The BBC One regions and nations were left in a state of confusion at the end of today’s lunchtime regional news slot due to a timing error.
The lunchtime regional programmes usually run for ten minutes and five seconds.
But today, the Salford-based BBC News at One didn’t expect regions and nations to return to the main programme for 50 seconds more than the usual time allocated.
Many regions decided to simply return to the network output, where a sports bulletin (also produced in Salford) was coming to an end, just prior to part two of the BBC News at One.
However, in some regions, the presenter was left in shot, awkwardly shuffling pages, reading their paper script or speaking with a co-presenter (albeit with mics muted).
It’s not clear how the timing mix-up occurred but it certainly seemed the nations/regions were not expecting an extension to their usual slot.
Last year, a scheduling error resulted in a number of regions failing to air their lunchtime bulletin.
Here’s how each of the nations and regions handled the unexpected extra time today.
Nations
Where the Nations are concerned, BBC Northern Ireland lingered on a wide shot of their studio for a while.
Presenter Declan Harvey had just started to come back in to apologise for the delay returning to Salford, when presumably the Pres team cut up a text-based BBC News Northern Ireland filler (similar to that used on the BBC News channel).
Having left their presenter on screen for a while, BBC Scotland, oddly, went to a breakdown graphic. The presenter came back in to verbally fill briefly.
This is the second time recently that BBC Scotland has resorted to a breakdown graphic to cover a brief issue with BBC Reporting Scotland.
BBC Wales simply returned to network, crashing into the sports bulletin.
English Regions
BBC East left their presenter on screen for around 30 seconds, awkwardly playing about with her computer and script, before crashing back to the sport bulletin on the network output.
Similar on BBC South.
BBC East Midlands, BBC East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, BBC London, BBC North East and Cumbria, BBC South East, BBC South West and BBC West crashed back to the network output, where a sports bulletin was coming to end, prior to rejoining the BBC News at One.
Some of these regions experienced relatively brief spells of paper-shuffling and computer fiddling.
The BBC West presenter was left on screen for about 25 seconds – speaking to her co-presenter for much of it (mic muted) – before a still of the programme titles was put up to fill the rest of the unexpected slot extension.
Poor Clare Frisby on BBC One Yorkshire was left on screen in silence for about 45 seconds before an endboard was put up.
BBC One North West handled the situation well. Although the presenter was left on screen for a brief period, a graphic soon appeared promoting the 6.30pm programme.
They then rejoined the BBC News at One cleanly.
Acknowledgements
FEATURE IMAGE:
PICTURED: text-based filler used by BBC Northern Ireland. COPYRIGHT: BBC.
Acknowledgements