Paris Terror Attacks Coverage

I don't want to drag this thread off the topic in hand, but as an aside, how was this handled on News 24 does anyone know? Did they fill for the 5 mins until One and Two were ready to go to Sissons, or did they too fade to black? Or indeed did they continue with their own coverage and not go to Sissons (the latter I doubt).



Beslan school siege? Boxing Day Tsunami?

I think they were both after the 2004 rebrand. ITV did of course simulcast much of the war coverage but outside of that think it was more often the case of the news channel simulcasting special bulletins fronted by the main ITV News team on ITV1 rather than the otherway round. Indeed prior to 2004 I think John Suchet and perhaps Nicholas Owen were the only regular ITV News faces to present on the news channel, though only for an hour after the Lunchtime News IIRC. Worth remembering too it was still ITN branded until September 2002, though I think John Suchet had an hour long slot in the mornings in those days.

Sadly the thread from the time doesn't give too much info about the Queen Mothers coverage:
http://tvforum.uk/tvhome/queen-mother-33473/

I distinctly remember though watching BBC2 at the time and naturally hopping channels during that long interlude. I'm sure C4 were in fact first to break it, though it happened at such a time all three had either just aired or were about to air their weekend bulletins.


Getting back on topic and think Ben Brown is so much better anchoring on location than in the studio.

From memory, News 24 crossed to Peter Sissons but hadn't yet broken the news. I think (although maybe wrong) that the presenter on air was Maxine Mawhinney and she said something like 'we're joining Peter Sissons and viewers on BBC One for a special news report'.

I certainly remember the old beige/laminate floor era N6 set and Sissons going out on BBC News 24 complete with the old News 24 DOG and astons (although no ticker as they hadn't introduced one yet).

I'm switching between all three now.
For those who are interested, here's a summary of US networks have been handling their continuing coverage:
http://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/weekend-coverage-plans-for-paris-attacks/277480
http://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/networks-deploy-resources-to-paris-attack-coverage/277444

Queen Mother was Mary Nightingale on ITV.

Talking about dodgy transitions, there was the famous one recently "We interrupt this programme to cross over to President Zuma" which was terribly done.

It wasn't Maxine - it was Philip Hayton who was on News 24 at the time. I don't remember much about it but I do recall it being Phil Hayton.

Apologies, she was certainly on air that day. However the handover to Peter Sissons and description I gave was pretty much what happened.

The Peter Sissons announcement was very poorly written, I thought…

"This is BBC Television News. Buckingham Palace has just announced the death of the Queen Mother. In a statement the palace said the Queen Mother has died. BBC Television is broadcasting this special programme reporting the Queen Mother's death."

…which is essentially three different ways of saying the same thing!

There's an extract from Sissons' book on Mail Online documenting what happened that day. Peter said he wanted to write his own words but for whatever reason (I can't remember if he stated why) he was pretty much rushed into the studio and given his script there and then on air, which probably explains why he's stuttering and tripping over his words. It all came about because of the BBC's new relaxed approach to royal deaths after they thought it was unnecessary to make a "big thing" about one death when thousands had been killed a year earlier in New York.

This has gone slightly off topic. Am sure there is a Breaking News thread somewhere...

David Eades now anchoring solo from Studio E.

With Henry Clarke Price presenting some packages from the screens. I don't recall seeing him before - is he a regular face on World?