BBC Points West - best regional news programme or what?

I think that Look East's set (the one in Norwich) is very poor indeed. The backdrop is now very dated and the blurred projection screens - even the weather screen, are just awful... and the studio is so small and seems very cramped and impractical. The thing is they moved into their new building in 2001, so why did they not arrange for their master studio to be spacious - rather than a broom cupboard.

I notice the Close-up which comes from Cambridge have changed the backdrop from a shot of Kings College in Cambridge to a seemingly 'Live' shot of their newsroom which actually looks much more professional.

It deff needs a completely new set now - a desk that size isnt needed. I disagree with you I miss the shot of Cambridge always nice to see on a summers evening. I don't understand why they blurred the image of the Forum in the first place.

Its got awful damage to it really. I just doesn't show up on the television. The floor has black marks on it, and the raised bit with the two red sofas is awful!

I wish they would make more use of this part of the set at least it is modern looking. If you only watch Breakfast and the update after News at 10 then all you see is a very tight shot of the red sofa with a moving shot of Bristol Centre with the BBC news swirls on a projection screen- all looks very 1980's to me!

Did anyone notice that Points west were using a much wider shot of the region on the weather map this weekend, it was also more tilited as well and thus showed west Wales and the Plymouth areas behind the presenter.

The map to the North West weather seemed different today aswell, but that was mainly because it was coming from London with Laura Tobin, so unless she appeared on other Regions aswell, that's probably why.

I am told this is because their weekend and breakfast weather presenter, Ian Fergusson, likes to show more of West Somerset for viewers living there, and this is usually not possible when presenting using their green-screen weather set, because the presenter tends to stand in front of Exmoor, Porlock etc if using the 'standard' map. Also, he includes sea conditions in all his forecasts (sea state, temperature and so on) and so uses a map that shows more of the coastal waters around the West Country.

fake wood floor like on gmtv when they use the green screen

That's vinyl on PW. GMTV's is digital (CG)

I'm reliably told, by a radio journo who worked there until 2007, that it's actually specially hand-painted to look like wood flooring and was done back in about 2005 by a specialist contractor; it's certainly not vinyl or laminate. Apparently it took quite a time to complete and they moved out of the studio for a while to get it all finished.

Yes, it's painted and ISTR they had a good three weeks or so presenting from the newsroom while the floor was relaid and painted and the set was moved and relit. In that set's first incarnation the floor was gloss black (some Forumers may remember it was a radically different set to the Lambie-Nairn design all BBC news studios had at the time). The studio floor was the original Studio floor from the 60s and the gloss paint did nothing at all for it; it became very spongey and was pitted within weeks making camera tracks rather difficult. IMO the set still looks extremely good.

Ok, that confirms what I had heard (about it being painted), thanks!
I saw the Politics Show today (Sunday 12th) on BBC West (the Points West area) and see that they had a local weather slot presented by Ian Fergusson towards the end of the programme, which was a surprise to me. Two questions from this arise,

(1) Are other BBC regions also including local weather in the Politics Show?? and
(2) Ian Fergusson was without a tie, like David Garmston, the guy who presents the Politics Show in this region. Does anyone know if the BBC now has a rule that weathermen are to 'dress down' at weekends? I've noticed that they often have no ties (sometimes unshaven also, like Thomas Schafernaker a lot lately!!) on BBC News Channel at weekends (Ian Fergusson seems to have switched to this style at weekends too, which makes me think it's a rule being enforced by BBC powers in the local weather studios too??)

Thanks for thoughts. BBC Dumbing down for the masses (or weathermen not bothered to wear ties??lol)