BBC Points West's Revamp

Talking of Wiltshire, my girlfriend and I decided to go for a drive over the Severn bridge and turned off at the sign for Bowood House. I thought it would be just off the motorway, but oh no, it was a long old drive. Ended up just driving through Calne (pronounced Carn I believe) and then to Avebury where there seems to be a ROAD going through the wonderful stone circle! Lovely countryside though...although too many BMW's for my liking.

I'm off down to Stonehenge for the summer solstace. All those topless hippies!

Back OT, and I believe Wales Today isn't getting a new look for a while. Money issues apparantly!

Amen to that. Best example I can think of is Philip Hayton on News 24 when he does the TOTH headline round-up next to the big screen. He stands there clutching the lecturn like it's the only thing holding him up, and occasionally flapping the laptop screen up and down a bit in an apparent attempt to snap it off.

The BBC really needs to engage in some kind of culling programme of their decrepit presenters - Hayton, Sissons et al - instead of allowing them to undermine their efforts to boost their news services.

Sorry.

Back to Points West. Who was that woman that did the Breakfast bulletins this morning? Sarah-Jane something or other?

Sarah-Jane Bungay from South Today! I think she moved to Points West a couple of weeks ago. Good because she was wasted at South Today really??

Also does anyone have any information about the new set for Points West?? Please....I hate HTV West??

Aren't all the regions' webcam "window" views technically not-quite-live? (i.e. they're on, say, 30-second delayed transmission, or something) I'm sure I heard this somewhere.

I believe that the reason is so that if, say, the webcam packs up, the gallery (who can see a totally live view), will know this before the fuzz/blank screen reaches the studio "window", so they have time to switch to a recorded version of the view during a report, so viewers will not be effected.

I think it varies from region to region. IIRC Midlands Today's 'window' scenes are all pre-recorded.

Look North (Leeds) used to use a live feed, as was demonstrated when Claire Frisby famously appeared to get attacked by a giant spider which was crawling across the lens one morning.

More recently they seem to have been using a pre-recorded loop. Occasionally if you look closely you can see the image jump when it reaches the end of its loop. Until they changed the CSO backdrop at breakfast-time, it was looking really stupid as they'd show the live weather camera shot of Woodhouse Lane in thick fog, and then back to the 'window' overlooking Leeds on a beautifully clear day.

For some reason Look North don't seem to like showing their window much these days. It's gone completely at breakfast time, and hardly ever in shot in other bulletins. Don't know why - the rest of the studio's very plain and boring.

Sounds unappealingly like a cross between BBC News and Logan's Run. What criteria would you use to define a 'decrepit' presenter?

Well it's such a subjective matter that it's difficult to set down specific criteria against which all presenters may be judged. Instead, I use Hayton and Sissons as the benchmark against which all candidates may be compared, in the hope that all will become obvious.

And I was thinking more about The Running Man to be honest - release them into a combat zone and then chase them with armoured vehicles and military-grade weaponry, that kind of thing. It would certainly make for some thrilling viewing on BBC THREE, followed by some high-minded ethical debate on BBC FOUR. You see? It's genius.

Now that would be 'reality' TV that might almost be worth watching.

Would Davina be poached from C4 to front the Saturday night BBC1 programme?

"After the news, watch edited highlights of The Running Newscaster. Meanwhile, over on BBC2, Newsnight's studio invasion by the News 24 crew has just got underway. Later on BBC3, follow live action in the arena, followed by late night discussion in 'Newscasters: The New Misunderstood Class?' on BBC4.
"Tomorrow morning, Breakfast will be presented live from the edge of the Combat Zone, while the CBBC Channel will be interviewing Dick & dom for their reaction to the news that children's presenters may be added to the hitlist."

Soon

And you WILL recognise the set from somewhere else.

Again, I can say no more otherwise I'll be shot.

Just keep an eye out for an interim move shortly.

Ummm, how exactly would the viewers be "effected" if *something* happens to the image??