The Yorkshire and Lincolnshire Thread

Yes - I feel for the poor souls of northern Nottinghamshire that aren't getting much airtime....

I'm getting the feeling that the magic of Lincoln Christmas Market seems to have dimmed considerably for Look North. In their first year, they sent Peter Levy, Helen Fospero and Paul Hudson to do a substantial O/B complete with about three reporters. Two years later, they're sending only Hannah Moffatt to cover the proceedings!!

That's a bit of a poor show... have they lost the Festive Spirit?

Tonight's Calendar should definally win best news programme in the RTS Yorkshire awards. They dedicated the whole programme to the story of the result of the court case of the man who murdered a police officer last christmas.

Christine Talbot was in the studio with Jon Hill outside Newcastle Crown Court. There was also a special report from Frazer Maude. There was also an extended interview with the family of the murdered police officer.

Despite dedicating the entire show to this story they still managed to fit in a fully opted round up of the rest of the day's news at about 6.23pm.

Over on Look North, they dedicated the first 15 minutes to the story with Christa in the studio and Harry out in the suburbs of Leeds. The second half was still a mix of the usual stuff including putting Paul Hudson's face on a picture of Margaret Thatcher.

Over on the Hull Look North, they of course fall outside of this story, so carried on with the usual mix of stories that are barely newsworthy, including something to do with Jonathan Ross, dinner ladies, a very lackluster OB from Lincoln and people doing Margaret Thatcher and Alan Bennett impressions.

Isn't strange how if you live in the east, depending on what regional news you watch you would either have got a very sombre show or one with Peter Levy guffawing every 5 minutes

So, you'd consider a success story about primary schools in the area that have improved and come out of special measures as not newsworthy?

What the heck the Maggie story was doing on Leeds I've no idea - Grantham's outside their broadcast area by some way.....

There are occasions when a major story happens in the wider Yorkshire / Lincolnshire region which would warrant cross coverage on both versions . I'd have thought tonight would have been one of those occasions.

Apparently not, so due to their rather narrow remit Look North Hull where left opening with a story about an ayslum seeker sleeping on a park bench whilst Calendar dealt with the main regional story of any relevance to people in the north tonight.

Why do people think local Leeds news is of any interest to people here in Hull?

A Leeds based programme should cover a Leeds based story, however a story about a shooting in Leeds is of no local interest in East Yorkshire or Lincolnshire. Would you expect Look North Leeds to cover a shooting in Manchester because it is a city near the local region?

We are not Leeds obsessed over here and if we are to get news from cities near our region we would have to have Nottingham news and even Norwich news on the Hull version!

Calendar was fantastic tonight, taking full advantage of being ahead of the National news too.

Considering how much anyone who could do a bit of googling could find out about Bieber, plus the stuff that you could have ready to run for when the verdicts came in, thought Look North was somewhat poor in comparison.

And the Hull issue definitely a problem - considering how much people in that part of the region would have seen on Look North just 11 months ago, would make sense to follow it through surely.

Also, not tv, but big shout out to Real Radio in Yorkshire whose 7pm news special was fantastic and will no doubt win plenty of awards. They may be a competitor, but they deserve so much praise for that.

But that's like saying why is Leeds news relevant to Sheffield, why is Lincoln's news relevant to Hull...

We care about what happens where we live, in our town, in our county, in our region in that order. But it's all about balance - most people in the country would no doubt rank the Bieber story above most other news today. The closer you get to the story, the more relevant the ramifications - gun crime, police on patrol, etc, etc. I'd hazard a guess most, though by no means all, would prefer seeing more on Bieber than 'tramp on park bench'. That's not dismissing that as a relevant story, but relevant to who and how many?

Hear hear. A truly superb edition of Calendar. Strong presentation by Jon Hill from Newcastle and a very moving interview by Christine with PC Broadhurst's mother.

This must surely be in line for some sort of award. Excellent. Look North was VERY weak by comparison.

Steve - I agree entirely with what you say, this is a major national story and should be treated as such by BBC and ITN, however local news should reflect all the region it serves and in truth the story is of little local interest in Sheffield, Hull or Lincoln. As such I think however well presented Calendar was tonight (and I do think the programme is very good) a story affecting just one part of the region should not ever dominate almost the whole programme as the rest of the station's viewers were alienated. Someone posted that half the Leeds programme was dedicated to the story, that I believe should be the maximum in this instance.

Completely respect the viewpoint, and understand what you so constructively say - it's one of those dilemmas in all of our minds as editor's every day - no matter how big or small the audience you're trying to serve.

Why do people think local Leeds news is of any interest to people here in Hull?

Fair point - from Boston and other places towards the south of the Look North Hull region, Leeds is almost a two-hour journey away. Going south from Boston for two hours would put you roughly in the London commuter belt in places like Stevenage, Welwyn Garden City, Milton Keynes, Hertford or Luton. If you went into East Anglia it'd be Bury St Edmunds or Norwich. And it's true to say that since the split, I (and I bet a fair few others) genuinely DO feel more detached from Leeds, Bradford etc...

I agree - most of the people in the north of the Hull region by virtue of them being still in Yorkshire would have liked to have seen more about the Broadhurst case owing to the strong unity of the Ridings. There's a good argument that perhaps the Hull show could have covered this to a degree. However, people should remember that a lot of the population of this region live a fair way down south and might be less interested in the case and more interested in, for example Boston's continuing efforts to get a bypass.

You definitely hear more people talking about the bypass in the Borough and surrounding villages (and nearby towns like Holbeach, Spalding, Horncastle and Skegness whose populace has to drive through Boston) than you do about the Broadhurst case. In fact, I think a fair number of the yokel element in Boston and South Lincs have never even HEARD of the Broadhurst case! This has to be taken into consideration when planning the subjectivity.

No doubt if there HAD been coverage of the Broadhurst Case on the Hull programme, there'd be cries of Yorkshire/Hull/Humber Corridor bias by forumers on here. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. But equally on Look North in Leeds.

It might be centred there (the programme) but the show goes out as far as Scarborough/Filey in one direction, and as far as Chesterfield/Scunthorpe/Goole in another and they themselves are a fairly hefty drive away from Leeds. Is it right to deprive these people of televised news coverage of issues that are of more relevance in their local communities because of an event happening an hour or so away?

Tonight's Calendar was presented by John Shires in the studio and Christine Talbot at the Lincoln Christmas Market.

So Leeds based YTV sent their number 1 presenter to the Lincoln Christmas Market (which is a good 2 hours drive away!) and did their live OB from there, a good comparison with Look North Hull who being more focused on Lincolnshire should have really done more but actually did much less.

YTV are definally excelling whether it is heavy or light news this week.