ITV Anglia

This must be one the best regional news shows in the country as far as standards go in putting a show together. I cannot remember an example off the top of my head of the last time there was a technical failure on the show. Most local news shows struggle to get through a whole half hour show without something going wrong but Anglia manage this day after day seemingly without difficulty hats of to the technical people who work there. The news reports always come with sound and video which on the sound front is always clear (other regional news shows please take note you can achieve this as well). The only poor part are the videos during the football highlights packages at weekends. Whoever puts these together really needs some video editing lessons (i.e. have the ball in the net before moving on to the next goal) and learn how to get good quality source pictures to start with (lo res recordings from BBC interactive of the Football League Show don’t cut it). Having said that they do always play the right piece of film each time unlike certain other regional shows elsewhere *looks in the direction of BBC London* I don’t think any of the Anglia presenters are familiar with the phrase “sorry we don’t appear to have that report” other channels presenters would be rich if they got paid each time they had to use that one.

The timings in the show are also bang on every day every report/segment is delivered on time as it should be credit to the guys and girls working in the gallery keep up the good work. The presenters even look at the correct cameras though viewers also know which one to look at as well as we can see the red light on top of the appropriate camera reflecting on the studio background.

Now when the show has good standards in news and its production why is Anglia weather so bad? Some of the weather output in the last few years has been nothing short of appalling. Aside from Amanda Houston there has been no one with any presenting talent to speak off since Wendy Hurrell and Sara Thornton left even the fraud mentioned in my new weathergirls blog worked there I think you all know her name now if you didn’t already. The information provided by Anglia weather at least for the western part of the region is next to useless. Of 3 days Amanda did recently she got the weather right once. And as for Claire McGlasson she’s almost as bad as the fraud they used to employ. Recently she said on a Friday night we would struggle to hold our brollies up on Saturday. Come Saturday there was barely a breath of wind and then on Saturdays forecast she mentioned that Friday was a t-shirt and shorts day would that be why the Look East forecaster had a coat on during her OB that day? Complete waste of time listening to anything she has to say about weather. Why doesn’t she stick with being a reporter considering that’s her real job? I not attacking Claire as a person I think she’s a nice lady and a good reporter as evidenced by her recent reports but she is not a weather presenter and should stop pretending otherwise.

In recent years Louise Beale has done the weather she now reads the news elsewhere and Bhavani also had a go she’s now a reporter seems to be a recurring problem picking news people to do the weather.

As bad as the forecasting is the graphics are even worse. Take a look at this mess

The symbol positions are preset. Quite frankly there isn’t a good word to say about it a school child wouldn’t produce something that bad it’s just pathetic and the presenters should be ashamed and embarrassed to stand in front of crap like that I’m embarrassed enough as a viewer looking at it. I’ve e-mailed the weather department about it and this was part of their response “It was decided at the design stage that it would be okay for cloud shadows and rain drop animations to overlap place names” why? None of the other ITV regions I’ve watched are like that they all have neat and tidy graphics.

Anglia’s graphics often look a complete shambles the software they use called weathereye allows you to place symbols anywhere on the map you like. There is no need for preset positions they only exist because presenters aren’t good enough or are too lazy to put together a proper map each day (a common problem in the industry) or in the case of Anglia they are too busy doing stupid gimmick outside broadcasts to put together an accurate forecast with a neat graphics package. If they did a proper one and put some effort in they may actually get the weather right.

At the moment anyone can just dump some symbols on regardless if they are the correct ones and get away with it and get away with it they have the aforementioned fraud presenter used to predict sunshine on the map for 6pm in mid winter for example and during anti cyclone conditions in summer when there was barely a cloud sighted anywhere in the country and the temperature was 23C she complained about how bad the weather was and predicted dark cloud with drizzle for the rest of the day! Plenty of other examples like that as well. That’s the sort of thing that happens when you employ fraudsters who pretend to be presenters. Whoever is responsible for hiring her and getting news presenters/reporters to present the weather should be sacked as they are about as good at their job as the fraud was at presenting the weather.

It’s time someone actually did their job properly in the weather department and brought it up to the high standards of the rest of the show.