Yes it is Maxine - she was the duty BBC World newsreader at the time. Once they knew how big the story was Nik was called in and Maxine moved to the newsroom. I think Nick Higham was also there. The days of the old newsroom pre the News Centre.
So if Martyn Lewis first broke the news of the crash, and then he was back on at 6am, thats quite a long wait, would he have gone home ( depending on where he lived) or would he have stayed working in the newsroom, or would he have had a brief nap at his desk?
Some days it's just not worth going home...
I'd go for the "brief nap at desk" option - although he'd obviously managed to find a black tie in the intervening hours.
(I was speaking to someone who'd been working at an RSL radio station, and only left the building four times over the month they were on air. Granted it was based in a hotel, but still...)
Martyn Lewis was called in to do the original newsflash (from a very small emergency news studio that used to exist for that exact reason) he was then allowed home as at the time it was then thought Diana was only injured. He was ofcourse then called back in once it was known she was dead - in the intervening time BBC One carried BBC World and it was Nik Gowing that made the official TV announcement. It's interesting watching back some of that coverage now.
Oh and it would certainly be black ties if the Queen did die.
LS
Larry Scutta
What I've always wondered is who took the decision to broadcast World that night and taking account of whatwas known at the time, why?
At the time BBC1 closed down the news of the crash had only recently broken and Diana at that time was just minorly injured.
Who had the foresight that the story would end up as something much much bigger?
Speaking of important people dying, Lord Jenkins - a former Home Secretary has died. Breaking News on News 24, and presumably on Sky once they come out of their Year in Review. (well, he's important enough to have a pre-prepared obituary)
Channel 4 broke into their programming with a "Channel 4 News Report" complete with opening caption and ITN production slide.
JA
Jamez
Whataday posted:
thegeek posted:
Speaking of important people dying, Lord Jenkins - a former Home Secretary has died. Breaking News on News 24, and presumably on Sky once they come out of their Year in Review. (well, he's important enough to have a pre-prepared obituary)
Channel 4 broke into their programming with a "Channel 4 News Report" complete with opening caption and ITN production slide.
He's hardly important - from what I've heard this dead bloke was a bit of a snobby t0sser!
What I've always wondered is who took the decision to broadcast World that night and taking account of whatwas known at the time, why?
At the time BBC1 closed down the news of the crash had only recently broken and Diana at that time was just minorly injured.
Who had the foresight that the story would end up as something much much bigger?
"To get a continuous news service up and running as soon as possible the corporation took the unprecedented step of merging its international 24- hour news service, BBC World, with the frequencies used in Britain for BBC1 and BBC2.
The decision was taken after John Birt, director-general of the BBC, Will Wyatt, chief executive of BBC Broadcast, and Tony Hall, head of BBC News, made hurried phone calls to each other in the night. BBC2 was able to get a short news item in just before it closed down for the evening but promised viewers new reports through the night. After taking the feed from the 24-hour rolling news service that is broadcast to the rest of Europe during the night, BBC1's schedules were cleared all day yesterday for updates and analysis."
- The Guardian; 01/09/97
Jamez: for all his snobbish qualities, Jenkins was an increadibly intelligent man, who did a hell of a lot for British people.
There is always a habit of glamourising peoples' achievements at the time of their deaths - just look at John Smith - but you're wrong to believe that Jenkins was just a snob with his own interests at heart.
JA
Jamez
Politics is full of stuffy old cigar smoking men who have absolutely nothing to make them interesting to young people.
It's just boring and useless - even more so now in recent years with Britains power being handed over to unelected onion eating control freaks in Brussells.
It's a shame that Britain has become what it is, thanks to the likes of Tony Blair and the previous governments.
NHS is appalling
Cost of running a car is ridiculous
Transport system is chaos
And above all that we are expected to adopt a currency that was originally dreamt up by Adolf Hitler in the 1930s - he wanted Europe to be one big country, with one currency, one set of laws, and only blonde people were allowed to exist. I bet Hitler is looking up from Hell, smiling and rubbing his hands with glee as Europe fast becomes this monster Hitler dreamt of.
Is it me, or didn't we fight 2 world wars to keep our own democratic process, or does my 'modern man' Tony Blair just enjoy being the lapdog of the heads of European governments?
Bring back Maggie Thatcher - ok, she wasn't perfect, but at least she didnt take any nonsense from Europe, and worked on bringing the UK closer with the US, which is a far better direction to head in. America can offer the UK a lot more than the squabbling control freaks in Brussells could ever offer us.
America is the Uk's longest standing ally, whereas just 60 years ago the UK and US were bombing the **** out of Europe.
It's funny how things change - who knows, in 30 years time we could all be forced to speak German.
Oh Hitler, even six decades after you scoffed a cianide capsule, you're values and dreams live on in the form of the European Union. Well done, no one could have been as clever as you.
...with Britains power being handed over to unelected onion eating control freaks in Brussells.
I do agree that Britain is, in some ways, losing its sovereignty to the supragovernment that is the EU. I'm not that keen on how the European Commission, a body of unelected bureaucrats, proposes policy, and is put before the Council of Ministers. This policy/law takes precedence over domestic laws, which, as I say, am not too keen on. I really think that the British Parliament should be able to run the country how it wants to, without having interference from Europe. However, on the other hand, it can be argued that Britain's economic future lies within Europe.
Anyway, all this is off topic - let's get back on topic!
MG
MikeG
Jamez posted:
And above all that we are expected to adopt a currency that was originally dreamt up by Adolf Hitler in the 1930s - he wanted Europe to be one big country, with one currency, one set of laws, and only blonde people were allowed to exist. I bet Hitler is looking up from Hell, smiling and rubbing his hands with glee as Europe fast becomes this monster Hitler dreamt of.
The idea of Lebensraum was not as simple as you seem to make out. And on top of that not all Nazi policies were made up by Hitler.
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Is it me, or didn't we fight 2 world wars to keep our own democratic process, or does my 'modern man' Tony Blair just enjoy being the lapdog of the heads of European governments?
And is it me or did we actively let the democratic countries pre-1939 go into Hitler's claws? Appeasement was the key until the Czechoslovakian crisis. We fought two world wars because of treaties set up by Britain to protect other countries - 1914: with Belguim, 1939: with Poland because the Russians signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact.
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Bring back Maggie Thatcher - ok, she wasn't perfect,
Understatement.
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but at least she didnt take any nonsense from Europe, and worked on bringing the UK closer with the US, which is a far better direction to head in. America can offer the UK a lot more than the squabbling control freaks in Brussells could ever offer us.
Debatable. Shame she couldn't make a go of the UK. (I have a personal opinion on this - I come from a mining town - so won't comment more)
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America is the Uk's longest standing ally, whereas just 60 years ago the UK and US were bombing the **** out of Europe.
America weren't our strongest ally when war was broken, were they? France were. It took 3 long years before they got out of their isolationist approach. America only joined the war when the Japanese turned on them! And we weren't bombing the **** out of Europe - Germany did a very good job of that themselves with the seizure of France, the Russian Front, the taking of Holland...
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Oh Hitler, even six decades after you scoffed a cianide capsule, you're values and dreams live on in the form of the European Union. Well done, no one could have been as clever as you.