Daily Politics

This article is about the British television show. For the New York political blog, see New York Daily News.
Daily Politics

Title card (as of January 2012)
Genre Current affairs and politics
Presented by Andrew Neil
Jo Coburn
Andrew Kerr
Theme music composer Jim Meacock (2003–2011)[1]
George Fenton (2012–)[2]
Country of origin United Kingdom
Original language(s) English
Production
Location(s) BBC Millbank (Mon-Fri)
Broadcasting House (Sun)
Running time 60 minutes (Mon,Tues,Thurs,Fri) 90 minutes (Wed) 75 Minutes (Sunday), 25 Minutes BBC World News
Release
Original network BBC Two (Monday-Friday)
BBC One (Sunday)
BBC World News (Europe only)
Original release 8 January 2003 (2003-01-08) – present
Chronology
Related shows This Week
External links
Website

Daily Politics is a British television show launched by the BBC in 2003 and presented by Andrew Neil and Jo Coburn. The programme takes an in-depth look at the daily goings on in Westminster and other areas across Britain and the world, and includes interviews with leading politicians and political commentators.

History

In 2000, the then BBC Director General Greg Dyke ordered a review of political output from BBC, which was carried out by Fran Unsworth,[3] and led to a major overhaul of political output in 2003. A number of flagship programmes were axed including On the Record, Despatch Box and Westminster Live and replaced with a new raft of programmes, including Daily Politics and The Politics Show.[4]

In October 2011 it was announced that from 9 January 2012 Daily Politics would be relaunched broadcasting six days a week (Daily Politics - Monday to Friday and Sunday Politics at the weekends). The duration of Daily Politics was extended from 30 to 60 minutes on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, remaining at 90 minutes on Wednesdays. Sunday Politics would become a weekend edition of Daily Politics presented by Andrew Neil and replacing The Politics Show, which ended in December 2011.[5]

Daily Politics

Daily Politics is broadcast live on weekdays on BBC Two when the House of Commons is sitting. The programme is broadcast at noon and lasts 60 minutes on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. On Wednesdays the programme lasts for 90 minutes from 11:30am and includes live coverage and analysis of Prime Minister's Questions. Each show is repeated on BBC Parliament at midnight on the same day, and is available on the BBC iPlayer for seven days. During the party conference season Daily Politics has an additional programme to cover the leaders' speeches in the afternoon. The Daily Politics team also produces a conference highlights programme called Today at Conference which goes out after Newsnight on BBC Two. During the 2010 general election, BBC Two ran nine, 45-minute Daily Politics election debates. These programmes were presented by Andrew Neil and a specialist BBC correspondent.

There is also a Northern Ireland version of Daily Politics broadcast as Daily Politics from Northern Ireland to cover Northern Ireland Minister's Questions from Westminster opting out of the national programme for the first half hour before Prime Minister's Questions on a Wednesday and this is usually presented by Connor Bradford.

Presenters

Nick Clegg being interviewed by Andrew Neil for the programme

Daisy Sampson (now McAndrew) was Neil's co-presenter until the summer of 2005 when she left to join ITV. Jenny Scott joined as her replacement; she left in June 2008 to join the Bank of England. Sally Magnusson joined briefly in 2005 as the sole presenter on Friday's episode. Anita Anand joined the programme as Jenny Scott's replacement in September 2008 with Jo Coburn presenting on Thursdays.

Shelagh Fogarty joined the team in January 2010 to co-host with Andrew Neil on Thursdays for three months after Anita Anand began maternity leave, while Jo Coburn took on Anita Anand's role presenting four days a week.[6] At the beginning of April 2010, Jo Coburn went full-time presenting the programme every day. Anita Anand returned on 6 September 2010 and left the programme in July 2011.[7]

When the programme returned on 5 September 2011, it was presented by Andrew Neil on Mondays, Jo Coburn on Fridays, and the two of them together on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. As of January 2012, following the creation of Sunday Politics, Coburn presents Monday to Thursday and Neil presents Wednesday to Friday, making Wednesdays and Thursdays the only days the programme has two presenters.

The regular reporters are Adam Fleming, Giles Dilnot and Ellie Price. Other regular contributors to the show include the BBC's political editor Laura Kuenssberg and her deputy James Landale - who help to review Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday's extended shows.

Sunday Politics

The network part of Sunday Politics is presented by Andrew Neil and was launched on 15 January 2012 to replace The Politics Show.

Sunday Politics is divided into a number of clearly defined sections. The programme usually starts with a short interview on a topical subject making the news that day. This section is branded the Top Story. The main programme interview (the Sunday Interview) is introduced by a short graphic and normally lasts between 10 and 15 minutes. The next section is Head to Head which is introduced by a short film and consists of a debate between two people on a political issue in the news that week. At this point the programme opts to 11 English regional segments, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Each opt-out lasts 23 minutes apart from Scotland (see below). Following the opt-outs the programme returns with a final section called The Week Ahead featuring three political journalists - regularly Janan Ganesh (The Financial Times), Isabel Oakeshott (Sunday Times), Nicholas Watt (The Guardian) and Helen Lewis (New Statesman)

The News and Weather for the week ahead were dropped in 2014.

