Prince Philip has Died

[TVNewsViewer]

BBC Parliament back with it's own programmes at 220am

According to its schedule, it's been back since midnight.

Two hour belated rewind of live I-player does reveal it has been on its own programming since at least 2.10am, likely before.

[James Martin]

https://telly.site/diana/
Looking at coverage of death of Prince Philip make me think about coverage of death of Princess Diana. Trying to find remake of MHP’s coverage and it still works.

Even then, BBC Two were allowed to break away and show sport in the afternoon. I think a couple of the programmes in that menu later on were moved from BBC One.

This makes the decision to take BBC Four off air completely, especially with the football, incomprehensible.

Granted, I'm no fan of the BBC, or specifically its funding model, but even setting that aside how can our public broadcaster fail to take the temperature of the nation so badly?

Not every person who pays the license fee is a royalist. And even those who are can only be told so many times a near-centerian who's been poorly for quite some time has finally had the call from St. Peter.

Yes, of course BBC One and Radio 4 should be wall to wall. Nobody's disputing that. To not provide any alternative in this day and age, however, is a major mistake. The BBC offered rolling news or - literally in the case of BBC Four - nothing.

The last two "Cat A" obits (QM and Diana) saw BBC Two put out some sort of alternative. They now have a third linear channel (available to all, which it wasn't in 2002) to play with, which they didn't have then. I find it poor.

[richard110888]

For some people anything more than a 5 second mention of any major news event is overkill but the news should always take priority as its real life and it matters. Having EastEnders pushed back a few days does not matter in the grand scheme of life and in 2021 people need to stop being so self-centered. Is it really that much hardship for people to put in a dvd (yeah I still have those ) Watch a streaming service, read a book, do something on their phone or computer, Play a game with family members or simply go to bed. its one night out of your life. Its like with the Covid coverage with people saying its depressing and I want escapism but those who don't watch it are more likely to break the rules as its out of sight out of mind so there is merit in constantly telling us the doom and gloom and keeping it fresh in our thoughts when we think well if I just do this or that it doesn't matter but it does matter and could affect someone else down the chain and had you just seen people gasping for breath in hospital it has more impact than something you watched last month

Is it silly to have BBC 1 and BBC 2 showing the same thing? Maybe but they were focussing on a core output during a moment of national significance with reduced staffing levels in a pandemic and all the displaced programmes will be shown at some point over the next week or 2

Prince Philp was 3x my age and he has always been an old man to me - like a grandad always there. We all knew it was coming sooner rather than later given his age but it was still a shock to hear the news as it never occurred to me at the time that he may have only left hospital for end of life care to be with The Queen. Its nice that they got to spend so much more time together over the last year due to the pandemic. It was mentioned earlier in the thread that an embargo would not work for a senior royal in this day and age but I thought if they died after say 8pm the news would be embargoed until the next morning?. What repercussions would a broadcaster face should they break such an embargo to beat everyone else in breaking the news first? and If a journalist was to leak it on their personal twitter account would they be sacked?

If BBC Four did not show the heavy bit-rate football match which may have degraded the output of the other channels then so be it. At the end of the day its a few people kicking a ball round some grass. Its a game

The Sky News graphics used today have been classy - The output has been impressive and everyone has done a great job. They did not seem to use the special 2 way box much though which seems odd when its being produced specially for such events and they never changed the live bug from the usual red to match the rest of the graphic set but I'm nip picking. I noticed later in the night that the presenters were getting name checked with a special branded name block but earlier in the day it was the usual one which again seems odd as it must have been there ready to go.

Although I have not seen any of the itv coverage except the initial announcement the studio looked impressive for the special programme and it was nice to see them do some special titles both nationally and regionally

As others have said a clearly upset Martine did a great job with next to no warning on BBC News. What a shame that so little of the sombre countdown music was shown the 1 time they showed it at all during the whole day. It seems odd to me that they have gone back to the normal one overnight when the coverage is still heavily leaning to 1 story and will continue to do so for at least the next 12 hours

[ChipperBird]

I think the idea of an embargo is very much a myth for the senior royals - firstly it would probably not be kept anyhow, and secondly looking back at the Queen Mothers death and what we know about that we know they only found out a few minutes before announcing it to the public.

