Granada Reports

I edited out 7 minutes of 'in other news' from the bulletin, which had a few main stories with features, a few more in brief segments and sport.

I disagree. It is fantastic to see Granada Reports paying an in depth tribute to Anne Kirkbride. It was sudden and everybody was shocked.

It is good to see Granada doing things like this rather than just a quick report.

It was a touch of the old style programme rather than ITV Generic.

You don't think it's basically self-regarding nonsense? To spend almost 20 minutes on the death of someone who had no impact on any of their viewers lives except appear on a TV show that comes from the same building.


If it was an important public figure I could understand it, in this case editorially it's a tough one to justify. I bet the BBC wouldn't get away with it as easily

It's not like they have any other outlet to do it in the schedule these days, is it? And given the positive reaction to it, I think it was justified.

Outlets for regional news are limited these days. ITV have plenty of opportunities during the rest of the schedule to pay tribute to her.

Yes, ITV have plenty of opportunities. But Granada as a region don't. This is a news story that affects Granada in many different ways, as a region and the former company associated with the show.

She probably had more of an impact on viewers than many "important public figures". One of the "facts" thrown out during the tribute was that more people watched her marry Ken than watches Charles marry Diana.

I think they got the balance right and you also have to think of the news agenda of the day - there wasn't anything close to fighting for the airtime. The runtime on the edited clips may seem significant but during the broadcast it didn't feel like 20 minutes had been devoted to it.

It doesn't affect 'the region' at all.

Yes it is relevant to the former company but thats what I mean by 'self regarding nonsense'. Its media naval gazing

Incidentally, I noticed stories about Anne Kirkbride popping up on the Facebook feed of my ITV regional news programme despite her not living or working in it!

Yes, and am I right in thinking it had significantly more 'likes' than any other article on the site ?

It was a story that dominated the print, television news and social media agenda Monday through Tuesday. Regional news is always an amplification of the national agenda where applicable and she was a national TV personality from the north west and had been for 40+ years. It was editorially justified. Yet you begrudge 20 minutes of regional airtime.

What's with the bitterness when its not even your region ?

More than any other article on Facebook... I doubt it.


If they're in it for the likes then it's basically my ITV cluttering up their Facebook feed with irrelevant clickbait


Is it? When the event has a connection to the region concerned then linking to national stories are fair enough but it wasn't.


As I said a few posts ago, the BBC wouldn't have got away with it so easily. There regional stories are routinely pulled because the national bulletin is doing it. To get them on air needs a very good alternative, local angle. Can you imagine the fuss if they devoted almost 20 minutes of BBC London News about the death of an EastEnders character?


Why do you think I'm bitter just because I am expressing an alternative opinion? What's wrong with providing a discussion rather than adding to the circlejerk?


I really don't care I assure you

Ultimately, Granada know their audience, and what their audience - not NWT's - will want to see.

Whenever I've seen other regional programmes (including the BBC's) attempt special one-story editions, more often than not the story is of little more interest to the average viewer than any other - a long-awaited court case verdict, or a commemorative event. They do it because they think they should and because other news outlets are leading on it - and they fill a bulletin with endless VTs (packaged days earlier) about the background to the story.

But this was Granada at its best, reacting on the day to a story of genuine interest to many of their viewers and covering it in their own way. And in my mind it can only be a positive thing when a news programme has the confidence to do that (and the freedom, especially in an era where other regions are hampered by pre-records and sub-opt timings).

(Off-topic but I'd also disagree with the view that BBC regions would pull nationally-covered stories without a good local angle - some of them have a terrible habit of covering stories identically and as if viewers haven't already heard it minutes earlier.)

They didn't dedicate 20 minutes, however they had an inane interview with Emilia Fox in the studio to plug Silent Witness with nothing more than a tenuous link to London.

Personally I think it's something GR would have done when it wasn't part of ITV News.