Sunday Politics (English regions)

There are 11 English regional segments on Sunday Politics. Each region follows a similar format consisting of two political figures, normally MPs or MEPs, appearing for the whole 23 minutes. In addition each regional segment has topical interviews and discussions, short films and a review of the political week in 60 seconds.

Sunday Politics Scotland

Sunday Politics Scotland is presented by Gordon Brewer or Andrew Kerr, and forms part of the Sunday Politics programme. Viewers in Scotland see the first 37 minutes of the network programme (Top Story, Sunday Interview, and Head to Head) with Andrew Neil before opting to 38 minutes of analysis of the big political stories in Scotland.

Sunday Politics Wales

The Welsh segment of Sunday Politics lasts 23 minutes and forms part of the overall Sunday Politics programme. It follows a similar format to the English regional opts with two political figures appearing for the whole 23 minutes and a weekly round up of the political week in 60 seconds.

Sunday Politics Northern Ireland

The Northern Ireland segment of Sunday Politics normally lasts 23 minutes and forms part of the overall Sunday Politics programme but sometimes covers election debates and occasionally expands to fill the whole Sunday Politics slot in Northern Ireland. In 2012 BBC NI put all its politics shows under the one production team so Stormont Today, The View and Sunday Politics Northern Ireland are all presented by Mark Carruthers, who moved from Good Morning Ulster to be the face of politics on BBC NI, replacing Noel Thompson, who occupies Carruthers' former slot on Radio Ulster. Tara Mills hosts when Carruthers is unavailable. The Northern Ireland segment used to be repeated after the late night news on Sunday evenings usually at 10.30pm on BBC One NI but from 2012 this has moved to BBC Two NI at the same time as Match of the Day 2 is on BBC One.

Daily Politics election debates

2010 general election

During the run up to the 2010 general election Daily Politics held a series of special editions of the programme featuring debates involving members of the incumbent Labour Cabinet and their Conservative and Liberal Democrat equivalents. These debates ran alongside the main leaders' debates held for the first time in 2010. Starting on Monday 19 April, there were nine debates held on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays for the three weeks before 6 May. Andrew Neil acted as moderator, along with a specialist BBC correspondent.[8]

2015 general election

In the run up to the 2015 general election, the programme again held a series of debates, involving representatives from several political parties.[9] They were:

Politics Europe

This was launched on 14 September 2012 to replace The Record Europe and airs on BBC Parliament and BBC World News in Europe. The presenter is Andrew Neil.

Competition

Every Wednesday the programme features an email competition where viewers answer a question for the chance to win a coveted Daily Politics mug. This competition was suspended as per BBC policy in the wake of the Blue Peter phone-in scandal. The competition returned in 2008 with entries picked out of a giant-sized Daily Politics mug instead of a normal mug (after initially using a Daily Politics bucket). Neither the enlarged mug nor the Daily Politics bucket have yet been made available as a prize. The design of the mug changed in September 2008, after a relaunch of the programme. A new electronic method for choosing the winner was introduced in April 2012.

Production

Daily Politics is produced at the BBC's Millbank studios across the road from the Palace of Westminster but despite this convenient location it is not unknown for MPs and guests to arrive late for their interviews; a social gaffe which Andrew Neil frequently reminds them of on subsequent appearances. However, on 17 May 2011 when the programme was re-scheduled to an earlier slot of 11:30 Neil himself was caught in traffic and missed the entire programme, which had to be introduced solo by Anita Anand with an empty chair alongside her.[10] For a while from September 2014 the program was moved to Broadcasting House while the Westminster studio was renovated.

Accusations of Bias

In January 2016 Daily Politics faced accusations of bias when journalist Laura Kuenssberg arranged for Labour MP Stephen Doughty to announce his resignation on the show. This led to formal complaints[11] which were subsequently rejected by Robbie Gibb, Editor of BBC Live Political Programmes and brother of Conservative MP Nick Gibb

See also

References

  1. ↑
  2. ↑
  3. ↑ Deans, Jason (23 December 2004). "BBC appoints new head of newsgathering". The Guardian (London).
  4. ↑ Cozens, Claire; Deans, Jason (20 September 2002). "The BBC: A new manifesto for viewers". The Guardian (London).
  5. ↑ http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=48008&c=1
  6. ↑ "Changing faces at the Daily Politics". BBC Online. 17 December 2009. Retrieved 8 January 2010.
  7. ↑ "BBC News". BBC News. 12 July 2011.
  8. ↑ "Daily Politics Cabinet Contender Election Debates". BBC News. 22 March 2010. Retrieved 16 April 2010.
  9. ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2015/daily-politics-election-debates
  10. ↑ "BBC 2 The Daily Politics, 17 05 2011".
  11. ↑ Hardman, Isabel. "Labour complains about shadow minister’s resignation on BBC", The Spectator, London, 8 January 2016. Retrieved on 14 January 2016.

External links

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