Wales Tonight

OK in the absence of a thread to talk about the regional news programmes on ITV in Wales I thought id start this thread and see how it goes.

Tonight we had a new presenter on Wales Tonight. It seems the usual male presenters Jonathan Hill or Richard Morgan were'nt available as John Paul Davies presented the programme with Juliet Piper. Never understood why they use Richard as male anchor anyway as he is the main Sports presenter. Anyway John Paul was very good and im glad they have let him present the main programme as up until now he has done mainly reporting apart reading 1 or 2 short news bulletins.

Lucy Owen appears to be off again so I expect we may see her on the ITV National News this weekend again!

Ive mentioned the backdrop a couple of times in other threads but it annoys me that they dont make full use of it. Its been nearly a year since ITV Wales had the new set and they have not used the backdrop once outside of the mid morning, lunchtime and main programme. What I want to know is if that studio they use for the GMTV/late bulletins is part of the main studio or another studio entirely? Im sure most of the other regions use their 1 main studio for all bulletins?

Finally it was a breath of fresh air to have Justina present the GMTV Wales bulletins this week!

It's years since I've been there myself, but I was told a couple of years ago (by someone who had worked there more recently) that the studio used for the early bulletins was a re-working of the former continuity studio. Whether this still applies since the new set was introduced I don't know, but it seems likely.

You were correct Jez! Lucy has presented the weekend bulletins on ITV1 proper!

Well they seemed to have problems on the lunchtime bulletin today as viewers in Wales were treated to ITV West News. The presenter welcomed viewers in Wales. Didnt catch the evening bulletin so no idea if the problem was sorted?

Re the small studio - it looked better after they relaunched in February 2004 but not too bad afterwards. I wish they would just use the main studio all the time though.

I find it tad surprising the Lucy Owen fanclub that you get on here. Whenever I see her on the ITV News I always find her to be something of a cold fish.

Meanwhile, my mum who lives in the ITV Granada region these days, said only this week that she doesn't much like the 'posh woman with dark hair' who sometimes reads the ITV weekend news.

I can only assume that viewers of ITV Wales get to see a better side of her.

Well yes I would say HTV viewers see a warmer personality on a local level -- Lucy is very often inclined to laugh at herself and seems much more comfortable than on ITV [although she still doesn't know where her accent is going half the time].

And I do believe she was wearing black again just now.

WT have too many sports presenters and random new reporters who nod too much.

They had some toys in on Thursday
http://www.gorillaenterprises.co.uk/upload/uploadFiles/wt091106.jpg
http://www.gorillaenterprises.co.uk/upload/uploadFiles/wt091106a.jpg
http://www.gorillaenterprises.co.uk/upload/uploadFiles/wt091106b.jpg

Well of course she didnt always talk posh

I like Lucy on both the national and regional news so I wouldnt mind if she went national full time. She is bound to be more relaxed on a regional news magazine programme than the national news on ITV1. I also think she works well with Jon.

News readers tend to go missing for weeks on end at Wales Tonight too - where is Zoe? And yes they have too many sports presenters - Richard, John Paul and Chris all do news bulletins as well as sports presenting/reporting. Would make sense to have Richard and Chris for the sport sport and John Paul as the main stand in for Jon on Wales Tonight.

I hope Lucy is the new replacement for Andrea Catherwood as the main newsreader on the Weekend News, and standing in for Mary and Katie when Nina is on maternity leave. Lucy has lots of potential.

If they wanted to though - could they get a new female presenter? Or would they use Lucy and people from other ITV Regions?

How about Leyla Daybelge?

What happened to her... and another weekend presenter.. haven't been on the screen for a while.

Im sure Lucy was just called the 'c' word on ITV1 just after 11:00 this morning!