Chinned

Fearless pointing greybeards.

Daaling

A little side bet on Aasmah Mir for Celebrity Masterchef might repay the investment. She has a website called Cracking Curries, with videos showing you how to make the recipes.

News need

Tuesday night's glitches at the start of the BBC bulletin at 10pm (someone/thing boshed the Bash Box) don't seem to have damaged the audience figures - 3.68m tuned in, a 23.7% share of the audience. The ITV News at Ten didn't do badly though - 2.34m, 15% share - exceeding their average 1.8m.

The mini-heatwave boosted ITV's Good Morning Britain on the same day - 861k watched, a 21.8% share, above their 17/18% target. But BBC Breakfast also did well - an average of 1.58m, 38.1% share. Both got good figures on Wednesday, too - GMB 831k (21.7%), Breakfast 1.61m, 39.7%.

I'm LOVING my new xkeys bash box #colourful pic.twitter.com/bYNqfH4ZQs

— Chris Cook (@chrisckmedia) April 19, 2016

Where were you when you got the news ?

A survey of 40,000 people across 36 countries has uncovered one nose-wrinkling trend in the consumption of digital news and information....

All part of Nic Newman's annual review of technology trends in news, now nested within the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.

Golygydd

Congratulations to Garmon Rhys, selected as Head of News for BBC Wales, from the tricky position of Deputy Head of News. The departure of current news boss Mark O'Callaghan (great Welsh name) was announced in April.

Garmon has a law degree from Cardiff, lives in Pontcanna, and has been with the BBC since 2000, mostly in news but with a three year-spell as Public Policy and Strategy Manager. He's married to Lowri, who used to be editor of general programmes for Radio Cymru. He is not to be confused with Garmon Rhys, the Welsh actor who's been playing the role of bassist Peter Quaife in the touring version of Kinks' musical, Sunny Afternoon.

Very different

As the heatwave breaks into thunder and rain, the Daily Mail storms at The Guardian in a leader.

“Earlier this week, a Guardian writer attacked the Daily Mail for carrying comments by the controversialist Katie Hopkins. That was a lie.”

“The Guardian and its writer know that Ms Hopkins has nothing to do with the Daily Mail, but works for Mail Online – a totally separate entity that has its own publisher, its own readership, different content and a very different world view.”

Katie Hopkins and Piers Morgan are currently billed as columnists for Mail Online. Which has such a different world view from the printed paper that it also carries the columns of Andrew Pierce, Stephen Glover, Sebastian Shakespeare, Ephraim Hardcastle, Quentin Letts, Richard Littlejohn, Dominic Lawson, Amanda Platell, Sarah Vine, Max Hastings, Jan Moir, Bel Mooney, Tom Utley and Peter McKay. The differentiation is clearly vast.

Dawnsio

In a triumphant response to Lord Hall's pledges on portrayal, the producers of Strictly Come Dancing have found a Welsh professional to join the programme.

Amy Dowden is from Caerphilly. In 2004, Caerphilly Borough Council donated her £75 for her work in dance-sport. On Tuesday this week she was running a Zumba class at St Bernadette's Primary, Wombourne; on Wednesday, it was St Paul's, Great Barr.  Amy's dance partners have included Tom Parkes and Gino Gabriele, but since 2012 she's been with Dudley's Ben Jones, who has previous Strictly experience  - on the the Mexican version.

Dynamic driver

Just as you continue to hope that the docu-drama series W1A might make the BBC more aware of how daft it often sounds, you turn to the job ads, and pow!

Children In Need is looking for a Director of Impact.

"Over the past 30 years, BBC Children in Need has raised over £840 million to help disadvantaged children and young people in the UK to be safe, happy, secure and to reach their potential. This role directly supports the above strategy and therefore is critical in dynamically driving forward the aims of the Charity. As Director of Impact you will provide strategic impact and funding leadership and guidance to the Executive Team, Board and the wider organisation."

Miracle on Great Titchfield St

In continuing micro-coverage of Meraki, the major new Greek restaurant opening of our time, here's a photo from noon yesterday. I know shopfitters are famed for cutting it fine and still delivering, but there's a way to go if it's to open to customers on Friday....

What a scorcher !

The BBC News automated playout system had a nervous breakdown in the one-minute run up to last night's 10pm bulletin. Viewers on BBC1 got a flash frame of Huw, before the continuity announcer cut in with an apology card. Viewers on the News Channel got the full random twitches of the machines, matched with a marvellously-stony-faced Huw, as the robot cameras trance-danced around. Hard to imagine what was going on in his earpiece.




Apparently both the main and back-up control system, which drives playout from prompts embedded in the scripts and running orders, failed. The team had to "go to manual", controlling vision and audio, graphics and video play-in direct from the studio desk.

I think I'm going to enjoy this little beauty after that Ten. Iechyd da! #bbcnewsten @BBCNews pic.twitter.com/FuU8zN6r5M

— Huw Edwards (@huwbbc) June 20, 2017

No word on the cause of the breakdown. Good Morning Britain has had some technical glitches, which trained boffin Piers Morgan is putting down to overheating.