South East Today - new titles

SET only came into existence in Sept 2001, so if they'd changed at the same time as the other English Regions did, that would have meant that SET's first ever style would have only lasted 1 year. This would appear to be the reason why they waited.

BUT, although this exact programme had only existed for about 1 year when the other English Regions "went red", viewers in the SET area had been seeing the map titles/blue carpet/mustard-bits-of-wall style for as long as the rest of the country, because SET's predecessors (either Newsroom South East or South Today, depending on whether you're in Kent or Sussex) had looked like that.

Therefore I personally have never agreed that Tunbridge-Wells' apparent reason for the delay is justifiable. You can make up your own mind, though.

cool about the new titles... thought it felt a bit left out.
shame how SET doesnt get the same coverage in this forum like other regions.

Agreed - I'd love to know what other forumers think of South East Today..... is it a programme that others would recommend I see?

For the past couple of weeks, whenever I've watched SET, for the part of the 1830 show that's done with the newsroom background, the newsroom looked possibly CSO'd (I thought I detected a slight "glow" around the presenters, but wasn't sure if it was just a lighting issue).

Maybe the newsroom was being painted china-red, in preperation for the new look? And a looped recording of the mustard-yellow newsroom being used in the meantime?

On the subject of South East Today, this is on the media Guardian site:
http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,7493,1042574,00.html

Meyer accuses BBC of 'bullying' tactics
Press Association
Monday September 15, 2003

Former BBC news presenter Laurie Mayer has told a tribunal he was "harassed" out of his job after blowing the whistle on the "bullying and intimidation" of staff in a BBC newsroom.

He said he paid a "personal price" for raising concerns about the treatment of journalists at the regional studio in Tunbridge Wells, Kent.

The newsreader, who had a career spanning four decades, said he saw one female reporter "in tears" and a manager launch into a "string of expletives" at another member of staff during his time as presenter of South East Today.

He told the employment tribunal in Ashford, Kent, that he made several complaints to senior manager Laura Ellis about the "atmosphere of intimidation" in the newsroom, but claims nothing was done.

The 57-year-old journalist, who has presented national news bulletins for the BBC, claims under "whistle blowing" legislation he suffered detrimental treatment because he highlighted the problems.

This included the termination of his contract after he stormed out of the studio shortly before he was due to go on air in June last year, following a row with Ms Ellis over viewing figures

With this tribunal thing, problems with the editor and these big style issues sounds like the whole SET operation has been a shambles from start to finish. Though I have to say BBC LDN is pretty modern, funky, a good set of presenters and graphics - currently whipping London Tonight with its outdated look and budget cuts bigtime. Huge improvement on Newsroom South East.

They should've done what Look North (Leeds) initially did, rather than getting rid of the rings of light altogether, simply change them to being red.

But Look North(Hull) has the yellow rings!

Really? Considering when they launched, that's rather odd!
I wouldn't know for myself, I've never bothered watching it! (I have all the regions, thanks to Sky, and have given them all a go at least once, but LN (Hull) is the exception.

Does anyone recall who did the bulletin after Meyer stormed out before going on air?

Ahem - read the thread before posting, Rod

(of course, he's edited the message above now, though)

I'm terribly sorry. I'll go prostrate myself...

You'll be pleased to know, Prat, that the offending post has been corrected.


Yes, this is stated above...