[Former Member 406]

I’m currently on holiday in the South West. Is Taunton an overlap area between South West and West or are Spotlight going slightly outside of their patch?

As I notice the story of the student who was murdered in Nottingham who was from Taunton was the main headline on Points West and is also the main headline tonight on Spotlight

The Minehead-Taunton area (at least) is indeed very much *the* reception/editorial overlap zone of the West and South West BBC/ITV regions.

In all English Regions, ITV tends to have a rather more liberal interpretation of overlap zones for editorial purposes than Auntie Beeb does.

For example: The "HTV" version of West Country has been known to mention places from well into the Exmoor part of west Somerset or all the way down to Weymouth on Dorset's south coast. They even mark Dorchester on the weather map. Conversely, the "Plymouth" edition of West Country may venture at least as far east as Yeovil, and sometimes as far north as Burnham-on-Sea.

Points West and Spotlight are less likely to do any/all of the above (or similar). Even though at least some north-NW parts of Dorset (e.g. Sherborne) are a de facto part of Point West land (exclusively so?), it's a miracle if Dorset gets more than about a single token annual mention!

EDIT:
If I were in charge, I'd have at least some of the ITV regions record alternative outdoor backdrops (in cases where a legitimate overlap town/city exists) to show on their faux "windows" whenever there are ah-hoc forays into being pan-regional, rather than the naff CGI "gallery" backdrop. In the case of West Country, I'd choose a view of the A3027 Town Bridge over the River Tone in Taunton as the pan-regional backdrop.