Operation London Bridge: the death of the Queen

Eurovision fell very much within the expected time for Prince George to be born and there were lots of crossed fingers hoping it won't happen then and murmurings about it being moved to BBC Two. And I recall there was another night when there was potential for major news (Another Royal baby? One of the numerous times Nelson Mandela was apparently on his way out only for him to keep going for many months? Can't remember) and the schedules were chock-full of live programmes across the board. There were plans for everything to essentally shuffle up one channel with whatever was on the red button getting the boot - big sighs of relief all round when that didn't happen.

But in the event of a Category 1 I can't imagine anything other than all the channels going into obit mode to begin with. What to do with international live events is an interesting question, though.

As others have suggested, the BBC could quietly put them on the Red Button, the others stick them on the 'sibling' channels.

Banks may well close on the day, but I'm sure the Cashpoints won't !

When 'it' happens, the BBC will have regardless of what's on to go to immediate news on ALL it's outlets. There'll be no putting events to the Red Button or online. They'll be interrupted and shown later if at all. Services as with Diana, would resume over the coming days. Any live event taking part in the UK, Football, Proms or Other Music large enough for live broadcast would probably be stopped, in play, once the news broke anyway, as would similar events in the coming 24-48 hrs.

The Eurovision scenario is a classic Network Director interview question, so it's very interesting to see your thoughts!! As has been mentioned, the Eurovision Song Contest has been interrupted by a broadcaster only once (as far as I'm aware of) in Holland for the Enschede fireworks disaster. You can read about it on Wikipedia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enschede_fireworks_disaster

Although the disaster happened at 1pm local time, NOS later said it was both for practical reasons as well as because they found it "inappropriate to broadcast a light entertainment programme on the night of such a catastrophic event". 22 people were killed and 400 homes were destroyed, with a further 1,500 damaged and presumably a certain amount of civil defence broadcasting came into play.

On that night, the Dutch standby jury presented the results, rather than that of the planned televote. It's unclear from Wikipedia whether viewers in the Netherlands ever go to see the show on a repeat ... anyone know?

I'd have thought that if a Grade 1 Obit happened during the ESC it would be interrupted as per the protocol. At the end of the day, it's a light entertainment show. I would guess it would resume on BBC Two, after the channel has split away from joint programming, on a timeshift delay. I'd have thought the televote would be abandoned and the jury result given only. (Even if viewers in the U.K. see the whole show on delay, they couldn't vote, because they would be doing so after everyone else has voted and (in theory) they might be watching a live stream from somewhere else in Europe and could vote according to how the results are going.)

Who classes at a Grade 1 anyway? Obviously the queen does I'm guessing other senior royals like Charles and William too, probably the serving prime minister (but I imagine not former ones?), who else?

Ever get that deja vu feeling ?

Ever get that deja vu feeling?

Bear in mind that when it is announced that the Queen has died, she will in reality have died many hours previously, so I can't see the news being announced in the middle of a major England game or during the final at Wimbledon or some such. It's not as if a tabloid newspaper will have a source close to the bedside, the news will come out when the royal press office decides to do so, and I expect (like the Christmas Day example), they will weigh up the options.

Here's how Eurovision 2000 slightly awkwardly reported the Enschede disaster across the continent, a Dutch spokesperson explaining that due to a "serious disaster with many victims" no televoting occurred. This being before widespread internet use I wonder if many Europeans spent the rest of the contest wondering what the hell had happened in Holland.

Terry Wogan a few minutes later sombrely stated that he's not aware of what's happened, but it would be "incongruous" to talk about it.

(3:50 in)

I certainly did, I remember booting up the desktop (which took forever !) to find out.

I get the impression the presenters, (or even the production team) hadn't been told ? It might have looked
better if the local presenters had relayed the results?

Back to the Diana Sunday. I do recall BBC 2 splitting away from BBC 1 to show Cricket at about 14:00hrs. I can't remember whether the start of the match had been delayed, or whether the start of the Beeb's coverage was ?

There was a major golf tournament in progress in South Africa (Nedbank/Million Dollar Challenge) when Mandela died. It was one day in. A colleague was assisting SuperSport with the OB coverage. They all went to bed on the evening of the announcement, fully expecting to be doing nothing the next day, but actually neither the event, nor the TV coverage was affected. I'm not sure it would have made it to air had SABC been the host broadcaster,
but even then an international feed would still be required.

The Queen Mother's death was announced while a Premiership game was on Sky Sports, leading to a massive "In Memoriam" graphic pop up on screen briefly until they went back to the game. However, it's probably fair to say that Sky or BT are always showing a match so that wouldn't be top of the Royal press office's concerns. A massive live event on BBC1/ITV is something else.

Two other issues come to mind with holding the news back - the unchecked world of social media could mean rumours start to fly way before anyone wants anything released. And PA famously broke the embargo for Diana's death, citing "British sources", though that was more of a breaking news event.

I see the Mail on Sunday is now running the Guardian's story as 'news' (albeit with a copyright to GMG).

I presume they are admitting to having no actual journalists any more.