was time: a more demanding production left less room for other work.
I say that I made 26 shows during the previous year. For 2018, the intention was closer to 12: at least one carefully made episode each month. Alongside those episodes, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram would carry more informal updates, live moments and scenes that did not make the final show.
A wider audience, with free films too
The film also addresses viewers’ questions about paying to watch. I explain that the arrangement was not exclusive. The intended sequence was an Amazon premiere, followed by free publication on other platforms. In practice, the extra publishing steps had sometimes meant Amazon received the film last.
These were the distribution plans described in January 2018. The aim was to reach another audience while continuing to share films with the people already following Roberts London.
Behind the scenes and the armchair traveller
The proposed extras included a wardrobe update, a new phone for live video and a look at the modest equipment used to make the shows. It was a small-budget operation, with consumer cameras and, for part of 2017, an iPhone 5s.
Finally, I explain the editorial approach. The videos would include useful places, street scenes and a sense of location, but also my voice and experiences. The person I pictured watching was an armchair traveller, enjoying London from elsewhere in Britain or around the world.
That is the thread running through the update: sharing an entertaining slice of London life. Later that month, the channel also marked 10,000 subscribers with a short retrospective, looking back at the first five years of films.
The 2017 channel introduction
Published on 22 July 2017, this short channel trailer offers an earlier glimpse of Roberts London’s identity. In around forty seconds, it moves through Trafalgar Square, ceremonial London, The Mall and Buckingham Palace, before closing with a black-and-white portrait.
The original introduction described films about living and working in London, and the people, places and things that inspired me. Seen alongside the January 2018 update, it shows the London subject matter behind those developing plans.
