New Meridian, BBC South & South East Thread

What the heck is going on with Fred, is manner of sitting is rather poor for doing the news.

I don't think that bench helps very much tho!

True, I wonder why ITV has kept them? STV brought something like that in around 2003, by 2006 it was replaced, and the back support was poor

The set has been with most the regions nearly 10 years now. Maybe time for a change ala Granada Reports?

I've always thought that the regions could just turn the back wall from a circular curved set up to a square box one, keep the screen on the back and just put the new desk. Not every reign needs to have a window to the world.

Don't normally alight on this thread - it's not local to me - so I'm a bit slow to the party. But had to leave a comment on that Meridian Thames Valley clip further up the thread.

As far as I'm concerned, that's absolute textbook local commercial TV news, perfect for the audience. Important stories all made relevant for an audience that otherwise may not be bothered if they were presented in another way.

* How your commute into work - and presumably into London - could be made easier by a new transport link. Given the price of living in London and the amount of people living outside the area, I imagine that's a huge deal for the target audience.
* A run-of-the-mill story about people unhappy with a water company made extremely relatable by the use of: "Why you've made a water company top of the table ... (dramatic pause to allow people to think they may have won something for this poor service) ... for customer complaints". Again, a story that affects people on a day to day basis.
* "Research says pupils should be allowed to text in class" is perfect to get parents going: "What? How dare they?"
* Awwwww.... cute puppies. Perfect for the target commercial TV demographic of mums, and an ideal and finally.

All presented by a relatable ITV legend and his co-presenter who seems warm and friendly, but also has an air of authority. Can't speak for the rest of the programme, but that intro would get me watching.

The Meridian region has always been a tough region to make the content relevant to all in it's vast region, especially during the merged sub-regional days, which has made the news a bit generic, but understandable under the circumstances.

I'm not sure how true that statement is.

After all, until December 2006 there were three fully-separate Meridian sub-regions, in a region that didn't extend north of Berkshire.

Tonight's opening headlines on ST Oxford were divided up slightly differently.

There's usually 4 headlines in total, the first 3 of which are read out by the Oxford presenter, and then the 4th is in the pre-recorded Southampton insert.

But tonight it was just 2 from Oxford, and 2 in the Southampton insert. The two stories in the Southampton insert were: one news story from Bracknell (not massively far away from the Oxford sub-region really), and news about Oxford United coming up later in the sports round-up. So, three out of the four headlines were still Oxon/Bucks/Swindon stories.

I've never worked out how they decide to do sport on ST. Sometimes, stories about Oxon/Bucks/Swindon teams are done within the Oxford opt, and therefore the subsequent sports roundup during the back half of the Southampton programme only talks about teams from Reading southwards. But, on other occasions, there is no sport during the Oxford opt, and any sports stories from the sub-region are mixed in with the general pan-regional sports roundup.

Any news on Geraldine not seen her presenting for a few weeks? Maybe long extended break. It was a real shame Wesley Smith couldn't of been snapped up to present the opt out. As the presenters lately have been dire.

Rob Smith was killed and part of the set wall was damaged during BBC South East Today this evening.[media:5268c1142f]http://up.metropol247.co.uk/davidlees/bbc_south_east_today_rob_smith_gets_killed2013.flv[/media:5268c1142f]

It turns out he got over it though and ready to do a much more serious story. The wall seemed okay when the weather was on too.
[media:5268c1142f]http://up.metropol247.co.uk/davidlees/bbc_south_east_today_rob_smith_gets_better2013.flv[/media:5268c1142f]

Do the videos in this post work? If not here are the direct links...
http://up.metropol247.co.uk/davidlees/bbc_south_east_today_rob_smith_gets_killed2013.flv
http://up.metropol247.co.uk/davidlees/bbc_south_east_today_rob_smith_gets_better2013.flv

Yeah, I was wondering about her absence myself. I agree that the people who've been filling in are all dire.

I actually find Geraldine a bit wooden. I much prefer when Jerome Sale anchors the opt. He adds little quirky or humorous off-the-cuff touches every now and then.

On one occasion, the "and finally" story just before 6:40pm was about Pembroke College having a new footbridge to link its two buildings (see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-22274153). After the report, Jerome's final link was as follows:

"And now for our own little South Today bridge. Waiting on the other side, it's Sally Taylor." <mix to Oxford opt's closing sting>

Which was a nice change from the usual mundane textbook wording of the handover, and tied in nicely with the item we'd just seen. If Geraldine had been presenting that evening, the handover wording would almost certainly have been purely routine. Or, if that quirky bridge metaphor was scripted on the autocue, then Geraldine's delivery of it would have been stilted, and therefore ruined it.