I have just watched North West Tonight on I-player. What an indictment to viewers in the North West of England who live north of the River Mersey. There was nothing about their area at all. The exception was coverage of the Isle of Man being Coronavirus free after three months. However, for someone living in Kendal or Windermere the Isle of Man’s news is no more relevant than what is happening in Birmingham- and all the other news tonight concerned happenings seventy or more miles away to the south of them.
BBC North West Tonight should make a point of being seen to cover North West England in its entirety. Otherwise, why call themselves “North West Tonight”? It’s interesting that tonight they had a piece on Buxton- which is in Derbyshire and which is actually a Midlands county but they reported nothing from the two major North West counties of Cumbria and Lancashire!
Why don’t they have done with it and call themselves “The Mersey Tonight” for they scarce mention anything north of the conurbations along the banks of that river. At least Cumbrians and North Lancastrians would know where they stand- and might campaign for their own BBC Regional TV- perhaps called “North West Tonight”.
North West England is, strangely enough, North West England: It encompasses that bit of northern England that is west of the Pennines and which borders the Irish Sea, not just the southern third of that region. However North West England does not include counties in the Midlands (like Derbyshire) which, by any definition is in the English Midlands!
Related
Published by northwestisnorthwest
My name is Ian Pennell and I am a freelance Book-keeper. I live near Alston in the North Pennines in north-east Cumbria. I used to live and work in Lancaster until 19 years ago and have friends in northern North West England. I have two Websites devoted to campaigning for local, relevant Regional TV, one for Cumbria/ North Lancashire the other for Northumberland/Scottish-Border.............................................................................................................................. A big problem is that the Regional Television Bulletins for the North West covers the southern third of the Region about 90% (plus a part of Derbyshire which is NOT the North West of England), covers the middle third of North West England poorly and covers the northern third of North West England not at all! When I was studying at Lancaster University, I used to watch BBC1 North West Tonight because it covered areas up around where I was brought up- in northern Cumbria as well as more immediately locally around Lancaster. Then I came home one day, turned on BBC1 North West Tonight wondering why they were silent on Cumbria and discovered why: Most of Cumbria had been chopped off the weather-map! ........................................................................
...........................................................................................................................................
In rural and northern Northumberland too, Regional TV, as is received by viewers, tends too often to be Tyneside/ Wearside/ Teesside- focussed with little news locally. Communities in North Northumberland have strong links across the Border into south-east Scotland and towards Edinburgh but none of the Regional TV News- services serving Northumberland today ever goes across the Scottish Border to cover significant happenings of interest to North Northumbrians. The region of Northumberland/ Scottish Borders/ East and Mid Lothian area is vast- but it is largely overlooked by mainstream Regional TV! .................................................................................................................... ................
In two websites, one for northern North West England and the Isle of Man (a country in it's own right that does not have it's own TV service!), and another Website focussing on Northumberland, North Yorkshire and the North Pennines I make the point that Regional TV that informs viewers of important things in their local area is a Public Service that must be funded better, in order that rural areas of northernmost England get good geographic- appropriate local news-coverage.
View more posts