[Stooky Bill]

Isn't there the BBC North split continuity at times now (albeit not signposted on screen)?

Yes, the 'north' have slightly different junctions and announcements during the evenings

[interestednovice]

I don’t rate her as an interviewer at all. Goes for confrontation over clarity. Her interviews are all sound and no light.

I thought this on Newsnight, yes.

Victoria Derbyshire, in contrast, has been much better at interviews on both Newsnight and the Sunday LK programme. Plus, her previous experience of quite incisive interviews on her own show and important live interviews on the NC during Covid.

[DTV]

I don’t rate her as an interviewer at all. Goes for confrontation over clarity. Her interviews are all sound and no light.

Tend to agree and a bit of a contrast to Robinson and particularly Husain, far better interviewers who seem to be focussed on answers over clipability. Though, I can't say I really understand the BBC's approach to political interviewers recently - seems to be more based on placating 'stars' than who's best suited to what role.

[Critique]

The 11am half hour was decently filled with live interviews with reporters, but there were still some bizarre editorial choices.

Firstly, the running order. It always seems a bit jarring to me when a UK opt-out ends and the story that was being focussed on in the opt (in this case the Welsh First Minister election) is suddenly relegated down the running order. It was the second story covered, but still feels a bit strange. Also of note is that there was no contextualising of what the First Minister does for World viewers, although I know that will please some on here who have a severe adverse reaction to anything that helps the non-UK audience.

However, the bigger issue comes from there not being a break for World viewers at around quarter past. This lead to a lengthy segment on Israel/Palestine being followed up with a quick story about Sainsbury’s online deliveries not working properly! This story also featured in the headlines at the TOTH which, given how short the headlines are on the News Channel these days, means the story had way more prominence than it deserved.

Connected to this, the pacing was all over the place. The first two stories had live reporters who covered their stories off relatively swiftly, only to be followed up by the ten minute live report on Israel/Palestine. A very brief mention of the Sainsbury’s issues was then followed by a decent mix of sports stories, before a report on the Russian elections and then a quick bit of breaking news as the end titles rolled. Israel/Palestine is of course a huge news story, but given it wasn’t even the top story, should it have taken up more than a third of the bulletin’s duration?

Finally, although they do generally use the flipper again these days, it was showing a useless combination of three stories - new Welsh First Minister elected, part of the M25 closed and Sainsbury’s online deliveries not working. No other headlines, Sport or anything else, to the point that they might as well have not bothered. The M25 closure also didn’t get a mention in the bulletin itself.

Even if the UK opts during weekday daytime do return for the run-up to the election, they still need to figure out how to balance the bulletins properly for the joint hours that will continue to make up the majority of output. I wonder if radio-esque split links could be utilised at times?

[Brekkie]

It's definately timecode, but how it got onto the output I have no idea. The way it was on junctions and only on networked content would suggest it originated in playout, not news or distribution. Odd that the North West seemed to avoid it on the network headlines when no one else did

---

Not sure what you mean. In England the only regional continuity is before regional programmes. Everything else is 'network'

I mean specifically for the news.

[Robert Williams]

I mean specifically for the news.

Yes there is, we continue to get network continuity into the news in the London region, there hasn't been a regional announcement for many years.

[Brekkie]

Yes there is, we continue to get network continuity into the news in the London region, there hasn't been a regional announcement for many years.

Which begs the question why they feel the need to name check the regional presenter in every other region but not in their largest region.

[Stuart]

Emma Barnett will join the Today Programme from May, effectively replacing Martha Kearney, and "will also front TV documentaries and cross platform news-making interviews for the BBC."

Her interviews have made headlines in previous elections, so will be interesting if she gets a prominent role somehow.

www.bbc.co.uk 

I do hope she gets a role in election coverage. She comes across as nice and friendly, and then pounces like a hungry Velociraptor.

It's almost like 'Paxman in a cuddly onesie'.

[Andrew]

Which begs the question why they feel the need to name check the regional presenter in every other region but not in their largest region.

Presumably because it isn’t unusual for a region not to do their own ident, generally if it’s a unusual presenter (either nationally or locally) or there is an OB presenter on the national news

So they’ll take the network announcement even when everything is working ok with the opt

[RhysJR]

The late afternoon and late BBC One bulletins were presented by Jane Hill from Cardiff today. This of course was due to the election of Vaughan Gething as the new Welsh Labour leader and probable First Minister.

Sadly, Jane and Chris Mason were in the dark corridor next to the big screen, rather than in any of the TV studios.

With the only Wales Today bulletin was short, and there was an ample gap between BBC News and Newyddion airing, that they couldn't use the Wales Today and Newyddion studio rather than the corridor.