31-556: BBC South West is the BBC English Region serving Cornwall , Devon , Isles of Scilly , West Somerset , West Dorset and Channel Islands . BBC South West' s television service (broadcast on BBC One South West) consists of the flagship regional news service Spotlight , the opt-out service BBC Channel Islands , and a 20-minute opt-out during Sunday Politics . BBC South West covers Cornwall , Channel Islands , Devon , West Dorset and West Somerset Due to
62-473: A 15th century fortification which once guarded the harbour mouth. The Barbican claims to have the largest concentration of cobbled streets in England and has more than 100 listed buildings , many dating back to the 16th and 17th centuries. On the west pier of Sutton Harbour stands The Leviathan , a large sculpture of an imaginary sea creature, made up of the parts of various marine animals and birds. It
93-528: A radical review of the BBC's network radio and non-metropolitan broadcasting structure – published on 10 July 1969. Before this the structure of regional broadcasting in England had remained virtually unchanged since the late 1920s, when the establishment of four regional radio transmission stations covering England had led to a regional structure on similar lines. BBC North was based in Manchester and covered
124-456: A raft of closures, restructures and cost-cutting measures and one of these was the decision not to renew We Are England for a third series. Sutton Harbour Sutton Harbour , formerly known as Sutton Pool , is the original port of Plymouth in Devon , England . It is still a busy fishing port and marina and is bounded on one side by the historic Barbican district . It is famous as
155-402: A region as it acted as the sustaining service for the other regions. These regions (alongside the national regions BBC Scotland , BBC Wales and BBC Northern Ireland that performed a similar role outside England) were well-suited to delivering the pre-war BBC Regional Programme and the post-war BBC Home Service that replaced it. By the 1960s, though, the growth of television, the birth of
186-540: A small television news studio, the latter to enable local ( opt out ) programming. As a result of the latter, Plymouth -based BBC South West and Southampton -based BBC South were split from BBC West in Bristol; Norwich -based BBC East separated from BBC Midlands in Birmingham; a new smaller BBC North West was created from the existing Manchester -based region, with the old BBC North name being taken by
217-606: Is at Broadcasting House in the Mannamead area of Plymouth , with offices and television studios also in St Helier , Saint Peter Port , Dorchester , Taunton , Truro and Exeter . The Plymouth studios were originally a Victorian villa on Seymour Road called Ingledene before being bought by the BBC following the Second World War and subsequently fitted out with technical facilities. A new colour television studio
248-647: Is now the only regional TV news service dedicated entirely to, and produced in, the South West, as the ITV service ( ITV News West Country ) is based in Bristol with bulletins and opt-outs for the region. ITV Channel Television continues to produce and broadcast its own dedicated local news service for the Channel Islands from its studios near St Helier in Jersey. The regional headquarters and television centre
279-660: Is the division of the BBC responsible for local and regional television, radio, web , and teletext services in England , the Isle of Man , and the Channel Islands . It is one of the BBC's four "nations" – the others being BBC Cymru Wales , BBC Northern Ireland , and BBC Scotland . The division is made up of 12 regions. Many of the names of these regions are similar to those of the official government Regions of England , but
310-399: Is the work of Glossop based sculptor Brian Fell ; it is made from mild steel coated with copper paint and is 33 feet (10 metres) tall. It is known locally as "The Prawn". Originally, Plymouth's fish market was on the quayside at The Barbican; a purpose-built market building was opened there in 1892. In 1995, a new building was opened on the other side of Sutton Harbour. The turnover of
341-401: Is themed around a different subtitle, with the first being Mental Health . Aisling O'Connor, the head of TV Commissioning for BBC England, commissioned 120 episodes to be broadcast in 2022, with the first being shown on 26 January 2022 at 7:30pm. In-addition to being shown on BBC One , select episodes are also repeated on BBC News and on BBC Three . In May 2022, the BBC announced
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#1732801691779372-600: The BBC Home Service was to be replaced by BBC Local Radio . The report stated that the local radio experiment, started in 1967 "has proved that there is a demand for local radio" and that the BBC should "put forward to the Postmaster General a provisional scheme for expanding our local network to about forty stations" . This structure has largely survived since the 1970s. Local news services were developed on Ceefax from 1997 and were extended onto
403-464: The BBC West region. BBC South West also produces regional news & local radio pages for BBC Red Button and BBC Local websites for each county. BBC South West began a regional television service on 20 April 1961 (nine days before the first broadcast of the rival ITV station, Westward Television ) with ten-minute news bulletins on weekdays, originally presented by Tom Salmon. A year later,
434-609: The Look North branding for Yorkshire , East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire and the North East and Cumbria , with national bulletins for Scotland , Wales and Northern Ireland . All follow the national UK-wide BBC News bulletins. In May 2022 the BBC announced the cessation of the Cambridge and Oxford sub-regional television news bulletins as part of plans to move to a digital-first BBC. The last bulletins aired at 18:30 on
465-547: The Spanish Armada . Although the Royal Navy moved most of its operations to Devonport in the 18th century and larger commercial shipping moved to Millbay Docks, Sutton Harbour continued in use by the fishing fleet and coastal trading vessels . Lock gates were added to the harbour entrance in 1993. The Barbican is the historic district on the western and northern sides of Sutton Harbour and takes its name from
496-521: The web in 1999. The decreasing costs of television production and improving technology also enabled the gradual development of even smaller regions. In 1991, BBC East Midlands was finally created in Nottingham , BBC London (separated from BBC South East) became a region in 2001 and BBC North was split into BBC Yorkshire and BBC Yorkshire and Lincolnshire in 2004 – with the new millennium seeing several BBC regions moving into new premises. In
