BBC2 Regions

The BBC2 regions have been largely phased out in recent years, but at one point a while back either one or two years ago, I remember BBC2 having to opt out in the North due to a sports event. Now, oddly enough, we got Look North, but it was the wrong Look North from Yorkshire, not East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire. So I ask, what has happened to the BBC2 regions? Are they still there, or have they been retired due to the digital switchover?

BBC2 doesn't have regions in England anymore, there is just one BBC2 for the whole of England which is because of Digital.

Most regional news programmes have the facility to broadcast on BBC 2 on analogue only where it still exists.

Hull is one of those that can't, but Leeds can in its place because of its legacy set-up.

Most places post 2003 can't. The larger NPCs still in existence (Bristol and Manchester) can and I believe Birmingham might be able to, mainly because there was a BBC Two programme on for the Midlands on BBC Two Analogue.

Indeed, the older regional centres retain the ability to opt on BBC Two analogue, but only until digital switchover. So places like Plymouth, Manchester and Bristol have now lost the ability to opt on two. There was a regional news opt on BBC Two last year during Wimbledon, but that was probably the last time this will happen, especially as more and more centres lose the ability to opt out altogether. The plans now if there are major matches during the six o'clock news hour, is to simply drop the regional news programmes in England and extend the ten o'clock opt to compensate.

Its not that long ago that there was a regular opting schedule on BBC Two - regional politics coverage was always on Two before The Politics Show. The regional features slot (now known as Inside Out) was a BBC Two thing as well. There were occasional other regional slots on two as well. And of course the afternoon news summary was also a daily BBC Two opt. Made for quite an exciting junction as far as network presentation were concerned, especially as it was often in the middle of Party Conferences, House of Commons coverage or even live sport coverage like Horse Racing. It would go something like: Live Coverage, junction, national symbol, national news summary, regional symbol, regional news, national weather, junction, back to the live coverage. Excellent training ground for rookies, as all that would generally happen in 5 minutes or so. Anyway...

None of this applies in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland however - where there full BBC Two opting capability remains in place.

Pedantically, Belmont and Emley have the same feed for BBC2, so either Leeds or Hull can opt but it would be for the full old North region rather than just for their patch.

Despite their recent move from MHS to BH (and then to Millbank and back), I believe BBC London has retained the ability to opt on BBC Two analogue throughout. Not that it's been used for years...

Actually the same's true of Oxford. They can in theory take control of BBC Two analogue but only opt for the whole of the South region. That (to my knowledge) hasn't ever happened. The last time a BBC Two opt occurred (Wimbledon last year) Southampton did the opt and took some stories into a pan-regional programme.

Pedantically - I think the BBC One show at the time was "On The Record" not "The Politics Show" (or am I misreading you - and rather than being "on before" in clock-time terms, you mean "on before" as in "before The Politics Show existed"?

ISTR that the BBC Two opts were bespoke for each region and were in England only as the Nations did other things for their politics coverage. (In Norwich it was called "The East at Westminster", in Plymouth "Southwestminster" etc. ISTR some were live, some were pre-recorded on Saturdays)

When "The Politics Show" replaced "One The Record" the English regional politics opt-out moved to BBC One within "The Politics Show" and the Nations also gained an opt (to avoid there being a hole in the show!)



Yep - there was a previous network branded regional features slot called "Out and About" with a leisure twist in the mid-90s, and prior to this the Thursday BBC Two opt was often much more factual - often a 30 minute single-subject documentary rather than a magazine show,



And in the 90s there were two daytime news opts (there were 3 in the morning on BBC One and 2 in the afternoon on BBC Two ISTR)



Or cricket... The joys of waiting for a suitable junction in the cricket - with every region sitting there for ages...

Sorry - yes the latter - before The Politics Show existed ... ! Some of the old names for regional political coverage worked better than others - it helped if you had a 'west' in your region's name so you could call it something like "North WestMinster" which is slightly better than "South of Westminster" which is what Southampton's offering was called. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8K08R0HFiTc

I hear that Bristol used to provide BBC Two with a West/South/SouthWest pan-regional offering before Plymouth and Southampton took it upon themselves to do one themselves...

The BBC Two (Thursday?) evening slot used to provide some excellent regional documentaries. Here's one of Bristol's "Close Up Wests" complete with hilarious mid-CSO camera turn introduction
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgUAQg4CbGg

Nobody told BBC Birmingham that bit! "Midlands at Westminister" later "Midlands @ Westminster"

Thankfully there wasn't last year, but in 2009 there was, despite the first few analogue transmitters having already been off.


Bristol and Manchester won't be able to now as they've no analogue. The West Midlands will be in the same boat in a few months

That's probably because the equipment to do so is actually in TV Centre. When they moved to MHS they took the control end of the kit with them as it's a specific bit of equipment, so I assume it was moved once again