BBC Regional Continuity

I think that BBC One in England had regional continuity for a while, I have been told (but as I grew up in the BBC South East area didn't see) that many of the BBC English regions had their own presentation between network programmes.

I think this is the reason that there are 'Pres' areas in some of the older BBC English regional buildings, these were initially for more than just the odd weekly half-hours. Norwich and Leeds certainly have self-opt desks and studios known as 'Pres' I believe.

I think there was a short period in the late 70s or early 80s when a lot more of the BBC One junctions were regional. In those days most of the junctions were straight globes I think.

There were also regional BBC One idents - a big Blue and Yellow M for the midlands, and BBC North also had one. I have no idea if these were used before all progs, or just the regional ones.

Also - in the 'old days' - the Presentation Dept of BBC TV did not just look after the out-of-vision continuity announcers, it also managed the regional newsreaders, hence the name? I think this was coming to an end by about 1987 though.

I'd love to know the real answer to this!

I believe this was done in the North regions from the late 80s or early 90s until the introduction of the BBC1 balloon.  Basically, I think there was just one BBC North Super Region, comprising the current North, North East & Cumbria and North West regions.  I say this because I was watching a clip of Northwest Tonight from 1993, and the virtual globe ident said at the bottom

  B B C
 N O R T H

and the v/o said 'This is BBC ONE in the North' at which point it faded into the NWT studio.  If anyone knows this who can confirm it, is it basically that all the North regions had shared continuity, but the three sub-regions of this super regions had their own regional news programmes?

(Edited by MillyMaster at 1:10 am on Oct. 16, 2001)


(Edited by MillyMaster at 1:11 am on Oct. 16, 2001)

Whilst i hate to rock the boat so to speak but the fact is that the BBC Nations have far more a sense of regionality than any of the ITV regions - and IMO it's justified too.  

Take BBC Wales for example (and i should know i was brought up in wales and still live there when i'm not in Nottingham), they regularly opt out of network BBC One Programmes and not just in low viewing slots - Friday's at 7pm have been replaced by a BBC Wales' own consumer programme fronted by Jamie Owen, Week In Week Out (Wales' equivalent to Panorama) regularly opt's out at 9.30pm from network programmes.  Wales Today does not opt back in to the Six O' Clock News at 6:55pm and on saturday - particularly during the Six Nations Rugby, BBC Wales carries it's own Grandstand programme and 'Wales on Saturday' instead of 'Final Score'.  These are to name but a few and do not include Wales' own Countryfile and the many drama's and docu-soaps etc that are made for/by and broadcast on BBC Wales.

On BBC Two Wales, the Welsh Political Party Confrences are broadcast, instead of 'Westminster Live' we have 'Assembly Live' (remembering of course that Wales has it's own government - albeit a seemingly useless one!).  Also, many 6pm programmes are replaced by regional Sport (FAW Matches etc) and current affairs.

All BBC Wales Today bulletins (with the exception of the 13:30 and 18:30 ones) are broadcast from the 'small' set which is housed in the continuity area and all reports, mics, titles, astons, two-ways, cameras etc for these bulletins are handelled by the 'pres' department.  BBC Wales Today also has an extra bulletin before BBC News 24, Out of Vision that is read by the Continuity Announcer - a big saving on the budget for a production crew and very cost effective.

My point is (if you have not guessed it already) that seperate continuity in the Nations in entirely justified.  Programmes just for the nations have to be extensively trailed, just like any other BBC Network Programme - and to simply opt in and opt out of almost every network junction would be messy, also with all the schedule changes from network BBC One (and yes almost all network programmes have to be re-scheduled if replaced by a regional one) the BBC Nations need their own continuity.  

