Northern Ireland news thread

Another new female reporter? Men are really becoming an endangered species at Havoc House these days.

Having said that, it looks like Ali Fleming is now off on her maternity leave - Paul and Lynda hosted the main UTV Live each night last week, and this week Clarky appears to be on holiday so it's Marc and Lynda at six with Lynda on UTV Live Tonight duty - I'm surprised they didn't cancel UTV Live Tonight for a week with its main host absent

Meanwhile, can anyone confirm what's the story with Noel Thompson? I read recently he had an accident when riding his bike, but I also heard on hearsay he had swine flu...

Stephen Watson is presenting Newsline tonight. Where are the other male presenters at BBC NI?

A question: Does UTV's answer to Kate Silverton (not a term of endearment), Aideen Kenned, also work shifts as a continuity announcer? She now seems to be presenting/"reading" the weekend and UTV Live Tonight news bulletins Rose Neill has tended to host in the past few months.

Of late, it seems that of the four UTV announcers, curly-wurly Gilly (a term of endearment this time) is the only one who appears read the news when she's also been on continuity duty.

And from the sounds of his sign-off on Thursday night's UTV Live Tonight, Clarky is on holiday next week; will we have Lynda on her own at Six every day, or will Marc join her? Or, God help us, they'll give one of the ten million annoying blonde women (gross exaggeration) who work in the Havoc House newsroom the gig?

Some updates on UTV staff gleaned from Facebook (hence info that's already in the public domain):

Alison Fleming had a baby girl on 7th September.

Aideen Kennedy, born 4th September 1978, attended St Dominic's College in Belfast and has a young son called Jacob.

The North American journalist who did some reporting on UTV Live a few months back, Patrick Card, comes from Athens, Pennsylvania, he did an MA in Journalism at UUC and is now back in the States working as an intern at WENY-TV at New York.

Victoria Steveley (who I think has only voiced Business Briefs on UTV Live Tonight and is not blonde), currently a cross-platform journalist with the company, joined UTV in June. She studied English at Queens and is another alumni of the PG Dip Journalism course at UUC, graduating in 2006. She previously worked at Seven FM in her native Ballymena and Q97.2 in Coleraine.

And it looks like Letitia Fitzpatrick is using her maiden name again.

What happened on tonights Sport on UTV Live? Forgive me but I can't remember his name, but it seemed that he was very nervous - his words shaking etc, was it cut short,?? As there seemed to be a lot of time to be filled at the end of the programme?

Just watched tonight's programme back, and it sounded to me like Neil had a cold/sore throat, and was caught up.

To me, the filling may have arisen due to a hasty re-arranging of who they spoke to about the death of Stephen Gately - they got Gerry Kelly on the phone from Majorca instead of (thank goodness) the Daily Mirror's Paul Martin. Looks like they used the last publicity pic Gerry did at UTV as well in the phone graphic.

Meanwhile, Marc is indeed covering for an absent Clarky:

Liking the hair at the moment. Any excuse for a screengrab of Mr Mallett on TV Forum, eh?

Is it just me or should Lynda Bryans become the regular presenter of UTV Live Tonight? She proved again last night she can handle the flow of the show more naturally and less cringeworthingly than the wooden one. Unlike Clark, she gave a friendly acknowledgement to Gillian before (who couldn't help but smile, yay!) and after the news round-up, even calling her Gilly when the swirly-locked one handed back to her.

Typically, it was only for yesterday - no week off for Clarky so today was back to business.

O'Neill melodramatic lead report with dodgy fades to black for no reason, check. Dobson on second report, wouldn't you know. Bonus points, top two stories from Belfast. Super-duper bonus points for featuring Simmons-level camp hospital porter wearing rainbow lanyard in Dobson report. McNulty-Fitzgerald on the Gately death third in the running order, can it get much better than this? She even borrowed some of O'Neill's fades to black for pathos effect to make Louis Walsh look older and more haggard.

And if UTV Live shows that green-spiky-mucus-ball-swine-flu graphic thing one more time... they are really getting their money worth from that bit of graphics. That NI football backdrop thing with the UTV logos on it travels to Prague. How many bottles of peroxide for the hair did Ruth Gorman leave at home to make room for it?

Interesting cut on the UPlayer tonight, they didn't include the ITV News "coming up" bit - are they Stewart-ist?

Two stories of political importance leading on this evening's UTV Live, and it's an O'Neill-Dobson one-two yet again. You have to endure their reports before you hear from the reporter you'd expect to hear, Ken Reid, talking in the studio. A few years ago, it would have been the senior reporters covering the big stories on UTV Live.