The difference today is news is expected immediately - and immediate is now, not in 5 minutes once everyone has had chance to prepare. Martine being clearly upset by the news was likely because she found out about it as she was reading it, unlike those doing news reports who found out just before going on air.

Everyone talks of there being an embargo on Diana's death announcement and they had considerably less time to prepare for that in general vs the years everyone's been wondering when Phillip would go to the pearly gates. Official sources during the night were insisting all Diana had was concussion and broken bones while also declaring the driver and Dodi dead which....not a lot of press that night seemed to be really buying. Indeed the first reports of her death were reported as rumor by the BBC till the official word confirmed.

The "ideal" point for media on Phillip passing would of been a few weeks ago at the hospital considering Charles was bidded to see him and he would of been closely monitored for vitals ect. But Phillip survived surgery he was likely to have a slim chance to come out from at his age and got a few more weeks out of it. I'm sure they knew to some degree that he was on very short borrowed time but no idea how long and likely went very quickly too. I don't think anyone would much appreciate being asked if they could at least make their death easily predictable for the 6pm News!

That and well...it is the Queens husband. She may of wished for a few moments/hours to mourn personally and let the family know before the world was aware. I don't think it's to trip up the media or anything, just that noon was when they were ready to put personal grief aside to follow protocol.

[James Martin]

Is this statmuxing thing really that bad? God knows what BBC One must look like when the Eurovision semi finals are on Four (which is notoriously difficult content to encode.)

The football I'd normally get but fans couldn't go anyway due to Covid, so they missed out.

With the QM I recall Casualty alongside some other stuff going out on Two. As the famous MHP page shows, even Diana didn't warrant a 1/2 simulcast all day long.

Diana I get as it was tragic. The Queen I get because of the huge implications as a direct result of her passing. But the QM and Philip died peacefully after a great innings.

I think there's a huge amount of people out there, stuck indoors on a Friday night, in my case living on my own, who the BBC ignored. Yet they'd still send me threatening letters if I were to stop paying 'em.

[richard110888]

https://telly.site/diana/
Looking at coverage of death of Prince Philip make me think about coverage of death of Princess Diana. Trying to find remake of MHP’s coverage and it still works.

Even then, BBC Two were allowed to break away and show sport in the afternoon. I think a couple of the programmes in that menu later on were moved from BBC One.

This makes the decision to take BBC Four off air completely, especially with the football, incomprehensible.

Granted, I'm no fan of the BBC, or specifically its funding model, but even setting that aside how can our public broadcaster fail to take the temperature of the nation so badly?

Not every person who pays the license fee is a royalist. And even those who are can only be told so many times a near-centerian who's been poorly for quite some time has finally had the call from St. Peter.

Yes, of course BBC One and Radio 4 should be wall to wall. Nobody's disputing that. To not provide any alternative in this day and age, however, is a major mistake. The BBC offered rolling news or - literally in the case of BBC Four - nothing.

The last two "Cat A" obits (QM and Diana) saw BBC Two put out some sort of alternative. They now have a third linear channel (available to all, which it wasn't in 2002) to play with, which they didn't have then. I find it poor.

1 key difference is we were not in a global pandemic during those and a game of football is not really important if it may affect the quality of the core output channels from the national broadcaster during a moment of history. Most of those who wanted to see the football could watch it on an alternative BBC service so they did not miss out

[James Martin]

I think the idea of an embargo is very much a myth for the senior royals - firstly it would probably not be kept anyhow, and secondly looking back at the Queen Mothers death and what we know about that we know they only found out a few minutes before announcing it to the public.

