Spotlight (BBC South West News)
Encyclopedia
Spotlight is the BBC
's regional news programme for the southwest of England
, covering Cornwall
, Devon
, West Dorset
, and Somerset
. There is also a special version of the programme for viewers in the Channel Islands
. The main version of the programme broadcasts between 18:30 and 18:58 on weekdays, with shorter bulletins at other times. The programme can be viewed anywhere in the UK (and Europe) on digital satellite
channel 987/988 on the BBC UK regional TV on satellite
service. Its main competitors are ITV South West
's main evening programme The West Country Tonight
in Devon, Cornwall, South Somerset and West Dorset and ITV
Channel Television
's main evening programme Channel Report
in the Channel Islands.
Spotlight is broadcast from BBC Broadcasting House in Seymour Road, Plymouth
- this is the main headquarters for all BBC South West
programming, on TV, radio and online. There are also smaller studios in Truro
, Exeter
, Paignton
, Barnstaple
and Taunton
.
began broadcasting. At first a ten minute bulletin called News from the South West was read by Tom Salmon, but in under a year it had doubled in length and had been renamed as South West at Six, hosted by Sheila Tracy
. The name Spotlight was adopted on 30 September 1963.
Those early radio broadcasts had been made from the Athenaeum Chambers in Athenaeum Lane in Plymouth (ironically, next to what would become Westward
and TSW
's headquarters), but just before the Second World War the BBC started looking for alternative premises. A Victorian villa named Ingledene in Seymour Road was bought from the Douglass family and this building has, as of 2010, remained the BBC's headquarters in the South West. It has been considerably extended over the years, including the addition of a new and larger television studio in 1974 in preparation for the conversion of Spotlight to colour the following year. A replacement purpose-built broadcasting centre on the opposite side of Sutton Harbour from the Barbican
has been under construction since 2008. It is due to open in mid 2011.
A lighthouse motif had been in use within the programme's title sequences for many years until May 2000, when Spotlight adopted the generic BBC regional news design. The motif returned in May 2006, and the use of a lighthouse in the titles remained with the latest BBC News relaunch in 2008.
BBC Channel Islands
Specialist Correspondents
General Reporters
Production Staff
.
Local news for the Islands had existed since the 1990s when a short bulletin aired following the BBC Nine O'Clock News
. Since 16 October 2000, two evening bulletins have been broadcast at 6:30pm and following the BBC News at Ten - until April 2008, these bulletin had been known as Spotlight Channel Islands. Originally broadcast from a studio at the Fremont Point transmitter, the news service is now entirely based at the studios of BBC Radio Jersey
in St Helier.
The opt-outs are presented by either Gwyn Garfield Bennett or Clare Burton and produced by a team of multi-skilling journalists who write, film and edit their own stories, as well as producing and directing the three bulletins for the islands on weekdays. The main opt takes up the first twelve minutes of the nightly 6.30pm programme with a full opt at 10.25pm and a short 30-second update at 8pm. No opt-outs are broadcast during the day and at weekends, except for special occasions such as local elections or major sporting events such as the Island Games.
Like other BBC enterprises in the Channel Islands, funding comes primarily from television licence
fees collected within the Channel Islands themselves.
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
's regional news programme for the southwest of England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, covering Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
, Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
, West Dorset
West Dorset
West Dorset is a local government district and parliamentary constituency in Dorset, England. Its council is based in Dorchester. The district was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, and was a merger of the boroughs of Bridport, Dorchester and Lyme Regis, along with...
, and Somerset
Somerset
The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...
. There is also a special version of the programme for viewers in the Channel Islands
Channel Islands
The Channel Islands are an archipelago of British Crown Dependencies in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two separate bailiwicks: the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey...
