Claire Frisby

Before I start, I apologise for posting this in the wrong forum, if I have. You may move it wherever!

Uh oh!
Where's Claire Frisby gone. I think Andrew asked this, but have Harry and Claire fallen out?
What has happenned at BBC NORTH?

Well probably....
The first time Harry was away was his holidays,

then Clare had her Holidays

then Harry took 2 weeks at Wimbledon

now Clare might be on another holiday or preparing for her new Hull opt

I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't see Harry and Clare presenting Look North again, so that when Christa arrives in September, they won't have to make a big thing about Clare going to Hull - I think at the moment she's probably in Leeds helping the team working on the new opt - I don't think they've got a studio set up in Hull yet. I'm just wondering what it's going to be called and what it's going to look like - Look North 'Humber and Lincolnshire' or Look North 'Close Up' (and change the name of Close Up North - would they do that when the other two BBC Norths also have Closep Up Norths at the moment??).

They probably won't have a new name and they will probably do a South Today and just call the opt out Look North but with a map of the coverage area of Belmont.

I would imagine that the branding of the Hull sub-opt would be related to where it appears in the programme.

Oxford don't brand their sub-opt differently as the sub-opt is effectively at the top of the programme, so the 1830 programme is called South Today (and runs South Today titles) on both sides of the patch. (The Oxford opt starts with recorded headlines and titles from the main Southampton presenters followed by a recorded hand to the Oxford presenter by name, who is live.)

Cambridge brand their sub-opt as Close Up, because it runs some way into the programme, and the junction between studios and presenters needs to be signposted for some reason. The Norwich and Cambridge programmes share the same opening sequence and titles which come from Norwich (which could be live but is recorded!) and the first story or two are normally broadcast to both patches. Then there is a usually a common intro to the Close Up sub-opt which is either from the Norwich presenters or on VT - the presenters of the opt cannot normally be named in this intro(unless the intro to the Cambs 'opt' is pre-recorded, and played out as an 'opt' before the opt!)

When Cambridge and Norwich are split entirely i.e. 2225 - the programme is branded as Look East on both sides.

I would imagine that if Look North starts with a news sub-opt then both programmes will be called Look North. However if there is a common top to the programme, with a news sub-opt mid way in, I would imagine the opt will be branded as a split some how.

(I always wanted Cambridge to be called Look East West!)

As I understand it there is to be a common element for five minutes or so at the start of the programme then 15 minutes or so of opt and 10 more minutes of joined programming. The 10.25 bulletin will be wholly separate.

Well - that sounds like a similar model to the Look East Close Up sub-opts. I would imagine that if the top of the programme is common, as you indicate, then there needs to be a title sequence at the start of the sub-opt...

It would make sense if this title sequence was branded to indicate the 'local-ness' of this.

Any idea when Hull is due to launch? Could it happen before Tunbridge Wells and London, now they have been delayed???

I think that Hull will probably launch when Christa Ackroyd takes over the female co-presenter role in September, which is currently supposedly held by Clare Frisby - although Clare and Harry haven't co-presented the show since the end of May. I expect this to be at the beginning of September. In the meantime, I expect that we'll increasingly be seeing Harry Gration and Peter Levy (when Harry's not there) presenting with Penny Bustin and Cathy Killick.

That would make sense, as Claire is supposed to be presenting the Hull sub-opt.

Launching with Harry and Christa in Leeds and Claire in Hull would be pretty effective at hitting Calendar hard.

(Anglia suffered pretty badly in the West when Look East Close Up launched, and that was with an unknown presenter in the West, and Penny leaving the East pretty shortly after the sub-opt launched, and a new East presenter appeared as well. If BBC North can launch with familiar and friendly faces - they must be hoping to do even better...)

I just feel sorry for Clare. She's a top presenter (like all at BBC NORTH). Why can't that frog looking man do Hull, he sounds as though he comes from there. (the annyoing man who changes the whole programme name on Sundays to LOOK NORTH SUNDAY - when it blatently ISN'T called that. h'uh.)
Anyway,
aur, poor Claire.
I don't even like Christa Ackroyd. My dad once fixed her car, and she gave him a tip. (he's an AA man!) Bless her. The only reason is, when she looks on camera, she gives a horrible stare before going onto next buletin, and just before the report is cued. She's scary, but so sweet! She'll be more suited at BBC NORTH, but it'll look wierd.
Has any other regional presenter being nicked by the news provider on the other channel, in the same region? I think Christa's the only one...
...I could be wrong. Harry Gration moved quite a lot. (from I think BBC LOOK NORTH to BBC LOOK EAST and then back after 15yrs to BBC LOOK NORTH.) That's another thing, why all LOOK_______ in the Northern parts of the country???

That's the general idea! Look North pulls in around the same number of viewers as (although I think just less than) Calendar, with around 500,000 to 700,000 watching the 6:30pm programme - this is mainly due to Calendar's mainly unheard of presenters, dull presentation and its position in the schedule (it has lost viewers since the BBC revamped the 'news hour', gave Look North the corporate-look and brought back Harry Gration from South Today). The reason Look North hasn't overtaken Calendar is because it has always been far too Leeds-based (Calendar has had opt outs for Belmont and Sheffield for years) and that traditionally, YTV have had good presenters, with Christa Ackroyd - and until the mid-90s, Richard Whiteley. By poaching Christa and putting Clare Frisby, a well-known presenter in the region on its Belmont opt-out, actually based in Hull (Calendar's is based in Leeds and uses relatively unknown presenters), Look North have to be onto a winner!!

Harry Gration moved from Look North to work for a sports organisation (Rugby?) and then returned to presentation at BBC South in the 90s and presented South Today, before moving back to Leeds to present Look North again. (So he's stayed with the BBC really!)

Mike Neville moved from Tyne Tees in the late 60s/early 70s, to present BBC Look North in Newcastle for a very long time (and very successfully), and then moved back to Tyne Tees relatively recently.

As for other regional presenters - Dominic Heale (sp?) has recently moved from Central to present East Midlands Today.

ISTR that a number of BBC West and BBC Wales presenters have moved to/from HTV Wales/West?

Jayne Evans presented for both Look East and Anglia in the 90s.