Just what do senior executives see in these two particular journalists to promote them so much?

I know my moaning about these two journalists is probably becoming excrutiating, bordering on the obsessive, but they are insufferable and a sad indictment of how weak and how poor I believe UTV's news service has become. For me, UTV Live was good because it wasn't like, or tried to be like, other ITV regional news programme - concise multiple pieces on stories for a half-hour time slot, a high standard of experienced and long-serving reporters, a news agenda that didn't favour tabloid-style human interest stories which come across as contemptuous and insincere. All that has fallen flat in the past few years, so much so I would actually welcome another taking on an independent regional news service in Northern Ireland.

Mind you, from the evidence on the rest of tonight's UTV Live, a thirty second soundbite from the Reverend Jonathan Campbell of the Newbuildings Independent Methodist Church makes the prospect of spending six to eight minutes in the company of Sharon O'Neill and Sarah Dobson palatable. And is Ruth Gorman the spawn of Vanessa Feltz?

Tonight's UTV Live saw copious amounts of flogging of UTV's website to follow the news stories over the weekend. To make up for only twenty or so minutes of local news coverage on television - you know, as in Ulster TELEVISION - over the weekend, huh?

And O'Neill-Dobson-Fitzgerald on the top stories AGAIN*... and was it necessary to spend the first ten minutes on the bomb attack in Belfast when other such attacks only got a brief mention? When on Earth will UTV stop being so biased towards Greater Belfast? (Rhetorical question... oh, I've lost count)

Looks like the UTV Live Sport sting has finally been rendered in the right 16:9 format instead of being overstretched.

* I know, I should not be subjective about these reporters, but if anyone who follows their duties on UTV wants to defend them here, please go ahead...

Ha ha, thanks very much! I was covering holidays, glad you liked it. Cate

With the sad news of the swine flu deaths and the Omagh house fire inquest dominating the NI news agenda this week, it's a nice change for me to see the senior reporters getting the lead stories on UTV Live, especially the return of Jane Loughrey - and the likes of O'Neill (who we had respite from for a few days), Dobson and Fitzgerald relegated to items further down the agenda. A few narks aside though, it feels more like how UTV Live was a few years ago and all the better for it.

Is it just me or has Mark McFadden's delivery improved in his reports? Has he been getting elocution lessons on the sly? Interesting they had live links to Mark in Omagh two nights in a row, have UTV set their bureau up there yet? And is the Omagh office to complement, or replace, the one in Derry?

Interesting to see on Monday's 1800 programme they provided Gloria with a fluffy lapel mike on her two-way, watching it made me feel like she was still working on the evening news thirty years later I wonder if she'll be hanging around Norn Irn for any build-up to a certain golden anniversary next Saturday?

HOLD THE PHONE - a new MALE journalist at Havoc House?!?! Guy called Chris Brennan who is on sport. Mind you, I did spot his name was added on Wikipedia the other day...

Keep it on hold for a bit - Paul is now thanking Gilly on the handovers on UTV Live Tonight? Wonders never cease. Oh, it was just on Monday's edition. Typically, he acknowledges old buddy Rose Neill tonight. Aul' Clarky also seems to be picky over mentioning who does the Business Brief voiceover; but as he's given the lovely Judith Hill a by-line two nights on the trot, I shouldn't really moan.

Staying with positive feedback, the Q&A format of most of the first half of UTV Live Tonight, with two studio guests answering viewers' questions on swine flu, worked well I thought, would be nice to see this format used again.

Was there any reason for two reports on UTV Live about the re-opening of the Ulster Museum - one from O'Neill (which, admittely I didn't look at because it was O'Neill reporting - and to complicate matters further, this report was repeated on UTV Live Tonight with the voice of Aideen Kennedy) and another by Tina Campbell which was repeated just over an hour later on The Seven Thirty Show*?

* - which featured Marc Mallett getting harnessed up and being guided on navigating cracks - he was rockclimbing.



Here's the man himself taking off his helmet for proof, whether you want it or not... I know some of you out there do

Also mentioned on the Seven Thirty Show this evening, they will be doing a piece on UTV's 50th birthday next week. There's been no word yet on whether UTV Live are marking the build-up to next Saturday's big day for the wee station next week.

And on UTV Live Tonight, it seems Gillian is not the only newsreader to do the occasional voice on last-minute pieces - Rose Neill voiced over this evening's 2010 GAA Championship draw fixtures for the province's teams, referring to "Off-a-LAY". They also had three people set around one side of the desk in a discussion on Queen's Festival, but the camera angles didn't make the desk area look overcrowded.