BBC Network control

Last time I saw the ribbons on a BBC channel was back when the Crystal Palace transmitter failed one evening and didn't come back until halfway through newsnight - after the programme they used the ribbons and put a "Transmitter Information" caption over it with the BBC logo at the bottom, whilst the CA apologised to viewers for the earlier loss of BBC2 due to the fault.

But Brum is closer to London than Cardiff, Belfast or Glasgow - and TV Centre is right next to the A40.... remember that the programmes and staff from London have to get to the back-up place in such an event. There are very few programmes and virtually no staff in situ in Brum for such an occasion.

In these days of servers things are diffrent of course - I believe the replacement location for evacuations will have everything availiable on a mirrored server

The chances of both being f**ked are so enormous that it probably hasn't been planned for. How far do you go with such plans, you could keep having contingencies for contingencies will never happen.

As Dan says The first option is elsewhere in the same building, but the automation at TVC can (providing the schedule is set up properly and all the programmes are loaded) keep going for many hours without a human being there - certainly long enough for most emergencies to pass

Ive actually designed the plot for what would happen in this instance, the news is broken during the six O'Clock news. These are the steps I would follow.

BBC One BBC Two and BBC Three would join forces and all show the remainder of the six O'Clock news.
BBC Four would team up with BBC World
CBBC and CBBies would close down early (they close at seven anyway I think)
BBC News 24 would take over the other channels like BBC Parliament.

Michael Buerk would be braught in ASAP (Peter Sissons in his absence) and George (Bill in his absence) would be dispatched to westminister. (say this is about 7:30 now), Nicholas Witchell is based at Buckingham palace(Clarance Mitchell in his absence)

At 9:50 we cut back to nicholas witchell (george has since left westminister, and sophie has gone, replaced by jane hill) while the newsroom is prepared for an hour long edition or the 10. A frozen acrobats/tai chi ident is used to introduce it(huw edwards/anna ford to present)

At 11:00 We cut to the CPO setup, where michel buerk rounds up the days events. after this he leaves and we cut back to huw/anna. He presents untill midnight.

MIDNIGHT: BBC Two shows overnight on BBC News 24. BBC Three and BBC one remain together.

BBC One shows rolling news untill 5am with a mixture of minor presenters (natasha kaplinsky, darren jordon)

Breakfast begins at 5, from the westminister studio, with peter sissons and moira stuart. It goes on showing rolling news untill 9.

NINE AM: All chanels show a special one hour tribute progoramme

TEN AM: BBC One teams up with News 24 for rolling news, Maxine Mawhinney and George Alagiah present)
BBC 2 show appropriate childrens progorammes (quiet ones, to reflect the event, not the shrieking of the tweenies or anything like that)
BBC Three shows appropriate progoramming.
BBC 4 continues with BBC World.

ONE PM: Dermot Murnaghan and Anna Ford present a special one, the last ten minutes are devoted to other news.

TWO PM: Rolling news continues as before, with extended six and ten bulletins on BBC 1. Normal scheduling is not used until deemed appropriate. All idents apart from ballet and tai chi are withdrawn until the funeral has taken place, at which point others are slowly phased back in, starting with capoiera, acrobats and haka.

Interesting to note after viewing this file over at TV Whirl, how BBC2 comes out of Steptoe and Son and joins BBC1 for the announcement of the Queen Mother's death... BBC2 must've been told earlier than BBC1, because I've seen a file where BBC1 go from Auntie's Bloomers into the Ballet still and then an announcement and straight to the newsroom but on this file BBC2 stick with their ident for at least 3 minutes and about 4 announcements before Peter Sissons pops up - unless the file I've seen of BBC1 breaking the news was edited and they had the same problem...

Are you telling me that i will have to sit and watch a minimum of two days ( ) of solid news which could be summed up in 2 minutes??

I hope there is a pub on somewhere!!

No the whole think was a complete mess. IIRC the main studio gave pres an on air time and then changed it at the last minute, by which time BBC2 had already broken the schedule so thay had no other option than to sit and wait the the national news team got their act together.

I think in the event of the Queen dying, we'd probably lose all the channels and presenters, and get David Dimbleby across everything instead. I think he is on some sort of "permanent standby" for it. I think he was also supposed to do the Queen mother as well, but was away or something, so we got the regular BBC1 duty anchor, who was of course on that day, Peter Sissons. Poor b*stard.

What about radio ?

Would it be the same as Diana/Queen Mum, all/most BBC national/local radio joining together for rolling coverage, with the odd opt out for local reflection. (In other words, as far as I'm concerned, BBC WM will drag Ed Doolan out, & present a special prog on WM, also going out on Shropshire, Hereford & Worcester & Stoke, like the night of the Queen Mum death.)

Yep - remember that. In the mean time I flicked through the channels and discovered the news on Channel 4 before the BBC got their news report on air.

But is it actually likely to happen (in our lifetime) ?

How old are you?! It's extremely likely in my lifetime - she's 77 you know..!