Below that post, a commenter has linked to a downloadable copy of the IRN 5.30am bulletin - including the "not for broadcast" instructions to the stations.
Below that post, a commenter has linked to a downloadable copy of the IRN 5.30am bulletin - including the "not for broadcast" instructions to the stations.
That's literally my original (bad) MP3 conversion of the MHP file, that someone has bizarrely decided to reupload to MEGA instead of simply linking to https://telly.site/diana
In the instance of the death of the Queen Mother I can see why Mary Nightingale may not have been told as she was about to present a scheduled bulletin. The question was asked a few pages back as to why they didn't just keep that bulletin on the air. The simple reason is that, unlike Diana, it wasn't part of a breaking news story, so until the time the embargo is lifted you act as normally as possible - you might (as we've seen from another account of the day) stop tailing ahead to programmes later on, but you wouldn't unnaturally keep a bulletin going when it was such a serious thing as that.
Had their not been a bulletin about to go on air I would expert her to have been told as soon as the embargoed Press Association snap (the normal way of making an official royal announcement) was received. If you're employing someone in such a prominent role you should be able to trust them not to leak the news before the correct time. Most people in the newsroom of a major broadcaster will have access to wire services, so they'd all be able to see the PA snap as soon as it was sent. Even if they didn't there'd be enough of a reaction for them to soon find out. And your presenter would be one of the important people to inform and prepare (should they not already be on air!)
It's why Peter Sissons account seems a bit difficult to understand - unless he had been presenting a bulletin when the snap came in and so only got 20 minutes notice because of that? Then again he wrote in his book something along the lines of The Guardian being the only newspaper around in the BBC newsroom and him being told to read that, which bears no resembelebce to my experience in / around the BBC newsroom / programme areas. There was just about every newspaper around, perhaps a few more broadsheets than tabloids, but the tabloids where there as well - and clearly having been read!
Below that post, a commenter has linked to a downloadable copy of the IRN 5.30am bulletin - including the "not for broadcast" instructions to the stations.
That's literally my original (bad) MP3 conversion of the MHP file, that someone has bizarrely decided to reupload to MEGA instead of simply linking to https://telly.site/diana
Because they want to take the credit for it instead of acknowledging you.
Well, to be fair it's not mine originally anyway. I just don't understand how having to download it through a website like that is easier than playing it off the website (like I intended).
Netiqutte for media went out the window as soon as YouTube launched and the rest of Netiqutte that dated from the times when we all had dial-up modems went out the other window as connection speeds went up. Shame really, as some people can't seem to tell the difference between where Facebook and their own "uninformed ad-hoc reckons" finish and end and seem surprised if they get flamed for saying something really controversial.
Peter Sissons was an excellent bulletin newsreader who unfortunately never really adapted to the breaking news era. His news channel stint was awful, and his handling of the Queen Mother's death obviously went very wrong.
I accept the point that he may not have had time to prepare his own script or even review the one someone else had written properly, and in those days without Twitter or PA wires on your mobile you wouldn't necessarily know unless you were sitting in the newsroom that something had happened. But there's a knack to getting round badly written scripts. If you listen to the start of ITN's newsflash the second sentence of that script, no doubt hastily assembled, completely repeats the first, and yet Dermot glides through it making it sound totally natural. Of course, this is easy for me to say as someone who's never had to do this, never mind in the most high pressure situation you can imagine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltoJ7e9w5W4
Last edited by p_c_u_k on 5 September 2017 11:14pm
As I might have mentioned before, his News 24 coverage of the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes was the only time I've genuinely felt sorry for a newsreader. Stuttering and hesitating all over the place. Not sure he lasted much longer after that.
Agreed that he was brilliant in the Nine O Clock News days, up there with Buerk and Lewis.
I've memories of him doing the film review bit with Mark Kermode whenever Gavin Esler was off - instead of the easy chat that Esler would do, Sissons would bark at Kermode, interrogating him about the week's new releases. Very strange. Clung on for a few years too long, unfortunately.
