BBC Choice News

Heh heh, BBC Newcastle had that as well, you you'd get a brief flash of Paddy McDee (ooo-er!) then a load of slides, obviously switched by Paddy himself as you could hear a loud thud every time the picture changed!! I seem to recall that Tyne Tees continuity used to do this as well sometimes.

I thought it was a good way of managing the time, as the presenter had total control and no-one was waiting for anyone else. It also gave a live edge to proceedings...

Yes - thats what you can hear every morning with Nigel Jay - a large thud!! If there isn't one, then you instantly know its Julia Sharp or Julie Taylor instead!

Indeed - the ker-clunk of hearing the buttons being thumped by a presenter! I remember it well...

So both Manchester and Leeds have self-opts for Brekky. I heard that Peter Levy self-opted Breakfast, didn't know Manchester did as well. Must be fun running VTs from scripts!

(Norwich had a director for Breakfast - though they sat at the self-opt desk with a camera pointed at them(!), and did sound/vision mixing, as well as stillstore/astons and directing VT. On one memorable occasion the wrong camera was routed to the self-opt desk, and a friend of mine cut herself up rather than the presenter... The look on her face was priceless! )

In Norwich the last self-opts were done for the daytime summaries - though before the brekky opts contained moving VT they were also self opt apparently. The Norwich opts needed at least three people - an autocue operator, the presenter and a graphics operator who changed the stills. There was also an engineer involved who checked sound levels before transmission, and handed opt-control to the presenter.

Looking at the specification for new BBC regional telly centres there is no spec for self-opting, so I guess it is being phased out. I think it was initially mainly designed for performing the presentation-type junctions between programmes - I think that for a while all the English regions did their own presentation junctions at times - not just before local programmes.

I suppose it makes sense for presenters to do it to keep costs down and it may help that Nigel Jay and Peter Levy at least started in radio where (at least on local radio) they operate a lot of their own sound/feeds themselves - probably not much different from operating a tv studio!

Well one occasion that Nigel Jay messed up and opted to early was on a Bank Holiday this year. As it was coming from BBC News 24 with Peter Dobbie and Carrie Gracie, he didn't think they'd use the end sting like they usually do before opting to regions, but they did. He opted before it played, and must have seen it on a TV infront of him! The face he pulled was a classic!

I then realised that Breakfast were'nt fading into titles like they usually do, so I captured the end sting in the next regional news bulletin, which he ensured he played!

My grandma always used to laugh when they said Northwest Today with Nigel Jay...!! I presume all regions have the network feed (UK Today) on the screens as well as hearing the national director.

Hold on....we're veering off topic!! Back to '60 seconds' - similar to '60 minutes' surely (in that the number is the same?!!!)

Yes I have a balloon ident on my PC with it saying 'Now on BBC ONE, North West Today with Nigel Jay'

It does sound rather good. What I want to know is why has Nigel Jay or Julia Sharp not presented a full main bulletin for ages? I can;t even remember the last time they did. Its always Stuart Flinders or Tony Morris.

Yep - most of the regions see the incoming Network feed from London. Exceptions are Cambridge - who see Norwich's output rather than London - and possibly Elstree, who don't have a feed of Network - they remotely control a switch between Network and their output at TV Centre.

The talkback feed to the regions can be either the Network director (who is directing presentation for BBC One/Two) or the News director (who is directing the news programme). I think it is common for both to be fed, as the Pres director co-ordinates the opt-out/opt-in for the regional clocks at 1259,1759 and 2159, but the news director calls the regional headline opt-out (and promo at 1815).

The news director co-ordinates the breakfast opts and 2225 junction, but the pres directors co-ordinate the 1330, 1525, 1830 and 1855 junctions.

Sorry this is veering well off topic.

Yep - it makes financial sense in some ways, but is very limiting in presentation terms. (It's an interesting thought though, that as modern automation systems are installed, like those used by News 24 and BBC World, as well as Nottingham, Tunbridge Wells and Marylebone High St, could allow more sophisticated self-opt bulletins! )

The problem with self-opting is that the shot has to be tight enough so that you can't see the presenters hands pressing buttons. Also, artistic values (such as whether to cut or mix into/out of a VT) are not as easy to implement - it is asking a lot of your presenter!

You would have difficulty self-opting Newsroom South East's style of brekky bulletin - which are from a nice Lambie Nairn style arm-chair!

For a taste of what things will look like check out
www.bbc.co.uk/60seconds

Oooh...thanks for that Nicky! Although it's not giving an awful lot away is it! Will the website and programme look similar me wonders?!