Realism

A great start for Bodyguard last night on BBC1 with an overnight audience figure of 6.73m, 34.9% share. Here's an interesting section of the cast list in Episode 1.

Reporter Natalie Dew
Reporter Andrew Marr
Reporter Nick Robinson
Reporter Frank Gardner
Reporter Martha Kearney
Reporter Mishal Husain
Reporter Laura Kuenssberg
Reporter Sophie Raworth
Reporter Vicki Young
Reporter Justin Webb
Reporter John Humphrys

Only Natalie Dew is known as a actor/actress.

Here's some extracts from the current BBC Editorial Guidelines.

"Current presenters of BBC news programmes should not appear as news presenters in a fictional bulletin if it is at all likely that this could cause confusion and concern.  Any proposal to do so, for example in a clearly comic, unrealistic or fantasy situation, must be referred to their head of department.

"Any proposal to use a BBC News set or presenter to present a fictitious bulletin should go to the Head of Newsroom who will need to make a judgement as to whether the proposal is likely to undermine the authority or credibility of BBC News, or compromise its perceived accuracy or impartiality.

"It will normally be inappropriate to use a BBC correspondent in the field to front a fictitious news report. Head of Newsgathering must give approval to any proposal.

"To avoid the danger of audiences being confused as to the reality of what they are seeing or hearing, some basic precautions should be taken:

"High profile presenters should not be used in their usual news setting

"Care should be taken in the filming of the fictitious bulletin to give visual clues that this is not a conventional bulletin, for example, the bulletin as seen on a TV set, over the shoulder and profile shots, and so on.

"On-air graphics in a drama or comedy should differ slightly from the original graphics as a further visual clue to the nature of the bulletin.