The Legend that is Simon McCoy

Yes, absolutely. The Six and Nine were very structured and formulaic. There was never any real interaction or banter between the presenters in those days. Each presenter had set stories to deliver and that was that. Very few, if any, live interviews either back then. And if correspondents appeared live, they were heavily scripted and the "questions" were agreed in advance.

Rolling news is completely different - they really are co-presenters in the truest sense. They have to rely on each other in a fast paced, quite stressful environment. They also have to be able to interact with each other naturally during lighter stories and moments. Phil Hayton - much like Peter Sissons - was not really cut out for this and if his relationship with Kate Silverton wasn't great, you could understand why he decided to leave. Like I say, it's a pity he moved from BBC World - he used to present the 2000-0100 GMT evening shift on his own and was absolutely brilliant. He suited BBC World's rather formulaic, serious and stuffy style in the late 1990s/early 2000s, much like the One/Six/Nine in the 80s and early 90s.

Very different kettle of fish. The Six and Nine were more dual-presentation than co-presentation. Most links were single-headed, and the double-headed stuff was close to entirely scripted (and really just for the set-piece elements of the show). There's a world of difference between that and double-headed presentation of totally unscripted breaking news, where you really have to work as a team, and support each other.

Unlike many of the 90s One/Six/Nine era presenters, Philip worked very well in the breaking news scenarios of BBC World and BBC News 24 when he was single-heading, and he could definitely cope well with the demands of that very different role. From memory, both Andrew Harvey and Chris Lowe also made the transition well - and were great on News 24.

He seemed to work well alongside Anna Jones before Kate Silverton came in, who, IIIRC, was only brought in because Anna had left for Sky. He said in an interview that he and Jones, and Joanna Gosling before that, got along famously.

Hayton said to Silverton "I don't like you", or words to that effect. It was personal.

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We can't blame Simon McCoy for any of the above.............