TV Live Forum

It's a year ago to the day since this forum's biggest news event, the death of HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

If you'd like to recall the events that day, and the subsequent coverage, you can do so here...

Announcement • Funeral Build Up • Funeral

It feels strange that it was been a year already since that day. There are two things that I stick out for me from that period.

The first thing was the original struggle to get the information. I was walking into work, whilst my younger brother was tagging along to grab some dinner from nearby. The first that we became aware of the news was a notification from Sky News, but for some reason (possibly the significance), I believed that it might have been some sort of error. So, I tuned into BBC Radio 2 and they were saying nothing, so I jumped to LBC News and they were carrying on as usual. I then spent the next 5 minutes going back and forth between the two, until eventually found LBC News playing a tape talking about "A Greek prince born in Corfu". At that point, notifications from other apps came though and I came to realise that it was no error.

The other thing was that because I was working, I was unable to get any sort of TV or radio captures. This somewhat annoyed me, but I just accepted that I couldn't do much about it. However, once I got home, I visited RadioToday and noticed that they had captured recordings from a wide variety of radio stations. With this in mind, I approached the website's managing editor, Roy Martin, and asked if I could upload the clips to YouTube to give them a wider platform with full credit being given to the RadioToday team. I was expecting him to politely decline my request, but to my surprise, he said yes. I published the video the following day and it went on to be the most popular video on my channel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oy60uatnCc

Was there ever a final response from the BBC about their coverage or was it the usual "we were right" response rather than an acknowledgement they didn't get everything right on the day itself, noteably Radio 1 staying with the Radio 4 led simulcast too long and how they handled BBC2/4 on the night of the death. Their actions a week later suggested there was a response to feedback, but not sure there ever was in official response, though I'm sure internally it was all reviewed.

Of course though the problem is the next one is expected to be the big one, so there will be much more to cover. For me though the question isn't about the hours of coverage but whether it should be simulcast across channels, so I would hope assuming a morning announcement that by the evening at least two of BBC2/3/4 are doing their own thing, though with amendments I'm sure. If the news broke though late afternoon/early evening a simulcast across all channels might be more understandable.

Rob post_id=78033 time= user_id=2 Wrote:It's a year ago to the day since this forum's biggest news event, the death of HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

If you'd like to recall the events that day, and the subsequent coverage, you can do so here...

Announcement • Funeral Build Up • Funeral

Biggest event so far here, until you know who departs.

I can't believe how quick the year has gone. I'd had a zoom interview in morning and then headed out for another. Sat near BBC Scotland HQ scrolling on FB and seen the news had just broken so headed straight home.

I remember that this was first announced by the Royal Family themzselves on Twitter at noon exactly, which seems to have caught all the broadcasters, and indeed the rest of us completely off guard.

I'd not experienced a big royal obit event like that on the forum before so it was quite something to experience that and keep up with the posts, changing between channels to see what suitably sombre presentation was being put in use.

Presumably the BBC obit ident has already changed now they have the new logo, I wonder what that looks like! (Though of course it was inadvertently available on Sky boxes beforehand)

I quite liked Radio 1's instrumental chill out playlist that day.

Martine Croxall did a great job but what’s most surprising is how they didn’t give her much warning. In the 1200 TOTH she’s reading the stories as normal (stuff about air travel), and then is probably told during the titles as she is then ashen faced and shaken as she rushes through the cue to get to the air travel VT, so they can presumably regroup for 2 minutes. They would have known in the newsroom by 1140 about the 1200 announcement (I’m told), so they clearly decided not to alert her for whatever reason

soupie post_id=78066 time= user_id=1542 Wrote:Martine Croxall did a great job but what’s most surprising is how they didn’t give her much warning. In the 1200 TOTH she’s reading the stories as normal (stuff about air travel), and then is probably told during the titles as she is then ashen faced and shaken as she rushes through the cue to get to the air travel VT, so they can presumably regroup for 2 minutes. They would have known in the newsroom by 1140 about the 1200 announcement (I’m told), so they clearly decided not to alert her for whatever reason

You can see a flurry of activity in the newsroom during the titles at midday.

soupie post_id=78066 time= user_id=1542 Wrote:Martine Croxall did a great job but what’s most surprising is how they didn’t give her much warning. In the 1200 TOTH she’s reading the stories as normal (stuff about air travel), and then is probably told during the titles as she is then ashen faced and shaken as she rushes through the cue to get to the air travel VT, so they can presumably regroup for 2 minutes. They would have known in the newsroom by 1140 about the 1200 announcement (I’m told), so they clearly decided not to alert her for whatever reason

Don't quote me on this, but AIUI, there may have been some indication of an embargoed Royal story. However, there was no indication it was the passing of Prince Philip. Given how everything unfolded, I'd be very surprised if any media organisation formally knew about the death. Otherwise, there probably would have been better coordination in terms of what, when and where everything went to air.

