The new NEW Central West and BBC Midlands thread

Nicola Beckford presenting the main 6:30 programme for the first time last night.

A special report on tonight's Midlands Today on 20 years of Nick Owen hosting the show. Was a complete surprise to Nick.

Not entirely Midlands related, but I hope Central doesn’t have this current set for a decade like the old one. This I think for me is the worst set they have ever had. Coupled with the latest generic ITV news look, it’s the most stale too.

I think few lighting amendments could make it look better, but things like how wide they have to shoot to get one of the side screens in view just looks like an after thought.

I really wish ITV would let the regions have more say in their own programmes.

Well done Midlands Today on getting a reporter and camera down to Long Lartin Prison this evening, while ITV News Central had Bob talking over library pictures and a reference to the website.

I find Nicola Beckford pleasant to watch and listen - a bit like Kay Alexander. I hope they utilise her a bit more than just Breakfast and lunchtime bulletins.

Bob Warman with the hiccups on Friday

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10155801562189035&id=82710639034

That was actually from 2 years ago. It's just that they decided to share it again for some reason. The main giveaway is having Lucy Kite in that video who's since left.

That's the first time since the 2015 set change that I've actually been able to see what the programme looks like with the current Nottingham backdrop in use (as they don't generally put bulletins online etc). So, thank you.





Eh? The only two people who feature in that video are Bob Warman and Sameena Ali-Khan!

That is strange but I’ve never seen it before. Probably because its the East version.

That backdrop looks terrible, so much of the view cut off, the old style screen displayed it much nicer.

Watch the video until the very end.

I believe Central uses the Birmingham backdrop quite often in the East Midlands, either intentionally or by accident, or at least they used to in their old set. Pan-regional segments currently use that awful fake newsroom backdrop most regions use.

I think that was only the case during the 2009-2013 era (when the vast majority of output was pan-regional only). Once things got restored to being predominantly sub-regional again, I'm sure that the Nottingham backdrop was resorted as the default choice of back-projection view for all East Midlands-only editions.

Since the 2015 set change, the East Midlands only gets either the Nottingham or the CGI gallery backdrops AFAIK (any rare mistakes notwithstanding).

I have always assumed that it is entirely intentional that the post-2015 city backdrops both feature a domed-roofed building in the furthest right of the three back-wall "windows" (Brum's Hall of Memories and Nottingham Town Hall, respectively). Not sure why this would be though.

I didn't even notice it was two years old.