From Gordon Burns' 47th NWT newsletter: "Of course at my age you have to consider when the right moment to step down is and I’d been mulling that over for some time. But the excitement of moving to the spectacular new media city at Salford and being part of BBC history appealed to me and I had hoped to extend my stay for a bit longer. But it was not to be."
From Gordon Burns' 47th NWT newsletter: "Of course at my age you have to consider when the right moment to step down is and I’d been mulling that over for some time. But the excitement of moving to the spectacular new media city at Salford and being part of BBC history appealed to me and I had hoped to extend my stay for a bit longer. But it was not to be."
That's brave for him to admit whilst still working for the BBC, if that is the case. You'd have thought he'd have stayed for a year or so whilst NWT settles down at Salford Quays, but I guess BBC North West just want a fresh new look from their new headquarters.
For those who don't receive the newsletter, here are the parts relevant to the presenters at NWT:
Quote:
I’M LEAVING:
Many of you will have heard by now that I shall be leaving North West Tonight at the end of September. It will be a real wrench after presenting
the programme for nearly 15 years. Of course at my age you have to consider when the right moment to step down is and I’d been mulling that over for some time. But the excitement of moving to the spectacular new media city at Salford and being part of BBC history appealed to me and I had hoped to extend my stay for a bit longer. But it was not to be. So it will be a sad moment for me when I say goodbye to you all on Friday September 30th. I have regarded it as a total privilege to be in your homes every weekday night delivering the news from this region and down the years I have enjoyed meeting so many of you when either I or the programme has been out and about. I’ve been so lucky to live in a region with so many friendly and welcoming people…but that’s Northerners for you. As yet there has been no news of who will take my place though I can assure you that Ranvir will be staying. Oh…and as this is newsletter 47, I hope to make it to 50 before I depart. And in those newslet
ters I’ll be able to tell you of my plans for life after North West Tonight. I’m certainly not retiring and doubt if I ever will. Already I’m really excited over a business idea I have helped develop and after much hard work is close to taking off but there’s still a little way to go…and I never count my chickens. I’ll also be doing a Sunday morning radio show which will go out across Radio Manchester and Radio Lancashire territory. Hope you’ll tune in!
RANVIR:
I’ve said many times in my newsletter that I believe my very talented co-presenter has a great future ahead of her. So it didn’t come as a great surprise to me when Radio Five Live showed how much they rated her after she stood in for several holidaying presenters in the last year, by offering her a minimum of 40 national programmes in the months ahead. She will present a number of Five Live’s weekend breakfast shows and pop up from time to with Nicky Campbell on the weekday breakfast show. That’s a great break for her and really shows she’s on her way. But North West Tonight lovers don’t worry…as I said earlier she will continue to present North West Tonight though there may be a few more days away from the screen. And when that happens you can enjoy the considerable presenting skills of Annabel Tiffin or Kate Simms. Having presented with all three I can tell you that you couldn’t meet three nicer, fun people to work with.
TONY:
Of course our sports presenter Tony Livesey has already made a huge impact on Five Live with his late night show which runs from 10.30pm to 1am every weekday evening except Friday. So much so that he has now landed an additional Sunday morning 5 Live politics show which is enjoying a 9 week run. You can catch it at 9am.
DIANNE:
Despite both Ranvir and I, SEVERAL TIMES, explaining Dianne’s absence from North West Tonight the emails and tweets keep coming in asking where she is, has she left, is she ill? So let me reassure you all. She is perfectly healthy and having fun. She is simply taking an extended holiday, as people do from time to time, and will be back with us in a couple of months time. So please don’t worry. She really is totally enjoying herself.
KAYE:
In the meantime Kaye Forster has joined us to cover Dianne’s absence – and has caused quite a stir! The fan mail has been rolling in. Kaye has moved up North from Tonbridge Wells where she presented the weather for BBC South East news. So it was a bonus for us having an experienced weather presenter handy just when we needed one. And she has settled in effortlessly. She certainly knows her stuff because she is a fully trained weather forecaster who worked for the Met Office for many years.
