The NEW Central West and BBC Midlands thread

Quite strange lighting on Midlands Today, and the big screen looked a bit odd as well.

les ross was a WM scab - covering for goldbergs breakfast show, heard danny kelly on this afternoon and midlands at westminster *star* pat burns was the midlands today scab. he presented tonight - with the projection screen looking rather poor and the lighting was odd.

how convenient that the shots of the picket line showed about 4 people, while the shots on central showed rather alot more. no weather tonight either. rather messy end to the bulletin with the closing music starting, only to be cut off, and bbc mids missed the opt back, we heard duncan, altho we were still looking at the midlands today slide.

To add:

Mollie Green was on, seemed fairly normal(well as normal as Mollie can be !. Loved the braying camel !

Doolan said Friday/yesterday, that he was supposed to be on, cos he mentioned having Margeret Thrower on at 11.

Franksy was on.

At 7pm, Keith Middleton is on, also featuring a link to Monmore Green speedway in Wolverhampton! Normally it's Butler, but the football seasons finished, so whether TB was supposed to be on, or maybe Daz Haleinstead, I dunno.

Jimmy Franks is doing the WM Late Show , & Radio Nottingham is pumping out Rob Underwood to other stations from 9pm, as per Radio Shropshire.

At 9pm & 10pm , caught 'BBC Local Radio News with Alison Ford'.

No Midlands mention AFAIK.

Where's that coming from then?

Just remembered.

There's a 'before & after' picture of Sally James re plastic surgery, in tonight's Express & Star!

I suppose the Tiswas Online guys are already on the case though!

(Italics - Updated after 10pm!)

some piccies of todays strike

michele - bbc midlands health correspondent
http://www.andrew986.clara.co.uk/strike1.jpg

rather cheeky undercover footage of the deserted newsroom
http://www.andrew986.clara.co.uk/strike2.jpg

central reporter steve keeling - mr NUJ at central
http://www.andrew986.clara.co.uk/strike3.jpg

http://www.andrew986.clara.co.uk/strike4.jpg

oh dear - screens not working
http://www.andrew986.clara.co.uk/strike5.jpg

http://www.andrew986.clara.co.uk/strike6.jpg

giles and peter - correspondents
http://www.andrew986.clara.co.uk/strike7.jpg

http://www.andrew986.clara.co.uk/strike8.jpg

rather long awkward close. no closing wideshot either
http://www.andrew986.clara.co.uk/strike9.jpg

heres a video of the start - strike report and close
BBC MIDLANDS STRIKE

Interesting presenting style on the late bulletin tonight. Patrick sat on a stool by the plasmas on the side of the studio, with the camera looking backwards towards the sport screen. Was something happening in the newsrom that we didn't want to see?

lol, either they cant work out how to fix the main screen, or the emptiness of the newsroom was a bit embarrassing. if they wanted minimum effort and a less contentious backdrop, they could have sat at the camera position overlooking the canal. unless the lighting wasn’t put back after the politics show on sunday.

anyway - here's pat on his stool

http://www.andrew986.clara.co.uk/strike10.jpg

http://www.andrew986.clara.co.uk/strike10.jpg

When Patrick was sitting there was the autocue on the camera not working, as he was looking off screen, to the right of the camera then speaking.
Thank god its only short bulletins, the man sucks the life out of anything, What them things from Harry Potter called? Well he's like one of them, boring as hell!
Nice exit bed mind, full thing before Andy Duncan cut it off at 6.30

Suzanne was back this lunch, with the usual I've been on sugar look, bless her!

probably looking at his floor manager.

anyway - new trailer this lunchtime - although i first spotted it on sunday. its not quite up to "what does midlands today mean to you" or "your area" standards - but still, its local so its good.

http://www.andrew986.clara.co.uk/mt-nicktrailer01.jpg

http://www.andrew986.clara.co.uk/mt-nicktrailer02.jpg

http://www.andrew986.clara.co.uk/mt-nicktrailer03.jpg

http://www.andrew986.clara.co.uk/mt-nicktrailer04.jpg

http://www.andrew986.clara.co.uk/mt-nicktrailer05.jpg

http://www.andrew986.clara.co.uk/mt-nicktrailer03.jpg

Sorry can't resist.....

"Are you thinking what we're thinking?"

another NEW trailer this evening, with the voice over by bbc midands SUPERSTAR christopher timothy

http://www.andrew986.clara.co.uk/mt-suztrailer01.jpg

http://www.andrew986.clara.co.uk/mt-suztrailer02.jpg

http://www.andrew986.clara.co.uk/mt-suztrailer03.jpg

http://www.andrew986.clara.co.uk/mt-suztrailer04.jpg

http://www.andrew986.clara.co.uk/mt-suztrailer05.jpg

I spotted WM's John Platt on the picket line in the Central News report!

Saw the new trailer with Suzanne this evening and the "I've been on sugar, again" look made an appearance; Fantastic!

Is there any more news on the proposed plans for BBC Testing of new regional TV in certain areas on the W.Midlands? I'll be quite interested to see who takes BBC Shropshire - apparently theres been a lot of in-fighting at BBC Radio Shropshire.