Meridian TV/BBC South East

Full Name? her Parents must of been on LSD when they thought of a name for her,mind you on many forms that you fill in you could save time and leave the name bit blank.

Back to MT
great South edition tonight, cock up with the camera angles for the weather chat, and the report on the yatchs did not come so we had a extended weather chat with the 'smooth' Martyn Davis.

Carolyn, Fred, Belvers and the 'smooth housewives favorite' presided tonight.

Meanwhile on Meridian East they had their problems. Helen James fluffed her lines repeatedly and kept trying to read Ian axton's lines.

The link to Sports girl Sarah Saunders failed so they had to do the sports stories themselves.

They always rely on the weatherman/girl for a chat incase any VT's cockup.

SE: Phil Hornby still reads the news like a schoolboy! However he always manages a comic view when things fail throughout the evening. Unlike South East Today.

How long has Helen James been in the East, she's always presented on a Friday here in the West of the region.

At a guess, since the move she's been one of the ones that switches from one edition to another as and when needed. Ian Axton does the same thing I believe and no doubt theyre are others who do too.

I've seen Helen on Meridian E a few times in the last couple of months. She's generally the first stand in if Charlotte Hawkins is off.

Talking of which Phil and Lottie have been away a lot recently, I dont think it can all be holidays. Other programmes perhaps ?

Don't like that Ian Axton. Comes across as a real know-it-all. Why can't they get that programme sorted out. It seems every Tom, Dick and Harry now reads the news at Meridian and some of the people they have on in the morning during GMTV (no female names mentioned) can't even pronounce the words correctly. Standards dear boy, Standards!!!

Great to see Bev and Geoff back on South East Today, however things have moved on a bit in their absence I feel.

How?

So now that two more sub-opts have appeared on Sky, can someone explain the differences?!

Meridian South is the Fred Dineage/Debbie Thrower combo.
Meridian South East broadcasts to... where exactly? Kent? East Sussex
Meridian East is Kent too - the same programme as SE but different adverts?
And Meridian North - is that meant to be Thames Valley?

I'm sure Meridian SE and E were the same yesterday and that Meridian N was showing the Meridian S news...

Thanking you in advance!

Meridian North is the Thames Valley region, which originally had a news studio in Newbury, then came from a second studio in Northam.
Meridian South is the Southampton based variant, which was originally from Northam.
Meridian South East or East will be the Maidstone variant, which originally came from TVS Maidstone studios, then moved to New Hythe based studios.

There are 4 sub-regions, but only 3 news programmes. How the South East, South and East are split for News and adverts I'm not clear on, but two of the regions will carry the same local news programmes, but different adverts I would expect.

Archive footage last night on Meridian Tonight for ITV50 (even though Southern TV started in 1958!), featuring Mike Field on Scene South East ( Southern News programme broadcast from Dover). Also footage of the final evening of Southern from 1981. Showed the presenters all on stage fading into darkness and the Southern star blending into the night sky! Oh they don't do it like that anymore. I'm sure if/when Meridian finishes, it won't be an emotional affair -times change.

Looking forward to more from the TVS era.