New Meridian, BBC South & South East Thread

I think its not uncommon for the occasional swear word to appear in background spraypaint etc. I've seen it many times before.

Must say, I know footage it used in other TV shows but its a bit lazy of SET to use YouTube isn't it? Unless it was explained it was from the internet in which case matter closed.

I know its hard to trust Wikipedia these days but I noticed that Meridian Tonight SE seemed different last night. Not only new camera effects and intro by Glen Thompsett it appears that Phillip Hornby and Helen James are no longer going to front Meridian Tonight and are replaced by Sangeeta Barbha (sp?) and Ian Axton.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meridian_Tonight

Now Phil Hornby has been a long-standing presenter/reporter of not only Meridian South East but also its predecessor TVS since the late-eighties. He was given the role of permanent host of Meridian Tonight in 2004 after Geoff Clark left for the BBC. If he has decided to leave then I wish him all the best but I feel a bit of alienation going on with Meridian SE at the moment.

Looks like it started this week. Saw a trailer titled 'Meet Ian and Sangeeta' today. Abit of a shame actually about Phil Hornby to be demoted.

It is a great shame. Chances are discussions and disagreements happened. Its a shame Glen Thompsett is freelance as he's far better than "yuppyfied" Ian Axton. Reporter Jeff Moody would probably also fit the role well.

Ian and Sangeeta cannot do the banter or humourous elements of the programme at all!

It also seems Gemma Humphries has left as Meridian's weather presenter in favour of Simon Parkin. I'm probably wrong about that but she's been on a rather long holiday if you ask me.

I know! I’ve caught a couple of editions of Meridian Tonight this week where they looked very nervous and they weren’t much better by yesterday. I don’t know whether it’s a personal decision or from the powers that be for the presenters to spend an age bantering after each news story but it’s highly irritating. And what’s with the sudden shoehorned references to Maidstone? “Call us in our Maidstone newsroom”, “I see the flowers have come out at our Maidstone studio”. Anyone would think you still broadcast from that place instead of a cupboard in Whiteley.

Phil’s still around – he was presenting some local programme last night and did a plug for it on the 6pm show but it’s a shame if he’s permanently gone from the evening show. Wonder if Charlotte feels a tad guilty!! No doubt that partnership would have long continued if she’d stayed. And as to Simon Parkin, he was transferred across from Central to Thames Valley and no doubt in a cost cutting exercise is probably doing all the Meridian regions bulletins.

Well actually he got the job via Westcountry Live, from what I've seen if Simon Parkin is on the Meridian weather he also does the Thames Valley weather, but if someone else is doing Meridian Weather then he does just the Thames Valley weather.

According to last week's Kent Messenger , Ian and Sangeeta are the new presenting team. Phil Hornby's gone back to being the Westminster correspondent.

(Sorry for the delay in replying, but I've had to wait until now to do this on my work computer. Everytime I try to update a thread on my home PC I just get a blank page. I've cleared my cache, any other ideas?)

Apologies if I'm slow but has Charlotte left Meridian SE? I really liked her. She and Hornby were the best.

She's now with Sky News

Makes sense.

Matt Baker on Inside Out South tonight... odd, he's not a local.

Have to agree that Glen would have been a better choice, at least he KNOWS and IS known in the area. Thought you might like to know that he appears here as well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glen_Thompsett