Other than a short lived chat show, I've never seen him present anything else, in fact I've never seen him come out from behind that desk - does he have legs, does he live in a wooden crate in the basement of City Road between shows, what made him so popular and does he deserve the accolades.
I've noticed that, For example the presenters of Calendar often present Calendar Lunchtime News, Calendar Lunchtime Live and a bulletin of Calendar News during the day before Calendar, But Mike Neville just does NET and nothing else.
Has Jonathan Morrell made an appearance this week by the way?
Pam Royal does the pre Citv North East News, presumably to make her hours up after presenting North East Today, dont know why Mr Neville doesnt do it and trail North East Tonight at the same time, mustn't be in his contract. It would be intresting to know how much journalistic input he has into NET actually. Considering his obvious rapport with people when you do see him banter and interview, I dont think he's really being exploited by Tyne Tees. It would be intresting to see what he'd be like on North East Today.
Oh and another nother thing, I havent seen YTV's lunchtime prog, but I have seen Granada's which is very different to TTTV's. But why cant GMG manage a lunchtime magazine for Border ?? Editorially a lot of the features on the other regions could be used - is it lack of viewers or Border apathy. I'd have thought it would be an easy way to increase regional output. Mind you where would Shortland Street go.
I've thought this strange too. Particularly when all four of Border's neighbours - Granada, Scottish, Tyne Tees and Yorkshire - do!
I wouldn't say that lack of viewers is the main problem - though some might say that there are more sheep than viewers in the Border area! - but more Border's apathy. It's always believed in doing things its way and possibly doesn't deem a lunchtime Lookaround of great importance. Another thing is that it's always had limited resources and so maybe doesn't have the facilities for a lunchtime show either. It also must be the only regional news show where the presenters sit in huge armchairs!
I think Border must be the only station which doesn't correspond with a BBC region, as it has to cover parts of three - BBC Scotland, BBC North East & Cumbria, and BBC North West. I would imagine any viewers wanting their lunchtime fix of news would watch the BBC offering.
From a personal point of view calling Border a "region" is a bit artificial as it was created solely for transmitter purposes - unlike Tyne Tynes, Granada and Yorkshire which for the most part resemble their BBC counterparts.
My own personal view is that North East Tonight is streets ahead of Look North -- and a lot of people must think the same way because NET is one of the few ITV programmes which sometimes beats the BBC rival (most ITV news programmes are miles behind the BBC due to bad scheduling). The actual news journalism I feel has always been better on Tyne Tees, with as has been mentioned often far faster reporting of events (it used to be a standing joke that the BBC would watch Tyne Tees on Monday to see what they'd put in the show on Tuesday...)
The presentation until recently was what let it down. In the 80s and early 90s TTTV were slack with presentation (graphics and so on) and as a result the product was not as polished. This has changed now and whatever you think of Mike Neville it has to be said that the pres on TTTV is as good if not better than the BBC.
Mike cannot present NE Today as it is a split-region programme (is it the only split non-news regional programme left in the country?). But yes I agree that the number of spinoffs is low -- in fact I think Bob Johnson has had more programmes to himself over the years than Mike!!!
To be honest it's a bit of an irritation I've had with Tyne Tees for a while. They used to excel at studio-based regional entertainment programmes, but over the last 5 years these have completely dried up. They have some massive studios for such a small company and they're lying unused for much of the time so why can't they put out some more live stuff for a change? Local outside broadcast docs are all well and good but a bit of variety wouldn't go amiss...
TTTV has that nasty dog now doesn't it? Anyhow I used to like Tyne Tees's entertainment shows, the compex on City Road is vast, especially compared to the pink palace which is teeny? How mayn studios do they have there anyhow? 2?
There are 5 studios at Tyne Tees, studios 1 and 5 being the largest (part of studio 1 is used for NE Tonight). 2 is also quite big, but only in the sense that it can be used for a full-size news studio. 3 and 4 are boxes.
Studio 5 is where "The Tube" and the kids shows like "Gimme 5" were produced. It is one of the largest studios in the country in fact.
There are 5 studios at Tyne Tees, studios 1 and 5 being the largest (part of studio 1 is used for NE Tonight). 2 is also quite big, but only in the sense that it can be used for a full-size news studio. 3 and 4 are boxes.
Studio 5 is where "The Tube" and the kids shows like "Gimme 5" were produced. It is one of the largest studios in the country in fact.
I saw the tube one, what was Gimme 5 again? What about the beb, how mayn studios do they have?
GE
geordster
BBC North East have two studios - one big one where Look North is set and a smaller one for the bulletins. When the BBC fist moved to the Pink Palace the small one was used for the main Look North programme as the big one used to host network productions....so I was told on a tour many years ago
BBC North East have two studios - one big one where Look North is set and a smaller one for the bulletins. When the BBC fist moved to the Pink Palace the small one was used for the main Look North programme as the big one used to host network productions....so I was told on a tour many years ago
So where does North OF Westminster come from?
SN
Steve Naylor
I think it comes from the soft set in the main Look North studio doesn't it?