. The main version of the programme broadcasts between 18:30 and 18:58 on weekdays, with shorter bulletins at other times. The programme can be viewed anywhere in the UK (and Europe) on digital satellite
Sky Digital (UK & Ireland)
Sky is the brand name for British Sky Broadcasting's digital satellite television and radio service, transmitted from SES Astra satellites located at 28.2° east and Eutelsat's Eurobird 1 satellite at 28.5°E. The service was originally launched as Sky Digital, distinguishing it from the original...
channel 987/988 on the BBC UK regional TV on satellite
BBC UK regional TV on satellite
The BBC broadcasts all of the BBC One and BBC Two regional variations on digital satellite television from the SES Astra satellites at 28.2° east; providing local news programmes and other regional programming with local continuity and presentation for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales...
service. Its main competitors are ITV South West
ITV South West
ITV West & Westcountry, also known as ITV South West, is a non-franchise ITV regional station covering the South West of England and incorporating the former ITV West and ITV Westcountry regions.-History:...
's main evening programme The West Country Tonight
The West Country Tonight
The West Country Tonight is a regional television news and current affairs programme, also including local sports news and local features of interest, produced by ITV West & Westcountry at its studios in Bristol...
in Devon, Cornwall, South Somerset and West Dorset and ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
Channel Television
Channel Television
Channel Television is a British television station which has served as an Independent Television contractor to the Channel Islands since 1962. It is based in Jersey...
's main evening programme Channel Report
Channel Report
Channel Report is the flagship news programme on ITV's Channel Islands regional station Channel Television, co-produced with the independent production company, Newsline. Channel Report airs every weeknight at 6pm, with all other bulletins branded as Channel News. Channel Report was first broadcast...
in the Channel Islands.
Spotlight is broadcast from BBC Broadcasting House in Seymour Road, Plymouth
Plymouth
Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...
- this is the main headquarters for all BBC South West
BBC South West
BBC South West is the BBC English Region serving Devon, Cornwall and the Channel Islands.-Television:BBC South Wests television service consists of the flagship regional news service Spotlight, the opt-out service BBC Channel Islands, the topical magazine programme Inside Out and a 20-minute...
programming, on TV, radio and online. There are also smaller studios in Truro
Truro
Truro is a city and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The city is the centre for administration, leisure and retail in Cornwall, with a population recorded in the 2001 census of 17,431. Truro urban statistical area, which includes parts of surrounding parishes, has a 2001 census...
, Exeter
Exeter
Exeter is a historic city in Devon, England. It lies within the ceremonial county of Devon, of which it is the county town as well as the home of Devon County Council. Currently the administrative area has the status of a non-metropolitan district, and is therefore under the administration of the...
, Paignton
Paignton
Paignton is a coastal town in Devon in England. Together with Torquay and Brixham it forms the unitary authority of Torbay which was created in 1998. The Torbay area is a holiday destination known as the English Riviera. Paignton's population in the United Kingdom Census of 2001 was 48,251. It has...
, Barnstaple
Barnstaple
Barnstaple is a town and civil parish in the local government district of North Devon in the county of Devon, England, UK. It lies west southwest of Bristol, north of Plymouth and northwest of the county town of Exeter. The old spelling Barnstable is now obsolete.It is the main town of the...
and Taunton
Taunton
Taunton is the county town of Somerset, England. The town, including its suburbs, had an estimated population of 61,400 in 2001. It is the largest town in the shire county of Somerset....
.
History
Although local radio had been broadcast from Plymouth as station 2PY between 1924 and 1934, the first regional television programme was not broadcast until 20 April 1961, just nine days before the rival ITV service from Westward TelevisionWestward Television
Westward Television was the first ITV franchise holder for the South West of England from 29 April 1961 until 31 December 1981. After a difficult start, Westward provided a popular, distinctive and highly regarded service to its region, until public boardroom squabbles led to its franchise not...
began broadcasting. At first a ten minute bulletin called News from the South West was read by Tom Salmon, but in under a year it had doubled in length and had been renamed as South West at Six, hosted by Sheila Tracy
Sheila Tracy
Sheila Tracy is a British musician, best known for her trombone playing, and as a broadcaster and journalist. She studied piano, violin and trombone at the Royal Academy of Music, then joined the Ivy Benson All Girls Band between 1956 and 1958...
