[bbctvtechop]

I'll never understand why the entire structure of management feel they have to be in the gallery for moments like this. It is completely distracting to the operators, undermines the authority of the producer and director, creates unnecessary stress, and why not book a meeting room with a large screen? Not to mention this breaks all of the covid-secure rules (set by the very same people ignoring them!) regarding maximum number of bodies in the gallery to protect operationally critical staff.

It's madness.

Why is it madness? There will never be a 'moment like this' The Covid restrictions came to an end months prior to the Queen's death. Tim Davie is the DG, Deborah Turner's is the CEO of News so why shouldn't they be in the gallery. The BBC were delivering the most important news of our lives, theirs too. Not madness at all.

Agree that this is probably the biggest "moment like this" but I can assure you over many years of experience that this happens all the time. New programme launches especially. As a sound op I find it so rude and distracting. The constant opening and closing of the doors, the general chit chat amongst managers, the "helpful" chipping in resulting in the producer and director (and therefore crew) not having their usual chain of command. I have made mistakes as a direct result of this, as have my colleagues, and I've witnessed more than one programme launch crash and burn because of the "too many cooks, especially cooks who don't know what they're doing" effect.

If I and my colleagues walked into a senior management meeting and sat at the back with our laptops, whispering amongst ourselves and occasionally chipping in with ideas, I would rightly be told where to go. I don't know why it's not the same discipline and respect the other way around. And that's putting aside the fact that they don't *need* to be in an operational, highly stressful gallery/studio environment to witness these things anyway - if they want to see the programme, watch the programme on a big screen in a meeting room.

Can you tell this makes me angry?!

I can, but I think you need to calm down (said with sincere politeness). Chris Cook was at the helm of the bridge and so I'm sure everyone was in the very best of hands. The team had been running all afternoon and the news could have broken at any moment. I'm sure both Davie, Turness, Munro and other management were on the newsroom floor. 

If I were management at the BBC, I'd want that moment captured.

Chris Cook is operational and therefore (a) a potential HELP in that situation; and (b) is fully aware of gallery workflow, etiquette and chain of command. Others, I can assure you with experience, are not and are often a serious hindrance.

I too understand that the cheese want to be seen by the cameras and the gallery looks sexy to viewers in the inevitable documentary later. But they should not forget that it is a highly stressful environment as it is, quadrupled by the news event we're discussing here, quadrupled again by the presence of management. Surely they don't want the crew and director to screw up this massive moment just so they can look good? I can assure you the Daily Mail headline "BBC cut to wrong camera/fade up wrong microphone when announcing death of queen to nation" won't be followed by "It happened when the head of BBC News' mobile rang loudly and the sound operator was distracted".