BBC News: Presenters & Rotas

with bbc english regions and bbc news now under the same management, is it not inevitable that more of this will happen? and is it not an appropriate use of the licence fee for bbc news to use one of the many dozens of presenters already on its books to cover on the news channel?

Let's face it, we are all whingers here on TVF. We are never satisfied with whomever appears on the News Channel. But let's not forget that in the past, the channel has had a whole raft of former "regional" presenters and it would be foolish to say that they were all naff!

Some of them may have taken some time to get to grips with the pace of rolling news. But they are not so bad that they could be described as "unwatchable". I am bemused by some of you consider Sue Thearle to be dire? What do we expect of a newsreader exactly? She can read the auto-cue after all.

And let's not forget the likes of Roger Finn, Mike Embley, Susan Osman (yes, Susan Osman), John Nicolson, Valerie Sanderson, Brenda Paterson, David Robertson, Gwennan Edwards, Maxine Mahwhinney, Martine Dennis, Philip Hayton, Andrew Harvey, Liz Pike, Emily Maitlis and countless others all came from the regional newsrooms. They are all accomplished newsreaders and Geoff is the same. Give him a few weeks, and he'll be ok with the rolling news stuff. After all, many he's had many years in front of the camera. He does know what he's doing!

"Scraping the barrel" is a bit of a strong statement, IMO. But then, we're all entitled to our opinions I guess.

Roger Finn is still at BBC South isn't he?

All this thread does is shine a light on the "credibility" issues of certain forumers.

This notion of being "excellent on your first attempt" on a 24 hour new channel is preposterous.

I'd like to know how some of the previous moaners got on when they first attempted to fill a KFC bucket with chicken.

Oh yes. I went there.

Huw is back at last, not looking particularly tanned it has to be said.

Will Geoff be on again tonight, or again this week?

God Nicholas Owen is terrible. He's doing the Ten news hour and was so rude to Huw during the handover, just said thanks Huw and went on to go thru the papers on his own ignoring Huw.

I just hate his fluffy bumbling style and think ITN were probably glad to get rid of him.

Just for curiosity, does anyone know who'll be presenting World News America tonight?

I'd have thought the presenter themselves and the production team would have an idea.

Thank you for your sarcasm, yet again. Perhaps I should be more specific for you, anyone on the forum. In any case, Sonia Smith is doing it again today.

well if you already knew, why did you ask?

It's ironic that Nicholas Owen was anchoring the 10.30-12.30 shift. He and Sonia Smith (nee Ruseler) anchored the ITN Lunchtime News together for 3 or 4 years in the 1990s. I seem to recall a story (and I think there's a clip out there somewhere!) of him reaching under the desk to get his umbrella but he grabbed her leg instead. She jumped with surprise. It had something to do with story they were covering at the time - the poor British weather!