BBC News Channel General Discussion

DE

deejay 4 March 2015 8:44am

after the 9th September this year, her Majesty becomes the longest reigning monarch in history (according to Wikipedia) so it may be a rehearsal for such an obit scenario. Bringing the blinds down would be a good way to keep the public from starting to worry.

They rehearse a scenario of that nature every year. Apparently somebody at BBC news turned up for work while the Diana coverage was going out and offered his congratulations on the inventive scenario they had come up with for that year's rehearsal.

There have also been occasions where rehearsals in the past have led to on-air reporting (elsewhere in the world I might add) of the death being rehearsed. Rehearsals these days are carefully arranged so that anyone happening upon the footage (which is pretty hard to find) is immediately aware of its rehearsal status.

DA

davidhorman 4 March 2015 9:11am

Quote:

Rehearsals these days are carefully arranged so that anyone happening upon the footage (which is pretty hard to find) is immediately aware of its rehearsal status.

Wasn't there a case years ago where someone saw a rehearsal of an obit for the Queen Mother, thought it was real, rang his mum in Australia to tell her, and it ended up on the news there?

IS

Inspector Sands 4 March 2015 9:34am

Yes, an employee of Sky News in 1993:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/reports-of-queen-mothers-death-exaggerated-1504013.html

IS

Inspector Sands 4 March 2015 9:38am

Steve in Pudsey posted:

He was either arts or media correspondent for a long time. Many of the packages have been made a while!

And he doesn't just forget his former specialism, he seems to be the go-to for anything arts or media related.

SW

Steve Williams 4 March 2015 1:45pm

Steve in Pudsey posted:

They rehearse a scenario of that nature every year. Apparently somebody at BBC news turned up for work while the Diana coverage was going out and offered his congratulations on the inventive scenario they had come up with for that year's rehearsal.

The story is that in their last rehearsal before Diana died, they'd done one involving Fergie dying in a car crash.

MA

Markymark 4 March 2015 7:09pm

Steve Williams posted:

The story is that in their last rehearsal before Diana died, they'd done one involving Fergie dying in a car crash.

I thought at first you were referring to the 1998 Sky TV chat show she hosted

SJ

sjhoward 4 March 2015 7:38pm

deejay posted:

Rehearsals these days are carefully arranged so that anyone happening upon the footage (which is pretty hard to find) is immediately aware of its rehearsal status.

There was, of course, the accidental broadcast of a snippet of a rehearsal for a different emergency on BBC Two in 2010

AN

Andrew Founding member 4 March 2015 7:41pm

And that definitely isn't a mock at all.

MA

Markymark 4 March 2015 8:08pm

Andrew posted:

And that definitely isn't a mock at all.

Some people really do have far too much time on their hands..

03

030293 4 March 2015 10:37pm

I've not gone deeply into how breakdowns work, but from watching the clip above and seeing the text overlaid onto the Coast titles, does that mean that BBC Two (possibly other BBC Channels) just type up their apology text as and when necessary as opposed to having a generic breakdown caption?

CH

chris 4 March 2015 10:39pm

Markymark posted:

Andrew posted:

And that definitely isn't a mock at all.

Some people really do have far too much time on their hands..

Is it bad that on first glance I assumed that was real? Obviously a sign of how awful BBC Two presentation is...

VM

VMPhil 4 March 2015 10:43pm

030293 posted:

I've not gone deeply into how breakdowns work, but from watching the clip above and seeing the text overlaid onto the Coast titles, does that mean that BBC Two (possibly other BBC Channels) just type up their apology text as and when necessary as opposed to having a generic breakdown caption?

The video above is a mock, but I think the mocker did that on purpose to make the breakdown look a bit more ramshackled than it would be.

I'm pretty sure these days the BBC channels have just one animated breakdown slide that they use on air. They used to use programme slides prior to 1996/1997. There also used to be an example on TV & Radio Bits of a very specific apology slide for a 'switching error' on BBC Choice and BBC Knowledge, but I don't think they are that specific nowadays (at least in terms of the apology slides, perhaps via a CA).

(November 2013)