BBC Breakfast

Oh FFS.

Stuart, I know how long the flight part takes. Its an hour from Edinburgh too.

Why are you spectacularly ignoring the salient point? Airports. Not quick.

I'll repeat the question - when did your last journey which includes a 1 hour flight get done in less than 3?

I hadn't seen that particular comment.



Check in for domestic flights is minimal. I've turned up at Gatwick 10 minutes before a flight and still got on it.

I've never been on a domestic flight that hasn't taken less than its scheduled time, and I used to get at least 4 a month.

I see. Who were the pilots, the Wright brothers?

Since 9/11 there is the trifling matter of security. Domestic check ins since 2001 are 90 minutes ahead of flight time.

I can honest say I have no idea what the second paragraph is supposed to mean.

"..never been on a domestic flight that hasn't taken less than its scheduled time". You mean they take the amount of time they are supposed to take? What?

It's quite easy to understand: if scheduled journey time for the flight is 1 hour, in my experience they have always taken less than an hour.

The last flight I caught from Manchester (last July) was still allowing check-in when I arrived, that was 35 minutes before departure.

Gavin, you're obviously going to be pedantic and disagree with every point I make.

The fact remains, Manchester is not the other side of the planet. If people want free publicity on the BBC, then they'll be prepared to make the trip: whether it takes an hour or three. It's not an arduous journey and I'm sure they'd do more than one engagement while in the area.

To be fair Gav, Flybe state their domestic check in times are only 20 minutes if you're not checking in luggage [source].

Having said that, though, I completely agree with you that it's a long time to be travelling and a long way to go for one interview. The difference is those who are travelling from Scotland or other parts of the UK to London often schedule several interviews, both on screen and off, for the limited time they're in London which makes it worth it. It's different if you're going to be on for, say, an hour or as a guest on something such as Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, but not a six minute chat (often including trailers if for a film) on Breakfast at 8am!


On another point, how do they go about relocating something such as a daily, four-hour television programme? Presumably the production team could (theoretically, though with some difficulty I'd imagine) move even weeks before or after presentation teams, but would the BBC need to hire temps/ cascade others from the NC and other departments to cover should their staff be moving?

Then again if the production workers and crew quit instead of moving then that could all be different, as well as if the Salford studios provide the crew.


And what would/will happen to weekends? Would Breakfast come from Salford seven days a week - much more expensive than at present - or would Breakfast continue to be crewed by (and presumably rely on editorial from) the News Channel? Or would "Breakfast" disappear at weekends and bank holidays?


And (again) what will happen to Breakfast's reporters and even presenters such as Mike Bushill or Simon Jack? Surely business news can't come from Salford - I mean come on. Even though a lot of business interviews are down the line, a lot are done in studio and I can't imagine there being that many business and finance analysts in Salford to speak to Simon! Plus of course Simon stays on on the NC, and Mike does too at weekends. And Susanna provides news through the Andrew Marr Show. And it's relief presenters all now come from the News Channel (with the exceptions of Sonia Deol, Naga Munchetty and Noel Thompson).

All seems such a mess.

To be fair Stuart the BBC sends quite a lot of its own actors, writers and broadcasters on to represent BBC programming - I'm guessing it's quite expensive to send those people to Salford every time, given the huge inconvenience to them.

£120 for a return flight isn't beyond my pocket, so I'm sure it's within the BBC's budget (or any celebrity). That was the cost of the first flight I could find for tomorrow morning).

Yes but add in hotels to meet the needs of high-profile actors, car journeys, other expenses and, quite possibly, fees and it's a little more than that.

Why the need for a hotel?

If someone catches the 06:30 BA flight from Heathrow they arrive at Manchester Airport at 07:30.

That gives them an hour to get out of the airport and be driven the 10 miles to MediaCity in time to appear on the programme for the 'fluffy bits' after 8:30.

Yes; I was wondering about weekends too; over the past few years they have worked hard on the weekend show. When Breakfast was first launched weekend shows were effectively N24 bulletins but with the Breakfast titles. They have moved towards closer integration between weekdays and weekends (partly through shifting the weather to :15 and :45, and the loss of the separate newsreader on weekdays help); obviously weekdays and weekends have shared a backdrop since the last relaunch.

It would be a retrograde step to have a totally different feel to Brekkie at the weekends.

I guess we'll get more appearance from folk with BBC Sport and 5 Live then, but when it comes to the BBC's own productions apart from A Question of Sport I'm not sure a huge amount is made in the area (by the BBC itself at least). Most drama for example seems to be made in Bristol or Cardiff now, whilst any entertainment formats not made in London have been shipped off to Glasgow.

The cost of just hopping up to Manchester for an interview is irrelevant, it's the matter of being able to fit it into their schedule, and having the inclination to do so - of which there is little.

If a Hollywood A-lister flies in for a premiere (and they've had some on Breakfast), they come to London, and often London only. All media outlets are there and those that aren't, come to them. They come in for one day, they do the interviews, promotional tour etc, appear for the premiere - and off they go.

So, where will they go ? Along to the Daybreak studio. What about all those Strictly evictees, they're London based. What about all those political guests ? Yes down the lines are fine to a point, but it loses the imediacy.

I think the majority are in favour of moving programmes out into the regions, but it has to be the right show. This one clearly isn't.