The 'Victoria Derbyshire' Programme

It really shouldn't be called "Victoria Derbyshire" given the amount of time she has off.

BBC News Daily? The Magazine?

People DO go on holiday/leave. Why are some on this forum so obsessive about a program named after the presenter who guess what, presents named show most of the time

Better have a word with Lorraine then

Parts of today's programme were perfectly decent, but there are still areas where it falls down. The first fifteen minutes were quite good and detailed, where they covered both the EHIC story and the Ferguson shootings, with analysis from the BBC Health editor and a doctor of some description for the former, and a local radio journalist for the latter. But after this, they then continued to not do the weather at 9:30, and it then took double the time to cover the next few stories (half an hour for those keeping count), which is not good enough for a rolling news channel. After the 10:05 headlines (they never meet the TOTH) they then managed to cover the sport and another few stories in a decent time frame, before covering a few stories over a much longer period of time in the final half hour. Ultimately, between 9:15 and 9:30 and 10:05 and 10:30 there's a fairly decent programme that would be acceptable for the NC to broadcast, but the back half hours are more akin to the back half hours in the evening and overnight programmes, where what they're talking about usually isn't current news but an ongoing issue.

There's still a good few minutes of weather chat before the actual forecast, which is ultimately padding and can surely be axed? They would then be closer to hitting the TOTH, rather than starting the headline summary at 5 past.

Also to note:

1) Naga Munchetty received billing below Victoria's name on the graphics in the studio today, which is perhaps slightly confusing - 'Victoria Derbyshire with Naga Munchetty' makes it sound like the two are presenting together. Saying that, it's less misleading than 'Real lives with Ranvir Singh' for which there is a co-presenter but they are unbilled for the most part!

2) One of their long form reports (or do I mean beautiful films?) was from Radio 1 Newsbeat. This is probably an effective use of resources but for the News Channel it was too long. Also, they did only seem to have access to the version uploaded to YouTube, meaning there was a BBC Newsbeat DOG in the corner throughout and at the end of the report a Newsbeat sting played.

I didn't see the film you're speaking of - unless it's the same one - but Business Live used one a Newsbeat story during the UK break this morning which was relatively short. However I didn't feel the style of report (somewhat cool and 'chillaxed') really fit among a press conference from Ferguson and business stories from Russia, China and the likes... This one did appear to be edited for television though as it had the standard XX XXXX, BBC News sign off. Like you say, an effective use of resources perhaps - but different platforms need stories told in different ways...

Edit: turns out it was the same story, so a shorter package was available for the Victoria Derbyshire programme if they'd wanted it - I know they share editors, but I don't really think this is legit sharing of resources...

Yes, looking on iPlayer Business Live had a much shorter report whilst VD used the longer video uploaded to Newsbeat's YouTube (with the long report presumably used with minor alterations in their main Newsbeats at 12:45 and 5:45 today). The report left the human interest 'oh no my nightclub has closed' stuff out, but yes it was still slightly more informal. I think the fact the reporter was dressed down because it was for Radio 1 was the biggest reason for this, as otherwise the vox pops and the graphic overlaid onto the brick wall of a club were probably all things a normal BBC News report would have done - I suppose VD used the longer report as it kept the human interest stuff in, which is probably for the BBC Two audience.

In reference to Business Live, I know it's because it's a simulcast with another News channel rather than BBC Two, but they have a much better idea of how to handle breaking news. Today they did their introduction, and then went straight to the Ferguson press conference. This lasted just under 15 minutes (half of the programme's length), and in the remaining 15 minutes they still managed to fit most of the things they'd trailed at the start in (they even cut out of a report part way through to speed it along).

Wasn't she off within the first two weeks or so of the show starting? How many people start a new job and immediately go on leave?

There was me thinking this was the same Victoria Derbyshire who'd been working for the BBC for years...

Or indeed it's any of our business.

Where she went on her holidays would be none of our business, but I don't see what's wrong with discussing the impact such things have on possible public perception of on-screen programming.

It wouldn't be out of the ordinary for the senior presenter to take a break during August.

I think it's also perfectly valid to say why Victoria Derbyshire has so much time off is none of our business, nor does it really relate to this forum.