BBC Breakfast

Not that surprised - BBC Pres would almost always come off a live show on a manual transition rather than an automatic, so will hold for the end even if the shows runs over, rather than cutting away on an auto at a specific time. This is particularly the case for a very high profile event.

Surprised no one posted about the new EU referendum graphics this morning on Breakfast. Just goes to show how little interest there is in BBC Breakfast on this forum compared with the likes of Good Morning Britain.

You mistake lack of interest with the fawning of about 4 under 16s who get up early to watch GMB and have to post everything they see like they're announcing the second coming.

If you go back just one page, you'll see there's already been discussion about them.

OMG Breakfast just put interviews on a baggage self check in machine screen! UK first?

I read the GMB thread often and the comments are hardly praising it most of the time. BBC Breakfast must be doing something right as the comments here are hardly as scathing.

I think Breakfast has an established, successful formula and sticks to it. Consistency is one of their biggest strengths - presenters come and go, but the product is essentially the same.

That inevitably means there's less to talk about on here. But, whenever I tune into Good Morning Britain nowadays, I normally end up with either Piers Morgan applying huge amounts of personal bias to an interview, or tension (that's quite possibly artificial) between Piers and Susanna. So I know what I prefer to watch to set me up for the day.

Breakfast also has the commercial advantage of, well, no commercials, so when they copied GMTV and succeeded it was bound to make it tough for the programme on the other side that was exactly the same but had annoying competitions and adverts.

Continual relaunches haven't helped, although I still think the original Daybreak was a massively missed opportunity.

It'll still be a sad day when there's no ITV/C4/C5 competitor to Breakfast though.

No there probably is space for it, just the execution would have to be very close. Part of the reason the studio seems very small is that the back wall of screens sits quite a distance from the windows/back wall because of some pillars - that's what that weird curved column between screens 3 and 4 is there for. You could probably get a reasonably sized circle set to go between the pillars, like in N8, and add at least 1 metre to the width of the set. Any set in that alcove can go in at any angle as none of the three walls are door walls so you wouldn't be obstructing anything - thus a snug circular set could fit.

Also on an aside, it wouldn't necessarily have to be a curved set to fit in with the W1 style. Studio E and to a lesser extent C have got elements of a rectangular set which is something I think would be good for the more space-challenged regions.

At the moment it is unlikely, but maybe they'll do something for the Manchester Metro Mayor elections? But one of the advantages of the new 'series' of news sets is they'll probably be 'in date' and in line with London a lot longer than any of previous designs as not only will W1 not have the money for new sets, but due to the lack of any TC7/10/11 to decamp to it'll be an absolute arse-ache putting in any new sets. This will hopefully mean that we won't see new regional sets being put in just months before a national rebrand, like that horrible Midlands Today set.

Geek alert: The latter half of Fridays programme might contain nice things...

Look out for some special titles and stings for the @BBCBreakfast #EUAsk debate. BBC One and 5Live from 8.30am on Friday!

— James Mobbs (@jamesmobbs) May 25, 2016

Although I agree no new news sets would be on the horizons (though they are now 4 years old) I don't think a refit would be anymore complex than a TV Centre. They'd just have to rejig who used what to free up whichever studio they're refurbishing at the time, and based on recent revamps they'd be happy enough to unrole it in phases so it's not like they'd have to revamp all studios in one go.

I imagine they could do some of the shows at NBH from an insert studio when they have no guests - or if they do throw them in a different one and do a two box. OR what about Milbank?

Things could be juggled to take a studio out for a while if needed, remember they managed everything before Studio D was commissioned. So if London moves back to A (and F for short bulletins) that gives them D as a spare studio to decamp other services to. There is also a period over Christmas when the programmes that use B are off air, which could give a window for a cosmetic set change.

The ballache is more likely the amount of work required to set Mosart up with the right camera angles and moves and to pilot it. Striking and rebuilding the set is pretty trivial of there are no tech updates going on with it.