Central West and BBC Midlands Thread

Strange - that didn't happen on DTT - the Inside Out trailer was show in full with no switches at all.

Nothing much happening on the programmes tonight, apart from the pretty standard report about the naughty people at Camp X-Ray which was so amazing it required Cath Mackie it come into the studio and tell us what it was all about AND required a different plasma graphic:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/jamesison/dtt/caps11/cap257.jpg

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/jamesison/dtt/caps11/cap259.jpg

LOOK!! It's special!!

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/jamesison/dtt/caps11/cap263.jpg


And good to see the graphics department are keeping busy - creating whole new slides with lots of "interesting" colours and fonts which look nothing like anything else you see. FAB!

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/jamesison/dtt/caps11/cap282.jpg

just a few bits and pieces to add.

pebble mill had and epic friday closing tonight. firstly nick filled for a while explaining that tonight was the end of the current DSAT service, new service soon, and there had been complaints about the existing setup. then 25 seconds of the wideshot with the headline bed going and then 10 seconds of a still caption (looked like the still on the plasma was cut to air). we were then treated to a politics show midlands trailer - and then we crashed into george alagiah who was reading the last story of the 6.55 update.

http://www.tvmercia.co.uk/upload/midlandstoday-wideshot.jpg

notice the wrong-ness about the caption.
http://www.tvmercia.co.uk/upload/midlandstoday-stillcaption.jpg

ive also grabbed some caps of a new central daytime show that has been running for a few weeks now. top to toe with denise welch is about womens fashion and stuff. today there was a whole feature on bra-maintenance - needless to say, i will never be machine washing my sports bras again, i'm hand washing with cool water from here on in!

http://www.tvmercia.co.uk/upload/toptotoe01.jpg

http://www.tvmercia.co.uk/upload/toptotoe02.jpg

and to round things off - anne diamond appeared on channel 5 yesterday on their "are you telepathic" show.

http://www.tvmercia.co.uk/upload/annediamond.jpg

i still say she was robbed on celeb big brother. its all one big anti midlands conspiracy.

What I don't understand about what Nick said is that if you can't see Midlands Today on satalite any more, then how are they going to give us 'further details' if the people who need the further details about their Midlands viewing are unable to watch it.

I must admit I missed Nick's spiel about the DSat service, because I was watching EMT, via the other channels option, to see what that was like.

Bit of WM news now.

Sally James off to a flying start yesterday, with her new Friday show, with guest Gemma Craven, who was appearing in Copacabana in one of the Brum theatres last week, plus the odd phone call from some guys called Carolgees & Tarrant(Never heard of them )

Next week, the special guest is someone who used to dive under the table & pretend to become a werewolf. Apparantly he became a Doctor Who too !

(Sylv McCoy, in case you were wondering, & I can't listen 'cos I'm back at work!)

Tonight's MT had Lorna 'BBC WM stand in presenter' Bailey on weather, but the most interesting thing was ' Sexy Specs' Suzanne Verdi !

I assume Suzanne normally wears contacts, & she's got a infection of some sort, which is why she's wearing them, unless someone knows different!

Noted in tonight's 'Evening Mail', Shabina's column now refers to her as a 'Midlands Today' presenter.

God help us !!

As stated by Westy - Suzanne was wearing glasses tonight - and it also gave her an excuse to do her best Jeremy Paxman impression. Midlands Today seem fond of these in the studio and "on the spot" interviews now:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/jamesison/caps-2/caps001/cap004.jpg

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/jamesison/caps-2/caps001/cap005.jpg

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/jamesison/caps-2/caps001/cap008.jpg


Now, although it's wrong - and you know it's wrong...it actually looks nice. They really do need to think about where they are moving those red panels...but as I said - it doesn't look too bad:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/jamesison/caps-2/caps001/cap021.jpg

rofl, as if its not bad enough reading shabina's column, but then to go and admit it ... well, i'm shocked. pure drivel i tell you.

anyway - central - had a feature about how beards are bad with an artist impression of how bob would look. methinks it puts 10 years on him.

http://www.tvmercia.co.uk/upload/240603--central01.jpg

http://www.tvmercia.co.uk/upload/240603--central02.jpg

and another 'new' (been running a few weeks now) series on central - about famous midlands food brands like cadburys, marmite, hp &c.

presented by tony francis they look at 1 brand per week - this week it was cadburys and chinny chin chin popped up.

http://www.tvmercia.co.uk/upload/240603--central-tasteforsuccess01.jpg

http://www.tvmercia.co.uk/upload/240603--central-tasteforsuccess02.jpg

and on midlands today, as westy pointed out, lorna is on the weather. it could mean shef is on her hols - if that is the case, either suzanne must co-present until shef returns, or it'll be interesting to see who pops up to co-present (bearing in mind suzanne has bad hay-fever)

and just *what* was lorna thinking wearing THOSE half mast trouser and THAT jacket?!?!

http://www.tvmercia.co.uk/upload/240603--bbcmids01.jpg

... and bbc midlands weather idol ...

http://www.tvmercia.co.uk/upload/240603--bbcmids02.jpg

tuesday morn, and kay makes a welcome return to our screens! reading the news as fab as ever, this performance certainly did raise a smile! i could tell by the way she was smiling this morning that she knew she was going global, and it is indeed what she had been working towards for 30 years. i feel it was partly in memory of alan towers.

her tan was nice too! not too dark, not too light, just kay

aah yes, its good to see kay back - she was on the system this morning wearing her "snowdrop white with pinstripe detail" jacket.

and needless to say - kay is now amazing audiences from lands end to berwick upon tweed and from oswestry to norwich - she really has wowed the english nation.

londoners watch kay enviously as they get stuck in traffic
http://www.tvmercia.co.uk/upload/kay-london01.jpg

and druids at stonehenge decide that the sun isn't all it was cracked upto be, and that worshipping kay is the way forward
http://www.tvmercia.co.uk/upload/kay-stonehenge.jpg

on MT today james mcdonald had a poke around the new bbc midlands building ...

http://www.tvmercia.co.uk/upload/250603--bbcmids01.jpg

http://www.tvmercia.co.uk/upload/250603--bbcmids02.jpg

.. where they have put deckchairs and corrugated iron in the reception ... why?

http://www.tvmercia.co.uk/upload/250603--bbcmids03.jpg

http://www.tvmercia.co.uk/upload/250603--bbcmids04.jpg

and a sneaky peek at how the rest of the complex looks (unless this bit was library footage) - and nick says spring 2004 - i don't believe him.

http://www.tvmercia.co.uk/upload/250603--bbcmids05.jpg

i miss sue from mt, as long as she wasnt forced out of presenting...

The Builders at the Mailbox are certainly very slow - the web cams of the BBC website haven't looked any different for weeks. The stack of cardboard boxes have been sitting there for ages - do they not have a skip?

At the weekend MT was presented by Sameena Ali-Khan but the other day I saw her doing the breakfast bulletins on EMT. Does she work for both? Also do any other presenters do this?