Although I'm not from London, I can total agree on the familiarity issue. I watch North East Tonight and I know 9 times out of 10 it's going to be Pam and Ian or if their off one of the 'senior' Correspondents like Kenny Toal or Rachel Bullock and that's on very rare occasions. In London you regularly get a mix of Nina, Faye, Charlene, Luczeria, Ben, Natasha who present quite regularly. I've always said they should have a 'London' team and a the moment every bulletin bar the 6pm (and some late editions) is presented by the presenter of the the latest National news programme.
I'm sure someone with insider knowledge will be able to tell us, although I won't be surprised if he presents tonight's late, tomorrow's 6 with his swansong late tomorrow night, then Lucrezia takes over Ben's role next week until they move into the ITV News studio.
Although I'm not from London, I can total agree on the familiarity issue. I watch North East Tonight and I know 9 times out of 10 it's going to be Pam and Ian or if their off one of the 'senior' Correspondents like Kenny Toal or Rachel Bullock and that's on very rare occasions. In London you regularly get a mix of Nina, Faye, Charlene, Luczeria, Ben, Natasha who present quite regularly. I've always said they should have a 'London' team and a the moment every bulletin bar the 6pm (and some late editions) is presented by the presenter of the the latest National news programme.
Alastair and Mary are former London Tonight presenters, with Nina & Natasha still presenting there. There is a bit of sense in using them in terms of cost cutting, but what will inevitably happen is London Tonight will just become an extension of ITV News with the regions joining at 6.30pm (assuming they keep the current model). They might as well just cut straight to the point and merge them completely now.
Ideally, London Tonight should have its own separate team but that also goes in the same bracket as all regions having control over the look and tone of their bulletins- it isn't going to happen!
I'm sure someone with insider knowledge will be able to tell us, although I won't be surprised if he presents tonight's late, tomorrow's 6 with his swansong late tomorrow night, then Lucrezia takes over Ben's role next week until they move into the ITV News studio.
I hope not!
Talking about presenters I think the best thing after the Al and Katie was Matt and Katie. The reasons behind Matts departue were never clear. Donal by far was the worse decision and didn't help the program one bit.
I'm sure someone with insider knowledge will be able to tell us, although I won't be surprised if he presents tonight's late, tomorrow's 6 with his swansong late tomorrow night, then Lucrezia takes over Ben's role next week until they move into the ITV News studio.
I hope not!
Talking about presenters I think the best thing after the Al and Katie was Matt and Katie. The reasons behind Matts departue were never clear. Donal by far was the worse decision and didn't help the program one bit.
I forgot about Matt 'rabbit in headlights' Teale. He did get better towards the end though,
Nina presenting Friday's edition, heavy on guests this evening with three guest segments in the bulletin and it appears James King's movie segment has been axed.
Hopefully, if London Tonight comes from a VR set (and AIUI it is sharing the studio with ITV News national bulletins?) - then the backdrop should look a lot better - assuming they retain one (and I suspect they will).
When London Tonight moved from the LNN Studio 7 days - with a cracking 'real' London backdrop it looked great. The Studio 4 projected backdrop at ITN has always looked a bit soft and washed out in comparison.
Hopefully a keyed VR solution will allow a clean camera shot to be used, with no projection issues, and improve things a lot.