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20 years since the death of Princess Diana

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VM
VMPhil
As someone who used to put front pages together that Sunday Mirror front page doesn't look legit, it looks like it could be a Photoshop effort. Having said that, it's not impossible it could have been rushed together by whatever staff were still in the building at that time, with the later edition being put together when they'd scrambled some staff in.

It does look a bit like those front page mock-ups you see in TV shows, that look nothing like a real front page.
RE
Revitt
The schedule changes made on BBC One and ITV on Sunday 31st August 1997 were as follows:

BBC ONE

6.30pm - A special service for Diana was broadcast from St Paul's Cathedral, however the BBC had to leave the service and present a special bulletin covering the return to London of the coffin. They left the service around 7.00pm.

INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE TV ROOM, MANY THANKS TO THEM.


I would have thought that broadcasting live from St Paul's at short notice would be quite a technical logistical challenge - were there any already planned broadcasts from there over the Bank Holiday weekend?


The bank holiday weekend was the previous week.
BU
buster
RetroRerun on Twitter have posted this article from the Radio Times in 1997 about how the media reported things...



Some interesting bits from this:

Jennie Bond got a taxi from Devon to White City at 1am (!)
Peter Sissons didn't have a black tie. In another 5 years people would be paying more attention to that...
WH
Whataday Founding member
I still think to this day that no one would have picked up on Peter Sissons' tie had he delivered the news of the Queen Mother's death with a bit more authority.
Night Thoughts, London Lite and Cando gave kudos
LL
Larry the Loafer
I still think to this day that no one would have picked up on Peter Sissons' tie had he delivered the news of the Queen Mother's death with a bit more authority.


The problem was that he was given no time to prepare. He said he wasn't told about the Queen Mother's death until 20 minutes before he was due to go on air, despite the embargoed report coming through a couple of hours earlier. This meant he had no time to prepare his own script, and what he inevitably read off the autocue was still being written by somebody else; he had no time to look at it before he was on air. In his words, "I was to learn subsequently that if you get it right the BBC will take the credit; if you get it wrong, you are on your own."

He talks about it in his book, an extract from which was published online and talks about the incident about the Queen Mother. A genuinely fascinating read.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1349871/Peter-Sissons-BBC-bosses-ordered-downplay-Queen-Mothers-death.html
:-(
A former member
Peter Sissons is brilliant broadcaster he just not good at breaking news, Im sure he got moaned at again I think it was the Glasgow airport bombings.
WH
Whataday Founding member
He was given no time to prepare? The Queen Mother's death was THE MOST REHEARSED NEWS STORY IN THE WORLD.

Not just singling him out though. All that preparation and we ended up with this:

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/01/23/article-1349871-0CE16AC6000005DC-29_634x472.jpg

The whole thing was a shambles.
Hatton Cross, Nicky and Spencer gave kudos
CA
Cando
I still think to this day that no one would have picked up on Peter Sissons' tie had he delivered the news of the Queen Mother's death with a bit more authority.


The problem was that he was given no time to prepare. He said he wasn't told about the Queen Mother's death until 20 minutes before he was due to go on air, despite the embargoed report coming through a couple of hours earlier. This meant he had no time to prepare his own script, and what he inevitably read off the autocue was still being written by somebody else; he had no time to look at it before he was on air. In his words, "I was to learn subsequently that if you get it right the BBC will take the credit; if you get it wrong, you are on your own."

He talks about it in his book, an extract from which was published online and talks about the incident about the Queen Mother. A genuinely fascinating read.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1349871/Peter-Sissons-BBC-bosses-ordered-downplay-Queen-Mothers-death.html


Ironically at the time he blamed the Daily Mail for going OTT and accused them of a vendetta.... His live interview witj Margaret Rhodes was atrocious.
Ironically before this night many in the media called Mary " wish you were here" Nightingale a lightweight because she had no "hard news" background. But she showed her critics that night who was the lightweight and it certainly wasn't her.
Last edited by Cando on 1 September 2017 4:49pm
CA
Cando
Peter Sissons is brilliant broadcaster he just not good at breaking news, Im sure he got moaned at again I think it was the Glasgow airport bombings.


I wonder if he had a regional accent would he ever have risen so far? Being haughty and posh lets you get away with a lot. Brilliant? Far from it.
His stint presenting Question time was awful too
MA
Markymark
Cando posted:
Peter Sissons is brilliant broadcaster he just not good at breaking news, Im sure he got moaned at again I think it was the Glasgow airport bombings.


I wonder if he had a regional accent would he ever have risen so far? Being haughty and posh lets you get away with a lot. Brilliant? Far from it.
His stint presenting Question time was awful too


Isn't he from Liverpool, ( classmate with John Lennon I think) ITN must have driven the Scouse accent away ?
TI
tightrope78
Cando posted:
Peter Sissons is brilliant broadcaster he just not good at breaking news, Im sure he got moaned at again I think it was the Glasgow airport bombings.


I wonder if he had a regional accent would he ever have risen so far? Being haughty and posh lets you get away with a lot. Brilliant? Far from it.
His stint presenting Question time was awful too


Isn't he from Liverpool, ( classmate with John Lennon I think) ITN must have driven the Scouse accent away ?

He was a classmate of George Harrison (and a year or two younger than Paul McCartney) at the Liverpool Institute. He said George was "your typical Liverpudlian wit, without the wit"!
LL
Larry the Loafer
He was given no time to prepare? The Queen Mother's death was THE MOST REHEARSED NEWS STORY IN THE WORLD.


Peter may have been ready, but there's not much he can do if he's kept in the dark about a story he only has twenty minutes to prepare for.

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