East Midlands Today

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The East Midlands Today ident

East Midlands Today is the BBC's regional television news programme for its East Midlands region, which comprises southern Derbyshire, Leicestershire, southern Lincolnshire, southern and central Nottinghamshire, northern Northamptonshire, Burton upon Trent in Staffordshire and Rutland (note that this area coincides only partly with that of the East Midlands government region).

The programme is broadcast on BBC One from its studio at the BBC centre in Nottingham on London Road, also home to Radio Nottingham, to about 250,000 viewers. The main transmitter for the programme is Waltham near Melton Mowbray in east Leicestershire. The program can be watched in any part of the UK (and Europe) on digital satellite channel 980 on the BBC UK regional TV on satellite service.

East Midlands Today was established as an independent programme in January 1991, having previously been part of the Midlands Today programme (which began on 5 October 1987). Midlands Today now covers just the West Midlands. The split arose from criticisms of Midlands Today being too Birmingham-centric, with a lot of airtime devoted to Birmingham and Coventry. The programme's most recent 'look', in line with most other BBC regional TV news programmes, was introduced on 16 September 2002, with an update on 6 September 2004.

Viewers in south Lincolnshire may also receive Look North, with stories often duplicated by both newsrooms. Similarly, other parts of the East Midlands Today region may variously also receive Look East, Midlands Today or even, towards the Buxton area of Derbyshire, North West Tonight.

The main presenters are University of Leeds French graduate Marie Ashby (who joined in September 2005), Anne Davies and Dominic Heale. All three presenters have presented for Central News East and Anne Davies read the news on GMTV for eight years.

Other presenters include Kathy Rochford, Jo Healey, Carol Hinds, Quentin Raynerand Mel Coles. Inside Out, the half-hour regional documentary programme at 7.30pm on Fridays is hosted by Marie Ashby. The Politics Show at 12pm on Sundays has a regional section hosted by University of Nottingham Genetics graduate Priya Kaur-Jones since October 2006, formerly hosted by Marie Ashby. Priya originally worked on East Midlands Today before working on five news.

Presenters in earlier times included the now ITV newscaster Shiulie Ghosh, Sky's Ian Woods, Sky's Lukwesa Burak, Janet Mayo and the late Lynette Lithgow. The presenters tend not to have strong Nottingham or Derby accents, though some of the weather presenters do. The weather was first presented for several years by Jo Wheeler, former presenter on Radio Lincolnshire, who now works on SKY News.

The weather has been presented by former Leicester Sound presenter, Sara Blizzard since March 1999. University of Nottingham French and Spanish graduate Nicola Beswick also does some bulletins. Sport is presented half-way through the programme by Colin Hazelden, a Hull University graduate, who used to do football commentaries and the breakfast programme for Radio York. Mel Coles is married to Rob Glass (one of the first weather presenters for Five News), one of the other reporters.

At the end of the programme, the two presenters select stories of interest from local papers which include the Derby Evening Telegraph, Leicester Mercury or Nottingham Evening Post, usually of an up-beat, heart-warming or trivial nature, often involving skateboarding tortoises.