ITV London Tonight

Jonathan Wills has just said that John Stapleton is presenting London Tonight this evening with Katie Derham.

John is also covering for Alastair on the News Channel this morning.

Presumably he did the Newshour on GMTV this morning as well? Why him, and not Jonathan Wills or Phil Gayle I wonder?

So what's the verdict on John Stapleton on London Tonight then?

I suppose they've used him because he can do both Alastair's News Channel show and London Tonight, whereas the regular stand-ins aren't quite right for both types of show - John Nicolson isn't 'cuddly' enough for London Tonight, and Willsy and Gayle wouldn't suit the mid-morning interview show.

I see that the weather is now integrated in the mid-morning bulletin and is voiced by the bulletin's presenter rather than the overnight newsreader.

The afternoon bulletin also has integrated weather.

Looks like this is a new development from today. I hope they do the same with weekend bulletins.

Major storms in London. Traffic affected. Public transport affected.Bad flooding in local areas. Lead story on BBC London News with great pics of people wading through water.
Errrrr no mention at all on London Tonight. What utter and absolute sh*t. The editor needs sacking!

Errr, yes there was. Just after the London Weather Katie mentionned it and said "if your waiting for a loved one, please be patient". So don't slag off LT when you didn't even watch it properly!

I will slag it off if i want. It's a shadow of it's former self and the point is they should have lead on the weather story. It was a major editorial blunder not to. Stuart Thomas should go. They are just obsessed with crime and showbiz. I know i work on the prog!

It was a major blunder, how could they miss such a story?

Central London (where ITN are based) missed out on the worst of it, but that's no excuse for not realising that such extreme weather was happening just a few miles away? (after all BBC LDN is within walking distance) It wasn't just a dull weather story, it disrupted a large part of West Londons transport infrastructure. a few words at the end of the weather doesn't really cut it.

Mind you the BBC does have an upper hand on this sort of thing. If the ITV regional news leads with something that the BBC have missed.... the BBC have 20 minutes to cobble together something to follow it. If the BBC report on something that ITV have missed, the ITV newsroom don't know about it until their programme is over

Sharman - now there was a man who liked to lead on a good weather story.

Weather stories are usually dull as ****, every summer it's: 'tube too hot' or just 'here's some people enjoying the sun in the park'.... and every winter it's 'trains get stuck in snow' or 'here's some people enjoying the snow in the park'

But what makes a good weather story are the pictures - someone digging out their car from a drift or wading through 3 foot of water

I'm just going to wonder what will Keir Simmonds make of this tomorrow!