Look North, North East Tonight and Lookaround

After Christmas/New Year away, I'm glad to be back in York watching Look North (Newcastle) and North East Tonight.

I watched NE Tonight as well as LN this evening and I'm very impressed with the new set at City Road. The mural behind Mike Neville does the programme proud.

The Teesside studio is still the same as before Christmas but that still looks good. The old Newcastle set was awful and needed dumping.

Could anyone tell me what the difference between the Bilsdale NE Tonight and the Pontop Pike/Chatton version? Is there a difference?

We Bilsdalers had Pam Royle in the Teesside studio and there were plenty of stories from North Yorkshire(more than LN - this has to be said 'cause it's a fact!!), as well as Cleveland and Co Durham. Did people in the the Pontop/Chatton area see this? Don't Pontop/Chatton viewers have the Teesside opt-out (either with Pam Royle, Andy Kluz or Claire Montgomery)?

As for LN, Carol was still there making the programme worth watching and there were a couple of stories from/including North Yorks - one was an interesting feature about how much the NE&C region's councils (including NYCC and York City Council) are spending on gritting roads and pavements.

Strangely, Lara Rostron was on during Breakfast and at Lunchtime. What's happened to Colin Briggs? Is he ill/on holiday or has he left BBC Newcastle?

Even though NE Tonight has a better set than before and covers North Yorkshire very well, I still prefer LN because it is a much better presented and therefore more interesting programme.

Don't you dare say that LN is a day behind NE Tonight! This just isn't true! Comprendez?

How well does Border cover Cumbria in Lookaround? Have there been any set/titles changes? I doubt it. Border used the same titles for eight years (1993-2001) for heaven's sake!

Apologies for length of post, I had a lot to get off my chest!

Nope - it was Mike Neville all the way for viewers of the Chatton/Pontop version of NE Tonight. Though, he did feature stories from all over the region - balanced coverage perhaps?

Border's set is still the same (chairs/table/telly). As rapid change is not a common occurence at Carlisle, the next set/graphics revamp should be due around 2010 - provided that both Border and Lookaround still exist by then...
Tonight it was Tim Backshall and Fiona Armstrong, aka "The Woodentops", doing it (the programme, that is!!!). When will Border realise that you don't talk at viewers, you talk to them?! I often flick over from Mike Neville to see who's on Lookaround before flicking back again - just seeing who's on tonight is enough for me.

A quick trip to the local IKEA store for a new set, followed by elocution lessons for the presenters, is needed for the Lookaround team, methinks! Oh yeah, and some Mr Sheen so that they can polish their performances...

I've always admired the way Tyne Tees almost seemlessly do the opt out so that viewers in the North of the region don't even realise anything is different. The one thing that does bug me is that the opt outs can on occassion cover the same stories anyway so render themselves meaningless. During the old days of Network North there seemed to be absolutely no difference between NN and Tyne Tees Today in the North.