[Pips2022]

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Didn't they all get the news from the Royal Family twitter which went out at 18:30?

Or was it just embargoed until then? There felt to be a complete lack of preparedness on the part of some broadcasters.

There was almost certainly an embargo of some sort; we have been told that the PM knew at 16:30, and a two-hour embargo is comparable to the length held for Diana (although that may not actually be a good comparison at all, because that embargo was likely in order to wake the family given the overnight timing so that they heard before the public, and this one was almost certainly to buy time for protocol wheels to get in motion).

There is a notification-type ringing sound audible in the background of the rolling coverage around 15:00 (1:24:31 in the afternoon BBC News Special), followed about a minute later by whispering of some kind. Possible that is when the BBC are informed; this is backed up by the deleted Yalda Hakim tweet being shortly after (15:07), but not by Truss apparently learning at 16:30, because the first act of Operation London Bridge was meant to be the PM being informed?

Very confusing. As Phil says, consistent with the Truss timing is Myrie's brief spell in relief.

www.youtube.com 

This is the clip. I'm not sure if anyone recognises the notification sound as being normal, it takes a couple moments for someone to switch off. Around 30 seconds later, you can hear someone walking onto the set, and then - more audibly - whisper something to Nicholas Witchell, while Huw is speaking.

I can't make out the specific words but the sentence does seem to end in "fallen". Theoretically, it doesn't make sense why the news has to be orally delivered to the Royal Correspondent, but it would explain why the control room would be in the dark.

London Bridge must (or seems to) have fallen? That seems to confirm there was some certainty the Queen had passed by 3pm.

Also possible the BBC had better contact with royal sources than the government which would explain why the PM wasn’t informed until a little later.

I think it’s getting into the realms of fan fiction to suggest BBC journalists (or any journos) knew before the PM- especially 90 minutes before. It might be hard for some to believe but Yalda’s tweet was seemingly prompted by misreading a fake tweet purporting to be BBC Breaking News, rather than her getting a scoop.