527-416: The 16th December 2022. Programmes made for BBC English Regions include Walking with... and Winter Walks , two series produced by Cy Chadwick , where presenters take solitary walks along scenic paths, filming themselves and their surroundings with a 360-degree camera on a selfie stick . All the episodes from a series get a regional slot on BBC One where they are broadcast at all the same time, before
558-636: The East, South and South West regions, sub-regional opt-outs during local news programmes have also been created (similar to those on ITV regional news programmes), based respectively in Cambridge, Oxford and Jersey. In total, the BBC has produced the regional news bulletins for London , the East , South East , South , South West , West , the West and East Midlands , and the North West regions of England, with
589-617: The area from Cheshire and Sheffield northwards, BBC Midlands and East Anglia was based in Birmingham covering a swathe of central England from the Potteries to Norfolk , and BBC South and West was based in Bristol covering the area south and west of a line from Gloucester to Brighton . The London area, though it had regional transmission infrastructure of its own, produced only national programming and wasn't considered to be
620-607: The areas covered are often significantly different, being determined by terrestrial transmission coverage rather than administrative boundaries. BBC English Regions has its headquarters at The Mailbox in Birmingham (West Midlands) and additional regional television centres in Norwich , Nottingham , Broadcasting House (London), Newcastle , MediaCityUK (Salford), Southampton , Tunbridge Wells , Plymouth , Bristol , Leeds , and Kingston upon Hull as well as local radio stations based at 43 locations across England. Overall,
651-532: The bulletin was expanded and relaunched as the news magazine programme South West at Six (hosted by Sheila Tracy ) before being renamed again on 30 September 1963 as Spotlight South West . An opt-out for the Channel Islands was introduced during the 1990s, beginning with short bulletins after the Nine O'Clock News on weeknights, presented from a small studio at the Frémont Point transmitter . The service
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#1732801691779682-538: The construction industry. In late 2012, the owner of the harbour expressed fears the move may never happen and admitted other parties had expressed an interest in moving to the site earmarked for the BBC. In 2013, the BBC confirmed it would not be moving to Sutton Harbour, but instead be refurbishing its existing Plymouth headquarters. The studios in St Helier, Jersey are used for the opt out Channel Islands news bulletins. BBC English Regions BBC English Regions
713-576: The division produces over 70% of the BBC's domestic television and radio output hours, for about 7% of the licence fee. Since April 2009, the English Regions division has been aligned with the BBC News department to "maximise co-operation in the BBC's news operations". The current BBC English Regions division was the product of the controversial Broadcasting in the Seventies report –
744-755: The last departure point in England of the Mayflower , the ship that carried the Pilgrim Fathers to the New World . Sutton is the original name for Plymouth, which was originally settled in about 700 AD and is recorded in the Domesday Book as Sudtone , meaning "south settlement" in the Old English language . In 1588, the harbour was the base for the English fleet that sailed to challenge
775-556: The market has increased from £250,000 a year in 1995 to £19.4 million in 2015. The market now sells 6,000 tonnes of fish and shellfish annually, and is the second largest fish market in England. Around 40 fishing boats unload their catch at Sutton Harbour daily, but up to 70 per cent of fish sold in Plymouth arrives by road from other fishing ports in the South West of England. In 1972, the first 70 berths were opened for recreational yachts ; today Sutton Harbour has 420. The Marina
806-487: The more locally based ITV franchises in 1955 and the development of smaller BBC Local Radio stations (made possible by the development of FM radio ) were making the structure look increasingly anachronistic. The effect of Broadcasting in the Seventies was to separate the two different roles of regional BBC offices into different organisations: Each of the production centres also had network radio studios ( BBC Birmingham , for instance, producing The Archers ) plus
837-604: The newly created region based in Leeds ; and the existing Newcastle -based BBC North East separated from the old BBC North Region in this process. In addition, London and the surrounding area was finally recognised as a region with the creation of BBC South East although the region was not to get a dedicated regional programme of its own until 1982 and regional news bulletins for the area did not launch until September 1985. These new regions produced local news programmes and opt-outs on television, but regional radio programming on
868-525: The size of West Dorset , the listenership of BBC Radio Solent is covered by both BBC South and BBC South West. The region is the controlling centre for BBC Radio Devon , BBC Radio Cornwall , BBC Radio Somerset , BBC Radio Jersey and BBC Radio Guernsey . On weekdays, the five stations carry local programming between 5 am and 7 pm before joining together for networked programming between 7 pm and closedown at 1 am. Weekend evening programmes are also simulcast with stations in
899-405: The whole series gets a national repeat on either BBC Two or BBC Four . In 2022, a new regional documentary strand titled We Are England was launched, as a replacement for the current affairs show Inside Out . A notable change is that episodes represent large, new, combinations of English regions, based in six main bases (Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, London, Newcastle and Norwich); each week
930-457: Was added to the complex in 1974, allowing Spotlight to broadcast in colour for the first time. The studios were due to close in late 2011, with BBC South West moving to a new purpose-built broadcasting centre on the banks of Sutton Harbour , opposite the Barbican in Plymouth city centre. The move stalled, however, due to a developer pulling out of the project and the effect of the recession on
961-585: Was expanded on 16 October 2000 and now incorporates the first half of Spotlight' s main 6:30pm programme (under the name BBC Channel Islands News ) and the full late bulletin after the BBC News at Ten on weeknights. The service is now based at the studios of BBC Radio Jersey in St Helier. Following the merger of Westcountry and HTV West to become ITV West & Westcountry in February 2009 (later becoming " ITV West Country " on 1 January 2014), Spotlight