....5 News all had live coverage of the coffin being moved between locations, with the 5 News set moodily lit and Kirsty - shock horror - actually sitting behind the desk.
From what Meldrum says, at the time BBC1 had crossed to BBC World and ITN had interrupted programming on ITV and Channel 4, Channel 5 were showing a cheap quiz show.
By 6am (after the death was announced), they were showing cartoons. At around 6:30 they finally realised that it might not actually be very appropriate, and switched to an ident on loop with some sombre music in the background. Finally Kirsty popped up (sat behind the desk) to tell us that Diana had died - nearly 90 minutes after ITN had started and 5 hours after the BBC had.
Also during the funeral itself, I remember Bloomberg and MSNBC's coverage often having a massive Sky News DOG in the corner (minus the clock). CNN would have been taking ITN.
and iirc L!VE tv (i mean who would turn to live tv on such an occasion!) were carrying ITN's coverage complete with the ITN dog
My American friend, albeit a bit slow said that CNN was taking Sky News' coverage, i assume this was due to ITN not starting coverage til late after BBC and Sky had.
On the day of her death, did ITV show any normal programming?
Not until Coronation Street at 19:30 hrs ISTR.
On the funeral day, I was in Amsterdam. That evening (about 22:00hrs) I flicked through all the channels available on the hotel room TV. Almost all (and you get a lot of neighbouring countries' TV there) were showing highlights of the funeral.
From memory, it was a BBC national service on most networks, including local radio, until around 9am(I found out later).
I remember waking up around 930am on the Sunday & flicking Doolan on WM. I remember him talking to the likes of Nick Owen(before he joined Midlands Today ISTR).
Doolan continued until 2pm, rather than 12pm & gradually the BBC Midlands network joined together(I remember Stuart Linnell id'ing both WM & Radio Lincolnshire at 5pm!).
Alex Trellinski(before he started doing the weekday BBC Midlands Late Show) looked after the special late evening show on the Sunday.(At the time Gordon Astley was doing the weekday Late Show, but he was away at the time, so Lee Stone was sitting in for him then)
I woke up about 2.30 that morning and couldn't get back to sleep, so went downstairs, turned the TV on and found Nik Gowing talking to Stephen Jessel. IIRC they also had talking head James Whittaker on as well.
I remember cringing when GMTV took over at 6 and having to deal with Fiona Phillips telling us what had happened - thank god we had Nik Gowing and Martyn Lewis (from 6.30) on the BBC.
Tim Willcox was on duty on ITV "joining us from the newsroom..." from 9.25 when ITN took over from GMTV - I think he was doing reaction-from-around-the-world stories.
And before Channel 4 could get Jon Snow on air, they'd switched to editions from 'The Art of Landscape', which I don't think they'd broadcast for several years. IIRC, Channel 5 had just gone to a low-key station logo with music.
From memory, it was a BBC national service on most networks, including local radio, until around 9am(I found out later).
I remember waking up around 930am on the Sunday & flicking Doolan on WM. I remember him talking to the likes of Nick Owen(before he joined Midlands Today ISTR).
Doolan continued until 2pm, rather than 12pm & gradually the BBC Midlands network joined together(I remember Stuart Linnell id'ing both WM & Radio Lincolnshire at 5pm!).
Alex Trellinski(before he started doing the weekday BBC Midlands Late Show) looked after the special late evening show on the Sunday.(At the time Gordon Astley was doing the weekday Late Show, but he was away at the time, so Lee Stone was sitting in for him then)
Basically everybody phoned up & talked & talked.
Radio Five broke the News overnight. If I remember correctly in the Patti Caldwell show. Paul Reynolds was on air most of the night as a presenters friend. At 5am Radio Four came on an hour early and led a combined service which went out on all newtworks and Local Radio stations except for radio 1.
Not sure how long Radio2 and 3 stayed with it, but Radio Four went its own way at 0930 for, I think, the morning service, but rejoined Radio Five at 1000.
Because Radios Four and Five simulcasted throught the day there were a number of unusual combinations. James Naughite and I think Peter Allen were on at 5am. At 10 it was Alan Robb from 5 and Charlie Lee Potter from PM. Both networks took The World This Weekend at 1.
Does anyone know the presenter line up that day for Sky News. I know Martin Stanford broke the news of her death...but how long did he stay on for? I seem to remember Lisa Aziz presenting at around half ten that morning (when I found out about it), could be wrong though.
Radio Five broke the News overnight. If I remember correctly in the Patti Caldwell show. Paul Reynolds was on air most of the night as a presenters friend. At 5am Radio Four came on an hour early and led a combined service which went out on all newtworks and Local Radio stations except for radio 1.
Not sure how long Radio2 and 3 stayed with it, but Radio Four went its own way at 0930 for, I think, the morning service, but rejoined Radio Five at 1000.
Because Radios Four and Five simulcasted throught the day there were a number of unusual combinations. James Naughite and I think Peter Allen were on at 5am. At 10 it was Alan Robb from 5 and Charlie Lee Potter from PM. Both networks took The World This Weekend at 1.
I've got a copy of the 'We Interrupt This Programme' CD that has excerpts from the first announcement of the accident, the unofficial announcement of her death (by Paul Reynolds) and Andrew Crawford reading the official announcement (introduced by James Naughtie) at 5.20am.
That week, good old Calendar news were pretty much the only programme to play any form of music or jingle on Yorkshire TV. It would go from ITV's National Weather static slide (as I remember it it was something like a dead tree in a post-apocolyptic landscape), immediately into Calendar's perky jingle and Krista's fake orangeness.
Somebody mentioned torrential rain in South Yorkshire. It was so bad there was a big landslide which derailed a passing train near Barnsley, but of course barely got a mention even on Look North.
A very surreal time, and presentation on TV which is unlikely to be repeated.