North West Tonight on Friday

North West Tonight are doing an 'on-location' programme from the Isle of Man! That will hopefully mean that Gordon will be on location and they will have either:

Martin Henfield
Tony Morris
Julia Sharp
Nigel Jay (doubt it!)
Stuart Flinders

in the studio!

I know they like to have presenters in the studio as well but in the modern age of communication would it not be possible to do the whole programme on location - especially a half hour programme. Surely they have computers, could send scripts and any breaking news to them.

Yes its possible, but they have one presenter in the studio to do the other news, sport and hand over to the weather etc. They did it a couple of months agao from Germany. Gordon Burns was out there with Stuart Flinders and Martin Henfield was in the studio. Don't forget there is the lunchtime and afternoon bulletin which has to be done from the studio. Its pointless doing a full lunch bulletin on location.

Well, North West Today was presented by Stuart Flinders from Manchester and they went over to Gordon at the end of the bulletin. The afternoon update was solely done by Stuart. The lunch bulletin had a normal recorded balloon saying 'Now on BBC ONE North West Today with Stuart Flinders'.

North West Tonight however was a different case. The balloon was live and said 'Now on BBC ONE North West Tonight with Stuart Flinders in Manchester and Gordon Burns in Douglas' Gordon then came on with no headline bed. He introduced the bulletin, which was followed by the titles. He talked for about 45 seconds before saying 'and now its back to Manchester and Stuart Flinders with the main news'. So thats how they did it!!

Maybe BBC North West could use a annoucement style like BBC North do?

'Across Manchester, the North West and North Wales, this is BBC ONE with North West Tonight presented by Martin Henfield'

??

Yes - nearly!! It would be:

'Across Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Lancashire and North Cheshire, this is BBC ONE with North West Tonight presented my Gordon Burns'

I'd love this as they always fade into the studio with the lights dimmed. We never get this. We get the ident which cuts to Gordon with 'Welcome to the programme, the headlines the Friday evening'. For North West Today he says 'This is North West Today. These are the headlines this Friday lunchtime'

I would love a Look North style though!

BTW, we had 10 mins of news with Stuart before going back to Gordon, Sally Newgent and Dianne Oxberry in Douglas.

Is this to make up for the fact that they hardly ever cover any news from the Isle of Man - to remind viewers it is in the region!!

Also, the weather presenter has to stand almost off the map doesn't she to fit the Isle of Man in?!

No its to do with some sport going on there at the moment! We saw Gordon cooking and eating raw seafood - his face was a classic! They used some nifty graphics!

Strange how they come across as one of the most serious programmes normally with one presenter, no banter, etc. but then they do this sort of programme!!

We do have a little banter - at the end with the weather presenter and the sports presenter Sally Newsgent.

Yeah, okay - I'll give you that!!

I've only seen Sally the sports presenter once... how long has she been there? I presume Gordon likes having all these women around him - so surely he'd love a co-presenter live Carol Lowe (who I saw present a late bulletin once) or Linda McDermott (from Radio Merseyside)!!

Heres the balloon they used at the start if tonights programme:

BBC ONE North West Tonight with Stuart Flinders and Gordon Burns