The difference today is news is expected immediately - and immediate is now, not in 5 minutes once everyone has had chance to prepare. Martine being clearly upset by the news was likely because she found out about it as she was reading it, unlike those doing news reports who found out just before going on air.

Everyone talks of there being an embargo on Diana's death announcement and they had considerably less time to prepare for that in general vs the years everyone's been wondering when Phillip would go to the pearly gates. Official sources during the night were insisting all Diana had was concussion and broken bones while also declaring the driver and Dodi dead which....not a lot of press that night seemed to be really buying. Indeed the first reports of her death were reported as rumor by the BBC till the official word confirmed.

The "ideal" point for media on Phillip passing would of been a few weeks ago at the hospital considering Charles was bidded to see him and he would of been closely monitored for vitals ect. But Phillip survived surgery he was likely to have a slim chance to come out from at his age and got a few more weeks out of it. I'm sure they knew to some degree that he was on very short borrowed time but no idea how long and likely went very quickly too. I don't think anyone would much appreciate being asked if they could at least make their death easily predictable for the 6pm News!

That and well...it is the Queens husband. She may of wished for a few moments/hours to mourn personally and let the family know before the world was aware. I don't think it's to trip up the media or anything, just that noon was when they were ready to put personal grief aside to follow protocol.

Ref Diana - as the MHP page states there WAS an embargo. Aides travelling with Robin Cook had been briefed at Manilla Airport, from there the PA took it upon themselves to break the embargo.

[James Martin]

1 key difference is we were not in a global pandemic during those and a game of football is not really important if it may affect the quality of the core output channels from the national broadcaster during a moment of history. Most of those who wanted to see the football could watch it on an alternative BBC service so they did not miss out

BBC One and Two did news, BBC Four closed down. So unless BBC Three has come back early what is this alternative service you speak of?

[juston]

From listening to the full clip, it sounds like Martine was told that the news had officially broken between the headlines and first line item. Clearly sounds like she was trying to get through and turned away from the camera quite quickly. Spot the two journos running across the newsroom in the headline sequence!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQAFaGY6Tyc

Perhaps a coincidence but Annita McVeigh was already wearing all black at 10am. Martine also wearing black and had the cardigan nearby soon after the headlines. https://tvhome.co.uk/bbc-two/2021/04/09/1000

[Frances]

BBC Parliament back with it's own programmes at 220am

According to its schedule, it's been back since midnight.

Two hour belated rewind of live I-player does reveal it has been on its own programming since at least 2.10am, likely before.

It just switched from the News Channel to a Selected Committee rerun already in progress at the proper midnight, despite the countdown of the news channel’s coverage was played until appr 00:00:30.

[FanOfTV99]

So looks like the sombre ITV ident will be used alot today as ITV used it to introduced CITV just now.

[Steddenm]

BBC Two came out of the News Channel at 6am and are now showing their generic "This Is BBC Two" holding loop.

The ITV Nightscreen faded out at about 0430 and back in again with updated times of programming for Saturday. No synopsis text though just captions.

BBC Breakfast on air at 6am as normal, ITV is showing CITV, Forces TV still in their simulcast of Sky News (now until 1pm) and the Coronation Street omnibus on ITV3 doesn't contain the missed episodes as it isn't long enough. I'm guessing it has been edited overnight.

ITV seems to be going to normal scheduling after the evening Regional News. Virgin Media One were showing ITV News early on yesterday with the ITV DOG so guess it was a dirty feed.

This has been a huge News story across the Commonwealth and the world, and the biggest event so far in TVL Forum's history.

[Bogdan222]

BBC News & One showed an 82 second countdown with the filler music instead of the normal one

[Frances]

BBC Two came up with the ident for CBBC on 2 at 0619.

[Rob]

Uploaded for posterity: all the 7pm BBC Regional News programmes from last night in one playlist.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLj5Be...py2gQbppk3