Regional BBC news apart from Look North

To all who live outside the Look North region,

I'd like to know what your regional BBC news programme is like. I've seen the mugshots of the presenters on the various regional BBC news sites, but I've no idea what they're actually like. It's good to see that Nick Owen's still in work (I DON'T fancy him!) at Midlands Today.

What are the presenters like? Is there any banter between them? Do you like what you see? Is there any 'hot totty' either male or female? I'm intrigued about all regional news programmes now, so bang the drum for your region!

Midlands Today.

Nick Owen unfortunately can't grasp where just enough banter meets too much banter - so for me he is quite literally a 'turn-off'.

MT's set has no sofa area or anything like that. The sports presenter sits further round to the right (from viewer's p.o.v.) of main desk, with plasma screen behind him/her showing very green sports graphics.

Further round to left is where Shefali Oza does weather. The CSO bit of wall isn't green or blue (or even yellow) like normal. it's pale grey! I think this is so that during rest of bulletin it doesn't look out of place with ivory walls (as set is so small, they can't avoid it being in shot sometimes during rest of bulletin!).

However, it does look out of place. You know there's a thin horizontal line indented in the ivory wall about 2-3 metres off the ground? Well it doesn't go over the pale grey bit. Also whereas ivory walls are smooth, pale grey bit has visibly rough texture.

I don't think grey is a colour with which CSO can be done. Having observed closely, I think I've figured out how they do it (wait for it... it's completely insane...)

I think they shine 'special' lights (probably ulraviolet or something clever like that) on the grey area when it's weather time. The rough grey stuff is some sort of special 'responsive material' which doesn't so much TURN blue as GLOW blue as a result. This is then a suitable shade of blue for CSO! This would explain why Shefali's hand looks like it disintegrates when she puts it the map - and why the weather graphics always look fuzzy!

Also, when Midlands Today first went generic, their window both a little bit less wide and a little bit less tall than now. I think the bottom edge was at same height then and now, but the top edge definately didn't reach top of wall before. Not sure when change happened.

Old window was two rather small 16:9 shaped plasma screens turned 90 degrees (or is it 270 degrees?) to be 'portrait' way up and placed side by side. the window had a perimiter metal looking window-frame with a central vertical bar to cover the seam where the screens met.

As well as the 'new', or at least newer window being slightly bigger overall, it is made of a single comparatively large 4:3 shaped (I think) plasma screen, with no window-frame at all, not even round the perimeter (after all they only had a frame before to hide a seam, so now it wasn't needed as there's no seam!).

PS Nobody drop dead gorge on MT, but Richard Smith is better than a brick on the head.

(Edited by SittingOvation at 2:26 am on Aug. 23, 2001)

Well North West Tonight has the honour of being the only BBC regional news programme with one presenter, namely the famous Krypton Factor man Gordon Burns (as you all undoubtedly already knew!). NWT doesn't feature Hud the Stud, but it does feature the lovely Dianne Oxberry and the little-bit-rougher-but still-quite-nice Heather Stott who both do the weather.

As for the window behind Gordon, it looks out down Oxford Street or Road or whatever it's called in Manchester, which is where BBC NorthWest are based. From what I've seen, the window is big compared to other regions and is made up of many small screens. It also goes down to the floor, which many other regions' don't.

I also thing that NWT have the best side picture of any region. It just looks so good. The astons are cream, and the LIVE thing doesn't line up with the top line of the text like it should, instead opting for going halfway down the aston.

And that's NorthWest Tonight.

lol!

Yes Dianne does the 1830 weather, and Heather at 1330. There is a bit of banter between Dianne and Gordon at the end of the programme, as they both sit at the desk before returning to London. She's always commenting on his age. Gordon's off this week, as he was bitten by penguins whilst doing an on location programme on Friday in Chester Zoo!

Other presenters are Nigel Jay and Tina Bangs, who do the Breakfast bulletins. Julia Sharp does weekend and breakfast. (Nigel does weekends aswell). Then when Gordon is off, either Stuart Flinders, Tony Morris or Martin Henfield fills in. Martin does the late 2225 bulletins. Before Gordon arrived in 1997, Martin udes to present the main bulletins most of the time, with Merryn Myatt, who's now left the programme. They presented in between Philip Hayton leaving and Gordon Burns arriving.

We have a studio shot of Oxford Street in Manchester behind the presenters.

We use the North West Today opening titles for the 1330 bulletin. The opening titles or North West Today sting are used for the 1525 bulletin, and the full opening North West Tonight titles for 1830. The 2225 bulletin uses the sting. We don't actually have North West Tonight end titles (there are North West Today ones, for lunchtime), so they use a slightly different sting which seems to echo and the fade at weekends.

And thats all I can really add to Phil's post!

The following images are mine, and were put on THE TV ROOM:

http://www.thetvroom.com/images-overtoyou/NWT2.jpg
Gordon Burns - North West Today

http://www.thetvroom.com/images-overtoyou/NWT9.jpg
Martin Henfield - 10.25pm

http://www.thetvroom.com/images-overtoyou/NWT11.jpg
Nigel Jay

http://www.thetvroom.com/images-overtoyou/NWT7.jpg
Julia Sharp

http://www.thetvroom.com/images-overtoyou/NWT15.jpg

For more of my North West pics, please do visit The TV Room Over To You section!!

(Edited by itsrobert at 8:29 am on Aug. 23, 2001)

Not any more - Newsroom South East has had just one presenter per programme since May (probably because thew new studio is so small there isn't room for more than one). There's no sports presenter and no weather presenter (weather comes from the national presenter). So there's no merry banter on NSE at all!

And a lot of mistakes.

Can you provide any examples? I guess that old television habits don't die easily as Nick Owen had all those years of banter with Anne Diamond on TV AM and then on Good Morning with Anne and Nick. It'd be quite interesting to compare Brummie Banter with Banter a la Peter and Paul. Are there any recurring themes like receding hairlines, wigs, age, etc? I'm intrigued now!

I can't think of any specific examples. Perhaps what me and everyone else means by the word 'banter' is not quite the same (?). Nick doesn't really tease his fellow presenters or anything like that, he just cracks bad jokes and drops lame puns relating to the current story (unless of course it's a very serious or tragic story).

Although sometimes makes comments regarding the age and weight of one of the correspondents, John Yates. John is not really all that old, but is at least older than Nick I think. And he's 'somewhat rotund' shall we say?

It makes the whole thing feel like a Carry On! MT would perhaps benefit from the one-presenter format at 1830, because when Nick does a lunchtime or short bulletin he doesn't really bother with jokes, as there's nobody to chuckle (or, as is more often the case, groan) at them.

(Edited by SittingOvation at 12:22 am on Aug. 24, 2001)

What would he make of our quirky last item tonight, a pony that is reported to be the oldest in Britain, at 50 years?

Rob, did you see NWT the other day when they had the aston wrongly aligned?
It was floating out into the window - until they realised and adjusted it a bit.
When they re-adjusted it, it went in slightly further than normal and looked much better.

Happy birthday to that 50 year old, erm...erm, oh a pony, thats what it was, I'd forgot what it is!, before starting to laugh until the end!
as said by Ian White tonight (and that rhymes)

In relation to the message directly above, Look North did this too, and had the side-bar over the window