. The name Spotlight was adopted on 30 September 1963.
Those early radio broadcasts had been made from the Athenaeum Chambers in Athenaeum Lane in Plymouth (ironically, next to what would become Westward
Westward Television
Westward Television was the first ITV franchise holder for the South West of England from 29 April 1961 until 31 December 1981. After a difficult start, Westward provided a popular, distinctive and highly regarded service to its region, until public boardroom squabbles led to its franchise not...
and TSW
Television South West
Television South West was the ITV franchise holder for the South West England region from 1 January 1982 until 31 December 1992, broadcasting from the former Westward Television studios in Plymouth, Devon.-Origins and Launch:...
's headquarters), but just before the Second World War the BBC started looking for alternative premises. A Victorian villa named Ingledene in Seymour Road was bought from the Douglass family and this building has, as of 2010, remained the BBC's headquarters in the South West. It has been considerably extended over the years, including the addition of a new and larger television studio in 1974 in preparation for the conversion of Spotlight to colour the following year. A replacement purpose-built broadcasting centre on the opposite side of Sutton Harbour from the Barbican
Barbican, Plymouth
The Barbican is the name now given to the western and northern sides of the old harbour area of Plymouth, Devon, England. It was one of the few parts of the city to escape most of the destruction of The Blitz during the Second World War...
has been under construction since 2008. It is due to open in mid 2011.
A lighthouse motif had been in use within the programme's title sequences for many years until May 2000, when Spotlight adopted the generic BBC regional news design. The motif returned in May 2006, and the use of a lighthouse in the titles remained with the latest BBC News relaunch in 2008.
Main presenters
Spotlight- Natalie Cornah
- Victoria Graham
- Justin Leigh
BBC Channel Islands
- Clare Burton
- Gwyn Garfield Bennett
Weather presenters
- David Braine
- Helen McKenzie
- Emily Wood
Other presenters
- Clare Casson
- Amy ColeAmy Cole-References:http://www.bbc.co.uk/spotlight/content/articles/2008/09/29/amy_cole_feature.shtml...
- Carys Edwards
- Lucie Fisher (married to output editor Simon Read)
- Aysha Iqbal
- Carol Madge
- Hamish Marshall (also East Devon video journalist)
- Julia Peet (married to weatherman David Braine)
- Jenny Walrond
- Rebecca Wills
Spotlight reporters
District Correspondents- David George (Cornwall)
- Philip Loat (North Devon)
- Mark Patterson (Somerset)
- Clinton Rogers (Somerset)
Specialist Correspondents
- Scott Bingham (Defence)
- Adrian Campbell (Environment)
- Neil Gallacher (Business and Industry)
- Simon HallSimon Hall (writer)Simon Hall is the BBC's Crime Correspondent in the South West of England. He is also the author of the Dan Groves and Adam Breen detective novels, in which a TV reporter and a detective work together to solve crimes....
(Home Affairs) - Sally Mountjoy (Health)
- Martyn Oates (Political Editor)
General Reporters
- John Henderson
- Jonathan Hudston
- Eleanor Parkinson
- Leigh Rundle
- Johnny Rutherford
- Louise Walter
- Marcus Wraight
BBC Channel Islands team
Journalists- Janey Doyle (Multimedia journalist)
- David Earl (Alderney correspondent)
- Amy Harris (Video journalist, Jersey/bulletin producer)
- Edward Sault (Video journalist, Jersey/occasional presenter)
- Anisha Shah (Video journalist)
- Emma Thomas (Video journalist)
- Christie Tucker (Bi-media journalist, Jersey)
- Mike Wilkins (Video journalist, Guernsey)
Production Staff
- Emma Chambers (Studio Director/Senior Technical Operator and reporter)
- Chris Harrison (Technical Operator)
- Ian Kelly (Producer/Assistant News Editor)
Past presenters
- Kate AdieKate AdieKathryn "Kate" Adie , OBE , is a British journalist. Her most high-profile role was that of chief news correspondent for BBC News, during which time she became well known for reporting from war zones around the world...
