Announcers scripts

Does anyone know, do the Announcers write their own scripts or are they written for them?

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I think they write their own.

That may explain why channel 5's are so stupid but LWT's must be written for them as they always say 'This is LWT your weekend ITV'

Not weekend ITV1?

Depends sometimes ITV sometimes ITV 1

Carlton force HTV to say ITV1 at least six times a day.

Most announcers do write their own scripts. Back in the 60's there were scriptwriters at some stations (ATV and AR had them) but these went a long time ago. The annos are usually given a list of common catchphrases to use on the station but other than that it's up to them...

... all unless you were called Bill Steel that is. He used to do 80% of his in-vision announcements with no script at all, just a vague idea of what he was going to say and ad-libbed the rest, which led to a very distinctive style

On BBC 1 in London the channel director or the announcer writes the scripts. Very often the same script is read by the announcer on BBC 1 Wales and BBC 1 Scotland.

Most of them are naff, and I personally would write much better intros.

**Memo** get more female announcers on ITV1 & C5!

So do the announcers just sit there for the whole of their shift just watching the programmes? (when theyre not announcing them)

I think that's it. The general rule is that the BBC script EVERYTHING, and all the independents (ITV, 4, 5, etc) script very little.

Most if the ITV1 stuff is written by the CA, based on some general guidelines (like the main catchphrases and how many times to mention Carlton), plus the TV Times and a slightly more detailed set of background notes sent down by network.

Although, the other afternoon, during Puffin's Pla(i)ce on Channel, I DID notice the in-vision guy working from what was, very obviously, the RADIO Times.

Tut-tut! A BBC publication, in vision on an ITV(1) station, it would never have happened in the old days!

Frogman:-

Rather than me repeating myself and using up Asa's bandwidth, have a look at the 'ITV News - No Sound' thread regarding what the CA does during the programmes.

It's CURRENTLY on page 6 of the main forum index.

Yes, just in case of technical error.

'Well, apologies for the temporary break in transmisison - we are trying our best to fix the problem as soon as we can, but in the mean time here's some music...'

As The TV Room shows, there are PA systems in the toilet, so than an announcer knows when a technical error occurs! I couldn't believe that one!

Also, in the olden days of CITV, the bloke announcer was already pre-recorded. But in case of a problem, the same bloke had to sit there and watch all of the programmes so he could make a live announcement.

Madness!