The NEW Central West and BBC Midlands thread

On the BBC, there is no South Midlands. You're thinking of ITV Central.

A fair approximation: The western half of the Central News (South) area falls into BBC Midlands Today territory. And the eastern half of the Central News (South) area falls into BBC South Today territory (plus Oxfordshire sub-opt).

Yes, the pre-1991 BBC Midlands area (i.e. as it was before East Midlands Today existed) was served by a single programme today. But that programme was from Nottingham, not Birmingham - so not quite like old times.

The title sequence was the usual current EMT titles in every way except one - the usual LDN-style red background at the end of the sequence had just "Midlands Today" written on it, not "East Midlands Today".

Tomorrow's teatime bulletin will be the same.

East Midlands viewers must have been confused, as they're unlikely to know about the Mill/Mailbox move.

EDIT: I wonder... if/when the BBC ever create a "BBC South Midlands" region, mirroring CNsouth's coverage area, will the Brum show be renamed " West Midlands Today"?

Surely pre-1991 it came from Pebble Mill?

Yes it indeed it did - but there was a 5-7 min East Midlands sub-opt from Nottingham in the middle of the main Midlands Today programme. This was done from a tiny newsroom and studio based above offices used by the probation service.

By "that programme", I meant the Saturday 23rd October 2004 teatime programme. I was not suggesting that pre-1991 Midlands Today came from Nottingham.

Not a lot I could add to what's already been said, plus I didn't see any bullys today(naughty me!), because I've got another new toy to play with, involving reducing the amount of videos I have(no more clues!), so I'm gonna be busy for the next few years, transfering the Westy 2 audio & video archive to digital format.

However I did catch Sally James & Daz Hale this morning, after 8am, when they interviewed Nick about his book. (Poor Daz was suffering with his voice today, & I've had the same problem particulary Tuesday & Wednesday. You try placing orders for booze with a croak, but like a trooper I soldiered on, like my boss did !)

The competition was 'Where did Nick & Anne first present together?' (Answer later!)
Several wrong answers followed.

The winner got a signed copy of his book.

Nick was also signing in Stratford upon Avon today, followed by him going to Hull(Calm down Katherine !) to watch the footy, as Luton try to revive their run of decent results, after Walsall suprisingly ended it the other day(About b***dy time IMO Mr Merson !)

Anyone hear Gaunt?

Nuff said!

(Answer was, according to Nick, 'Central' , after answers of 'ATV' & 'TVam' ! )

Could today's program have been prerecorded, and then played out by the Mailbox, with people in the East Midlands getting their normal program. East Midlands Today seems very professional - I particularly liked the scrolling sports graphics.

Yes... i watched it on sky... a very good show. Does anyone have screengrabs of the new midlands today titles. A small clip is shown in the trailer with a man standing outside the bullring. Does any insiders have another capture of the titles to give us a taster...

that would have meant journos at bbc mids editing enough packages and writing scripts to fill a normal edition - not to mention creating extra work for the bods at bbc east midlands.

while they're in the process of moving work stations across town etc., i guess it made sense to keep things as simple as possible and concentrate on mondays show.

No, because the Mailbox can't broadcast anything yet, if it could play out a tape to air it could do a live programme.

At a push they could have played out a recording of a bulletin for the west from Nottingham at the same time as they broadcast a normal east mids programme. But technically it would have been difficult in the absense of a regional centre in Birmingham and probably not worth it for weekend bulletins

Well, the programme contained stories from both regions, so it's unlikely. If it was specially pre-recorded for the (west) Midlands only, then it wouldn't have contained EM stories, surely?

One final tour of Pebble Mill, anyone?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/birmingham/goodbye_pebblemill/final_tour.shtml

No, it wasn't shown in the East Midlands. They were concentrating on the aftermath of the shooting and public outcry in Nottingham.