Luisa Baldini

She isn't one of the BBC's top correspondents, but that Italian heritage has paid off for her with the pope's death. She must be one of the few Italian speakers on their books, there's no way she would have been given such a big story otherwise.

I saw her on Breakfast doing short interviews in Italian with punters in the queues and translating it on the fly and meant to mention it here, seemed a little strange to be honest

Why? Don't you like hearing people speak other languages on the TV? Italian is a beautiful language and lovely to hear on the bottomless pit of dyabolicism that is BBC Breakfast.

Nothing against other languages as such, it was just strange because I'm more used to hearing that kind of piece done as part of a pre-recorded package where you hear a couple of seconds of the interviewee, then they fade behind the translation.

I agree, it was refreshing to hear. I recall a similar report by Caroline Hawley doing a live interview in Arabic with some pupils in a Baghdad school last year.

I think it's great that they have reporters that can ask questions in a foreign language and translate the response on a live broadcast.

Not only did it sound good but it also made Luisa look impressive because she could just walk up to a person in the middle of a foreign country, communicate with them and then translate it. All though not overly difficult if you know the language, it still appeared much better than what anyone else has ever done.

Sky News has Barbera Serra who is Italian and played a major part in their coverage of the Popes death

She reminds me of a female Freddie Mercury. Must be the teeth...

http://skynewscentre.co.uk/images/barbaraserra/1010003429_30.jpg http://skynewscentre.co.uk/images/barbaraserra/barbaraserra.jpg

Keep smiling, Barbs, the camera loves you. Like you obviously do, too!

Yeah, during China Week there was a BBC reporter/presenter (don't remember her name) who was very fluent in Chinese.

I believe you are referring to BBC News 24 presenter Carrie Gracie who was the BBC's Beijing Correspondent from 1991-98. She is fluent in Mandarin. The BBC's current correspondents in China - Louisa Lim and Rupert Wingfield Hayes - are also fluent in the language.

Is that the same presenter who popped up reading the 2225 BBC London News bulletins in the Ten a while back - she had quite a thick accent?