Wales Today

As someone who lived in Wales for the first 20 years of my life - both North & South, then lived in England for 4 years, and then came back to Wales, I really can't see that at all.

The only thing which is different is the language, and most people don't speak that. Wales is a region of the United Kingdom like the North-East of England, the Highlands of Scotland, or Greater London. They're all different from each other, but all British, and served by a BBC which, if it's going to have a branding for it's English regions, must apply this to Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

do orders about guidelines about the look of bbc english regional news now come from bbc english regions in birmingham, rather than bbc news in london? if so, it would explain why bbc nations are towing a different line to the english.

Money also plays a big part. Certainly in terms of the nations, new sets and titles are not centrally funded, they have to be paid for by the nation concerned.

I really wish they'd stop this 'nations' rubbish. Wales is a region not a nation. Why should Welsh viewers be worse off because of some politically correct rubbish.

Scrap that awful 2W and they'd have the money.

worse off?

would you like to scrap local continuity, and all local output except news, inside out, politics show opt and the odd documentary in exchange for a new wales today set?

bbc wales really ISN'T hard done by. viewers in wales do very well compared with the local-ness of bbc one and two across the border.

Yes. I'd like all output to come from London except the odd short regional news bulletin.

Well now whilst I agree that 2W [digital tv for Wales] is a bit of a waste of time, I don't honestly believe BBC Wales exists through political correctness, not least due to its history [was there political correctness in 1964?]. Then again I don't personally see Wales as being worse off with a five-year old set for an otherwise excellent news service.

I'd see the regions of England pulled up to nations' standards in terms of programming and online/news/politics provision, not the nations pulled down to England's current levels -- but naturally money is the issue.

Mind you correct me if I'm wrong [and I may v well be], but aren't you from somewhere like Wrexham? I wouldn't imagine people from that area have a particularly heightened perception of what Wales as a whole requires from public television.

I noticed when I was on holiday in North Wales, that BBC Wales Today don't return to the main news studio in London at the end of the programme at teatime. Instead they use the time wisely and extend the length of the programme. Here in Yorkshire, BBC Look North ends at 6:55PM and hands over to London for a summary of the main headlines and a detailed national weather forecast.

The same applies in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Can't comment on the others, but in Scotland the national headlines are re-capped with the regional headlines at the end of the programme. They might as well do this in all regions, it saves George or Sophie hanging around for another 30 mins at the end of the Six. It's also really annoying to get 'we'll be back just before 7', which never happens.

And arguably most people aren't fussed what the weather is doing at the other end of the country [not at that time of night anyway], so it does seem a little pointless to have a detailed regional forecast with the local weather *personality* and then more of the same with someone else.

And those silly local radio trails that look like that car ad -- aren't you all bored of those yet?

Look out in the New Year, it'll happen (shhh, mums the word!)


Yes, why do Wales, Scotland & N.Ireland all have separate continuity to announce, for the most part, verbatim what London are saying beneath the idents?


It's like your Hi-Fi in a strange sort of way. In layman’s terms...
In the good-old days, everyone knew that their voice was at the correct level if they twiddled the faders to 4. Now however, it's confusing if "Fred" in London has been told to have his voice at level 4, but elsewhere they've been told to have their voice at 5.

If you want to get deeper into this, look up "zero level line-up", "PPM", "EBU" and a strange beastie called "M6" on the internet for the full facts (ZZZzzzz.....)

Blame those pesky Europeans for your troubles!

YAY - So finally we have confirmation that Wales Today is to get a well overdue facelift. Cheers TP