November wefcpug meet

an early warning to all: the by now traditional 1st Monday of November is the 5th, and it's reckoned we'll all be too busy waving sparklers around a bonfire to talk FCP. So we'll be meeting on the 6th November, at the usual BBC place, details to come next week.

Bêtes noires (or rouges)

With one broadcasting-crisis or another, I've found myself watching BBC News24 on the side monitor quite a lot over the last few days. There's a whizzy 30 second montage they run on the hour, just before the news bulletin starts up, presumably as a means for the producer/presenter teams to swap over or refill their coffees (or empty their bladders?).

So, what's wrong with these pictures, grabbed from their promo, illustrating the 24/7 electronic flow of news into the central hub? (Hint, why are satellite dishes shaped the way they are, as parabolic reflectors ).

O tempora, o mores, as we used to say.

It's not just the naming of cats

that can cause trouble in telly-land. In a development that, admittedly, you may well have missed, French breakfast TV presenter/producer William Leymergie has been suspended* for a fortnight by France2. As I read the AFP press release, it's all to do with a physical attack (allegedly attempted strangulation) on the theatre critic of the programme, Telematin, which left said critic in need of emergency first-aid. (I am treading carefully here). The french text is here .

I am rather gobsmacked by this news: Leymergie struck me as the most relaxed and good-humoured presenter I've seen on the TV. The nearest UK equivalent is for Terry Wogan to have thrown a punch at a sports reporter. Now there's an idea for BBC3.

*the French phrase is 'mis a pied' which Babelfish unhelpfully translates as putting at foot.