11/06/2011 Newswatch

Welcome to Newswatch. Later, many of you are critical of the

performance of BBC newsreaders. Could you do any better? We set up

that challenge for one viewer. Before that, complaints about BBC

News come from all quarters, including Number 11 Downing Street.

Here is George Osborne on Radio 4. I've not yet heard of a single news

bulletin saying that a single job has been created. Last year, there

was a disappointing manufacturing survey. Today, there is a more

encouraging survey. It is not on at the news. I am asking for a bit of

balance. It is certainly true there has been a bit of bad economic news.

Should the BBC cheer up? The squeeze on household has tightened,

with the annual inflation rate a jobbing to 4.4%, well ahead that

average pay rises. -- jumping. Today's figures show total UK

unemployment is at its highest since 1994. Always look on the

bright side of life. Rising energy prices, higher VAT and government

spending cuts have contributed to a week UK budget this year. But are

those stories a fair reflection of the BBC's output or a fair

reflection of the economy? Many Newswatch correspondents agree with

the Chancellor, that we concentrate too much on bad news. This at the

US sent us an e-mail to say: -- The editor of BBC News's business

unit a road in response to the Now, it may not surprise you to

hear that we receive numerous comments about newsreaders and

presenters, how they speak, what they wear, whether they stand up

all sit down. This fewer asked: -- OK, point taken. But on Monday's

News, this news reader did just that. Scientists say there may be a

step closer to answering the big questions about the origins of the

Universe. Teams using a big particle accelerator say they have

made a breakthrough in the study of antimatter. Dramatic stuff, but not

Tricky and controversial. When you get onto news presenters and their

delivery, the criticisms get rather more pointed. Last week, Stanley

While Christina wrote on one Mikael had someone else in mind: --

You may or may not be able to guess which specific presenters were

being referred to in some of those e-mails. Another person who wrote

to us with criticism was an Chadwick from Stoke-on-Trent, who

asked if she could do any better. - - Anne. Thank you very much. I

first contacted Newswatch because I watch a lot of news and that all

the presenters could talk a bit more fluently than they do. They

make it look so easy for most of the time, especially the famous

presenters who everybody knows about to do the be bulletins. When

things don't go quite as well as they would like, it shows up more.

I would like to know how difficult it is.

To help them along, she is joined by Ian Blandford, who has coached

many presenters on BBC and elsewhere and will give our novice

some tips. I make a living looking after presenters and helping

presenters look as natural as they do on television. We say, be

yourself. But also, read the autocue. Sometimes they have never

seen it but it has to look like it is coming from them and they also

have all sorts of noise going on in their ears. I wanted to ask you

about that. How do you cope having someone's voice enjoyed here when

you are reading from the screen? -- in your ear. We set her three tasks,

the ones news presenters normally face. The first challenge is to get

a script and read it to the autocue. Hello and welcome to this special

edition of the news. It's been revealed that presenting television

news programmes is not as hard as it looks. One presenter has told

the BBC that anyone can do it. next thing we are going to do is

I'm going to be a foreign correspondent, in the Middle East,

and it is a story which happens a lot. It pops up and we don't know

too much about it. You have to have a chat about what is going on.

we go to allow Middle East correspondent, in Blandford, who

was in Syria. Can you hear me? can. Can you tell me what is going

on where you like? The Middle East seems to be a set of toppling

dominoes at the moment. We are but that -- about to present -- pretend

that the live link is going down. I'm very sorry, we appear to have

lost our correspondent. Nick Clegg has said the Liberal Democrats will

be more muscular in government. am back now. We want you to read a

bit more script from the autocue and interview me. I'm joined now by

the Liberal Democrat MP Ian Blandford. So how long have you

been an MP? I've been an MP for the last 15 years. What is your record

in government? Up to now, as you know, not that successful. It's not

going rather well. Now we will tester skills further by giving her

some other important breaking news via her earpiece. I'm afraid I'm

going to have to cut you off. An election has been announced.

Presenters handling breaking news. In this case, we have had the floor

manager hand down some news for her to read. Apart from that, she has

to basket. Did -- busk it. seats are needed for an overall

So, this is the news, that the coalition has fallen, that Nick

Clegg and David Cameron are no longer the best of friends. So what

did our expert think? I bought one bit was great. You had warmth and

you were relaxed. He did a good job interviewing me. Thank you very

much. The last bit with the breaking news, that was probably

the toughest bit? I think so. I had a script to work from that I had to

improvise with the camera. How has it made you think about the job

that these guys to day today? made me think it's a lot more

difficult than that thought it was. It wasn't the most scientific of

exercises but she certainly learned something from the experience and

despite her modesty, showed the professionals a thing or two.

Thanks very much to our guinea pig, and Chadwick and her coach and

guide, Ian Blandford. -- Anne. If you want to give us your views or

opinions, you can call last or e- mail us. Those details are on the

screen. You can find us on Twitter. Thanks for watching. You could be

making our news or even reading it We are going to see the unsettled

weather continue over the weekend. Today, sunshine and showers but for

Sunday, more persistent rain from the South and staying quite call. A

cool start to this morning. There should be a lot of sunshine around.

Just the odd shower. And mostly dry start for the Midlands and northern

parts of England. One or two match showers in the north-west. -- two.

The odd a shower in the northern coast of northern Ireland. It is

dry and fairly bright for Northern Ireland. A fairly chilly start for

Wales. There are a few showers hugging the western coast.

Temperatures in Swansea and Cardiff about 11 degrees. Similar

conditions in the south-west. A few showers towards Plymouth and

Cornwall. Showers and more cloud in the south-east corner. A few

showers and the Home Counties. The showers will gather elsewhere

across the UK. Not as heavy or intensive as we had yesterday. We

could have a few heavy downpours in the north-east of England, sudden

Scotland or persistent rain in the far north of Scotland. -- sudden.