Imagine if we didn't have Nations Continuity,  before Watchdog we would have a network BBC One ident for the whole of the UK saying 'Now on BBC One for viewers in England, Watchdog with Nicky Campbell, on BBC One Wales - [programme title] with Jamie Owen, In Scotland it's Sportsscene meanwhile in Northern Ireland it's Holiday 2001 from last Thursday' - this would sound amateur, unprofessional and quite simply ludicrous!

This is not to say that i think the English Regions should not have their own Continuity all the time - but i really fail to see the point if regional programmes are limited to News and Political Strands and almost all network programmes remain the same (with the exception of a few regions such as BBC North - i think!??)

I'm sure the above points apply to both BBC Scotland and BBC Northern Ireland.

Sorry to ramble on a bit - but it's just my opinion - any comments?

There will never be a BBC ONE England - for a start it also covers the Channel Islands, and also if one of the nations is unable to opt out of the network for any reason, it wouldn't look very good for them to be showing an ident with BBC ONE England on it.

Regional continuity in the English regions is utterly pointless except before regional programmes. What is the point in having even just five people sitting in, say, London, Bristol, Birmingham, Norwich and Manchester, all saying exactly the same thing?

i agree with what you say about no need for 5 announcers in London, Bham and Bristol saying exactly the same ... but i might not have explained it clearly enough ... i was saying essentially equalize the amount of local programmes too - so bbc midlands would be producing as much local programmes as bbc wales.

i dont tend to agree with the notion that the bbc's output currently reflects the regionalism in england - ie 1 documentary and 1 political show per week. there are big issues affecting each region and cultural differences within england not covered in regional news.

I saw the BBC ONE logo with the London announcer in Scotland last night before EastEnders. Saw it last Thursday before the same programme, becoming a regular occurance.

I agree it looks dead stupid when BBC Scotland do not opt out in time and you see half a BBC ONE ident and half a BBC ONE Scotland ident.

There have been times when BBC Scotland has not opted out in time for the regional news and you get 'Now on BBC ONE a choice of regional news, UK Today on digital, or for--This is BBC ONE Scotland....'

I used to remember after the Nine O'Clock news in Scotland quite a number of years back, the continuity announcers you only used to hear before programmes on BBC One, appeared on screen in the little 2 minute Scottish News bulletin before the weather.

Anybody remember a simillar arrangement in the other BBC Regions.

And from Peter Levy's website

Here is everyone's favourite presenter in the Look North Leeds Presentation/Self-Opt Short bulletin studio
http://www.peterlevy.cwc.net/img27.jpg
As you can see it looks like a local TV studio set up in your local Town hall, and not like it serves 6 million viewers!
Peter does Breakfast and Sunday editions of Look North from in here!

It looks very similar to, though a lot nicer than, the Norwich pres area did - especially at 0627 on a freezing winter Monday morning.

wow - i thought ALL bbc regions used their main set ALL the time since the generic look ... im presuming that is from the current look as it looks like the corporate look north titles on the bootom right monitor.

im almost sure midlands today use the main studio for every show, even breakfast - maybe they can afford to have more camera people in etc - or maybe its easier with all the moving thats going on (should be going on) - now everythings done from the reception, there probably isnt room for a self opt studio

While we're on the subject of Mr LEvy, it hsan't escaped my observation that Peter's comments about Paul's size may be somewhat misplaced. If you have a look at this picture:

http://www.peterlevy.cwc.net/img24.jpg

It's pretty apparent that it is in fact PAUL who is taller! Will it now be a case of Petite Pete and Tall Paul from now on?

Either that or they can be the Flowerpot Men!

This studio is currently still used.
If you look at the monitor next to bottom right, you can see the studio background, with the sidebar image etc, the picture is looking at what Peter sees, if you look at that monitor, you can see Peter looking to his right/our left.

The reason why it is used is that I think Peter likes sub-opting, Peter isn't doing Breakfast this week, and the presenter this week keeps opting back 1 second early, seeing UK Today!.

Funny is that the Weather at 6.56/7.56 comes from the main studio weather set, so both studios are in use!