UK Today

Today's (Friday 24th) lunchtime UK Today got me thinking…

You'd have thought that the programme would represent the whole UK as equally as possible, which is only really possible in the 18:30 bulletin as there are 13 regions to fit in (14 when the South East splits up).

So, for the shorter bulletins (including lunchtime), as they probably can't fit one story from EVERY region in, you'd have thought they'd have no more than one story from any one region. But both the opening headlines this lunchtime must have been from Midlands Today! One related to Fred West murders (which occurred in Gloucester – and were covered by MT at the time), and the other was about Coventry's bid for the new national football stadium.

You'd also have thought that shorter UK Today bulletins would pick stories spread evenly around the UK, wouldn't you? For example, supposing you can only fit 4 stories into a 5-minute bulletin, they should pick something like: Reporting Scotland, Midlands Today, Look East, and South Today. But they often pick a selection that is crammed towards one end or corner of the UK (e.g. Reporting Scotland, Newsline, Look North (Newcastle), and North West Today – which are all north/north-west UK).

I've noticed this trend before, because I usually watch UK Today in preference to my crap local programme (Midland's Today), but it was only this lunchtime's that it really sunk in.

(Edited by SittingOvation at 3:08 pm on Aug. 24, 2001)

They simply pick the best stories from the whole country. Location doesn't come into it.

The BEST stories? Well in that case they should rarely pick anything from Midlands Today! (never mind having two MT stories in one show...)

Well I think I'd prefer all northern stories than southern for once!! Its nice for them to have a mixture though, but our region hardly gets mentioned!

Yorkshire hardly gets a mention!

It seems mainly to be all stories south of Nottingham that are featured!

Hey, wouldn't it be great if they redesigned the UK Today titles so it is in the blue background regional format, and that as well as place names whizzing around, it had all the regional news programme titles whizzing round as well? That would be cool. They could have them in pairs, i.e.

NORTH WEST TODAY
MANCHESTER

EAST MIDLANDS TODAY
NOTTINGHAM

and so on.

Which is your region?

North West Today.

I say that becuase they all seem to be Newsroom South East, or some of the other regions near there. I'd like to see more stories from Look North Leeds and Newcastle. It would be nice if our region was mentioned a little more often! As you said in another thread, lots of it revolves around London, which can be annoying from time to time!

I initially like that idea, BUT what colorscheme would be used for the shape of the UK?

The Englsh regions are bright red & yellowy-orange. Scotland is St Andrew blue & regal purple. NI is mid-blue & 'shamrock' green. Wales is dark(ish) red and dark blue. Also Wales doesn't use the sky blue background like all other regions, but ivory like the national news.

I think the style of the current UK Today titles reflects what the programme is all about. It is a cross between a national and regional programme. So the titles are a cross between the national and regional titles. Visually they are like the national titles (in terms of colorscheme), but use the English regions' music.

(Edited by SittingOvation at 7:40 pm on Aug. 24, 2001)

Yes, I see what you mean. They could just do the whole country in the English regional one, as don't the nations (NI, Wales, Scotland) get their own programme on SKY Digital, or they only get UK Today when their own region fails. This is AFAIK. Or they could keep the current colourscheme but use the other idea of the programme names!

On the subject of UK Today, when do you see it?

I only can see it on BBC News 24 (during Breakfast) and Weekdays at 3.25 on BBC Two.

If I recall correctly, this evening's (Friday 24th) UK Today included:

Two stories from Midlands Today
Two stories from Newsroom South East
Two stories from Reporting Scotland
Two stories from South Today
One story from Points West
One story from North West Today/Tonight
One story from Look North (Newcastle)
One story from Newsline

That may not have been all, but it's all I can remember. If they hadn't had two stories from some regions, then Leeds, Norwich, Nottingham, Cardiff and Plymouth might have got a look in.

I do think Look North (Leeds) and North West Today/Tonight are usually the least likely to get onto UK Today.