Martine was asked about her experience when she appeared on Celebrity Mastermind recently...
[video]https://up.metropol247.co.uk/042022/1649508218_1354004265.mp4[/video]

Newsrooms knew by 1140 (and some knew earlier in the hour) that it was going to be a ‘bridge’ announcement so clearly something extremely serious was coming, but there is always an element of ‘wait and see’ until anything’s confirmed, hence the running etc when it was.

soupie post_id=78088 time= user_id=1542 Wrote:Newsrooms knew by 1140 (and some knew earlier in the hour) that it was going to be a ‘bridge’ announcement so clearly something extremely serious was coming, but there is always an element of ‘wait and see’ until anything’s confirmed, hence the running etc when it was.

I think I know the term from somewhere, but just remind me about what a 'Bridge' announcement is?

BBI45 post_id=78095 time= user_id=1008 Wrote:

soupie post_id=78088 time= user_id=1542 Wrote:Newsrooms knew by 1140 (and some knew earlier in the hour) that it was going to be a ‘bridge’ announcement so clearly something extremely serious was coming, but there is always an element of ‘wait and see’ until anything’s confirmed, hence the running etc when it was.

I think I know the term from somewhere, but just remind me about what a 'Bridge' announcement is?

The code names for the death of a member of the Royal Family are usually ‘__________ Bridge [is down]’ (e.g Forth Bridge for Prince Phillip or London Bridge for The Queen)

soupie post_id=78088 time= user_id=1542 Wrote:Newsrooms knew by 1140 (and some knew earlier in the hour) that it was going to be a ‘bridge’ announcement so clearly something extremely serious was coming, but there is always an element of ‘wait and see’ until anything’s confirmed, hence the running etc when it was.

I suppose the thing is that he'd died several times already, every 6 months or so there seemed to be rumours that it had happened. No point worrying the presenter just in case

jacobmorton post_id=78099 time= user_id=1065 Wrote:

BBI45 post_id=78095 time= user_id=1008 Wrote:

soupie post_id=78088 time= user_id=1542 Wrote:Newsrooms knew by 1140 (and some knew earlier in the hour) that it was going to be a ‘bridge’ announcement so clearly something extremely serious was coming, but there is always an element of ‘wait and see’ until anything’s confirmed, hence the running etc when it was.

I think I know the term from somewhere, but just remind me about what a 'Bridge' announcement is?

The code names for the death of a member of the Royal Family are usually ‘__________ Bridge [is down]’ (e.g Forth Bridge for Prince Phillip or London Bridge for The Queen)

I was inclined to think that, but for some reason was doubting myself. I'll blame it on the fact that I'm on holiday (in Edinburgh no less).

I understand that it might not have been possible to line up absolutely everything until details are fully confirmed, but surely the death of any member of the Royal Family would necessitate some interruption and changes to programming. I'm not going to slate any broadcasters for how they handled that day, as it's always going to be one of those things where no matter how often you rehearse it, you'll still be somewhat on the back foot when it comes. But I would have thought that if newsrooms knew for 20 minutes that there was news of a death coming up, then there would have been a bit more coordination.

[mention]soupie[/mention] , I don't want to accuse you or your source of lying about the 'Bridge' announcement at 11:40. However, it just seems a bit odd that given the length of advance notice, there seemed to be very little in terms of preparation for how the news would be announced across multiple outlets. On BBC television, the news was announced on the News Channel and BBC Two, BBC World News crashed in after a couple of minutes, BBC One joined smoothly a few minutes after the initial announcement with the couple of remaining channels crashing into coverage in the following minutes. The other PSBs handled it slightly better, but ITV only interrupted a single channel, whilst C4 & C5 weren't in any rush to get live reports out.

Radio was a bit more messy depending on who you were listening to. BBC Radio started broadcasting a shared programme after 10 minutes, but not before Adrian Chiles announced the news on 5 Live and World Service had issues joining the special programme. Global had a short report shared between all music stations which they each took as soon as they could. LBC smoothly went into the preliminary obituary report. Whereas LBC News faded out of a live union speech, confirmed they were joining LBC for a special report, before crashing into the report after missing the first few seconds. Meanwhile at Bauer, first responses varied from the presenter handing over once confirmed by the newsroom (GHR), to a joint news report at 12:30 (Hits Radio, GHR Scotland, Absolute, KISS, Jazz FM), to playing audio from Sky News (Hits Radio Scotland), to the presenter first announcing the news over 45 minutes after it broke (Magic). At News UK, their 3 talk stations had all announced the news individually within 10 minutes, with Virgin breaking the news within 20 minutes.

I'm not going to deny that I'm looking at all this with a good amount of hindsight, and on an individual station basis, everything went relatively smoothly. But on an organisational level, things could have been a bit smoother.