ANNABEL:
You are going to see less of Politics Show and 10.25pm news presenter Annabel Tiffin on your screens for a while. She is going to move over to our sister programme Inside Out to do some in depth reporting. She says she’s really looking forward to getting more time to delve into a story and develop it. But Annabel fans don’t panic. It’s only for about 4 weeks and then she’ll be back to her old routine again.
It's a shame Gordon is going - he really holds the fort at NWT and will be missed. A really friendly, down-to-earth guy, and a true professional.
For Ranvir, it sounds to me that it is only a matter of time before she leaves at some point for national projects at 5 Live, however staying up North of course, since 5 Live and NWT will be in the same place at some point. I definitely see Ranvir's future in radio. My only criticism is that on her own she is very professional and comes across well. However, with her co-presenter, normally Gordon, she permanently makes superfluous comments and laughs incessantly à la Bleakley. Very annoying and distracting, since she obviously has a lot of potential.
As for Tony on 5 Live, I haven't listened to his show, but he doesn't come over the type to be incredibly clued up on politics. He does the sport on NWT but he really isn't anything special. When he co-presents NWT he is clearly uncomfortable and out of his depth. For light-hearted conversation, he seems good enough.
As for Kaye, it sounds as if she is no longer at South East Today so her move up North and Diane on leave was obviously a coincidence. I wonder if she will continue on NWT from time to time. She has impressed me with her professionalism and would happily see her replace Eno, since she lacks so much technical and meteorological knowledge.
There's my critique of NWT. Also, no surprise in saying that I think Stuart Flinders will make the successor of Gordon, especially considering his presenting stint at the News Channel.
As the man himself might say: "it's probably time to go, a very good evening to you!". He'll be missed. Although I preferred Gordon presenting on his own (two presenters is overly fussy), his interactions with co-presenters gave another insight into the man.
With 2 hours of radio to fill each Sunday, we'll doubtless be hearing his wry style and warm personality in more depth.
On the note of "defecting to Granada Reports in protest", I should say here that in the North West, I think we have two great presenting teams on both BBC and Granada. Long-standing, warm, funny... you can't say our local news is bad.
On the note of "defecting to Granada Reports in protest", I should say here that in the North West, I think we have two great presenting teams on both BBC and Granada. Long-standing, warm, funny... you can't say our local news is bad.
Funny you should say that because I was flicking through Sky to have a look at other BBC Regional studios and presenters, and although the North West Tonight studio doesn't have the new uniform BBC News Lambie Nairn newsroom look, our presenting team are the best and are always the first to get the big promotions in the BBC, mainly the sports presenters traditionally. Does anyone know why we seem to get the best talent?!
On the note of "defecting to Granada Reports in protest", I should say here that in the North West, I think we have two great presenting teams on both BBC and Granada. Long-standing, warm, funny... you can't say our local news is bad.
Funny you should say that because I was flicking through Sky to have a look at other BBC Regional studios and presenters, and although the North West Tonight studio doesn't have the new uniform BBC News Lambie Nairn newsroom look, our presenting team are the best and are always the first to get the big promotions in the BBC, mainly the sports presenters traditionally. Does anyone know why we seem to get the best talent?!
That's a bit of a bold statement. The BBC Plymouth and BBC Elstree/London regions have also provided quite a lot of network talent in the past as has BBC Leeds.
Sue Lawley, Angela Rippon, Jill Dando, Juliet Morris are all former Spotlight presenters ISTR, with Fiona Bruce an obvious Newsroom South East graduate (along with Nina Hossain and Gillian Joseph), and Sophie Raworth an obvious Look North Leeds one. BBC London's Riz Lateef is also popping up increasingly on network output.
Suspect BBC North West has a very strong sport presenting team because of the large number of major football teams in the patch? They therefore get exposed to network sport news and sport teams more than in some other regions, and it attracts stronger talent?
