Bradby at Ten

For those who have not seen it, here is a bit of Julie's presenting from tonight:

I always feel the end of the programme is missing that epic jib shot by MattF. They have a jib for goodness sake, wish they would use it!

I was tempted back to watch NaT again tonight to see whether Julie Etchingham coped better with the new editorial direction of the programme.

Apart from the faux pas of Rohit Kachroo calling her 'Julia' at the start of their discussion, I didn't see many problems with the links in the studio.

She introduced a filmed report of her own on a Nigerian story, which was unusual, but at least it didn't try to offer an opinion: it was of the usually impartial high standard ITN produce.

Is there really a need to perch sideways at the desk in a different direction when reading some stories? The bland empty virtual gallery is there in the shot, the only difference if which side of her grey chair we end up seeing.

I felt informed this evening, and not patronised. Etchingham is clearly better at this than Bradby.

EDIT: I also miss the "Thanks for watching", which was a legacy from the Trevor McDonald era.

Stuart - you are so right. Julie Etchingham is in a completely different league to Bradby. She wants to inform the listener in an impartial way and is a true professional and perhaps the very best newscaster on British Television. Bradby is a very different and seems to want to want to make himself the reason for watching rather than the news. After years enjoying News at Ten, I Think time to switch to the BBC except when Julie presents. I wouldn't be surprised if Bradby's tenure at the helm of News at Ten is quite short lived. His optionated arrogance is not appropriate for a presenter of a prime time news bulletin and leopards don't change their spots.

When you see Julie Etchingham read the news, it really does make you wonder what on earth they are thinking with their new direction, roll on the return of The Agenda, that'll be one less night.

It was the most baffling of all the changes announced to accomodate Tom Bradby - demoting not only their best newscaster but arguably the best newscaster on TV.

Now rather than virtually every night next week she's hosting the short Sunday bulletins and the late night Wednesday bulletin. Otherwise for the next fortnight it's Tom, with Rageh debuting on the 30th October.

Especially since if you watch the BBC, it's always the exact shots over and over again because of the robotic camera railings. It really looks nice during a long close with the music.

I think it's baffling to accomodate any one "star" newsreader in this way.

John Craven's Newsround being the obvious exception, of course.

Watch 1:28-1:29 - that wide camera shot is pre-recorded, because Julie is looking down for the wideshot but looking directly at the camera in the next vision. I thought those things were typically live?



Also, why is the voiceover saying "This is ITV News at Ten" - isn't it the ITV News at Ten?

The voiceover changed in 2013 and removed the 'the'.

Yes, they usually are but I think it just depends on how many camera operators there are on the floor. I know some of the cameras are controlled from the gallery but pushed into place by someone on the studio floor. If there is only 1 camera op and they are wanting a nice opening/closing studio shot then probably best to pre-record as the camera operator will be manually controlling the anchor shot as Julie is more likely to move about etc.

In regards to the VO I am not entirely sure, it has said the same thing since Monday. It would be best if it said 'News At Ten' if that's what they are wanting to call it.