- Fern BrittonFern BrittonFern Britton is an English television presenter, known as the former main co-presenter on the ITV magazine programme This Morning alongside Phillip Schofield. She left the show on 17 July 2009, her 52nd birthday.- Early life :...
- Jill DandoJill DandoJill Wendy Dando was an English journalist, television presenter and newsreader who worked for the BBC for 14 years. She was murdered by gunshot outside her home in Fulham, West London; her killer has never been identified....
- Chris Denham
- Teresa Driscoll
- Sue King
- Russell Labey
- Sue LawleySue Lawley- Early life and education:Born in Sedgley, Staffordshire, England and brought up in the Black Country, she was educated at Dudley Girls High School and graduated in modern languages from the University of Bristol and some time later started her career at the BBC in Plymouth...
- Gillian Miles
- Juliet MorrisJuliet Morris-Early life:Morris was educated at Lady Eleanor Holles School, an independent school for girls in Hampton in West London, where she recalled the difficulties of being left-handed. At the age of eleven, she moved to a convent when her family settled in Devon...
- Craig Rich (weather forecaster)
- Angela RipponAngela RipponAngela M. Rippon, OBE, born 12 October 1944, Plymouth, Devon, England, is an English television journalist, newsreader, writer and presenter. Rippon presented radio and television news programmes in South West England before moving to BBC One's Nine O'Clock News, becoming a regular presenter in 1975...
- Hugh ScullyHugh ScullyHugh Scully , is a British television presenter. He is best known as the host of the BBC show Antiques Roadshow from 1981 to 2000.Scully joined the BBC in 1965 as a freelance journalist...
- Christopher Slade
- Sheila TracySheila TracySheila Tracy is a British musician, best known for her trombone playing, and as a broadcaster and journalist. She studied piano, violin and trombone at the Royal Academy of Music, then joined the Ivy Benson All Girls Band between 1956 and 1958...
BBC Channel Islands
BBC Channel Islands is the dedicated opt-out service for the Channel IslandsChannel Islands
The Channel Islands are an archipelago of British Crown Dependencies in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two separate bailiwicks: the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey...
.
Local news for the Islands had existed since the 1990s when a short bulletin aired following the BBC Nine O'Clock News
BBC Nine O'Clock News
The BBC Nine O'Clock News was the flagship BBC News programme launched on 14 September 1970, which ran until 15 October 2000, when it was controversially moved to BBC News at Ten....
. Since 16 October 2000, two evening bulletins have been broadcast at 6:30pm and following the BBC News at Ten - until April 2008, these bulletin had been known as Spotlight Channel Islands. Originally broadcast from a studio at the Fremont Point transmitter, the news service is now entirely based at the studios of BBC Radio Jersey
BBC Radio Jersey
BBC Radio Jersey is the BBC Local Radio service for Jersey, Channel Islands. It broadcasts from its studios at 18-21 Parade Road in Saint Helier on 88.8 FM, 1026 AM as well as online at Jersey....
in St Helier.
The opt-outs are presented by either Gwyn Garfield Bennett or Clare Burton and produced by a team of multi-skilling journalists who write, film and edit their own stories, as well as producing and directing the three bulletins for the islands on weekdays. The main opt takes up the first twelve minutes of the nightly 6.30pm programme with a full opt at 10.25pm and a short 30-second update at 8pm. No opt-outs are broadcast during the day and at weekends, except for special occasions such as local elections or major sporting events such as the Island Games.
Like other BBC enterprises in the Channel Islands, funding comes primarily from television licence
Television licensing in the United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom and the Crown Dependencies, any household watching or recording live television transmissions is required to purchase a television licence every year. As of 2010, this costs £145.50 for colour and £49.00 for black and white. The licence is required to receive any live...
fees collected within the Channel Islands themselves.