BBC Wales Today

For the similarily named news programme produced by ITV plc, see Wales Tonight.

Wales Today
Wales Today titles
Format	Regional/National News
Presented by	Jamie Owen Lucy Owen Sian Lloyd
Theme music composer	David Lowe
Country of origin	Wales, UK
Language(s)	English
Production
Editor(s)	Gail Morris Jones
Location(s)	Cardiff, Wales, UK
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	30 minutes (main 6:30pm programme)
Production company(s)	BBC Cymru Wales
Broadcast
Original channel	BBC One Wales
Picture format	576i (SDTV 16:9)
Original run	September 17, 1962 (1962-09-17) – present
Chronology
Related shows	BBC News, Wales Tonight
External links
Website

Wales Today is the BBC's national news programme for Wales, broadcast on BBC One Wales from the headquarters of BBC Wales in Llandaff, Cardiff.

The programme can be watched in any part of the UK (and Europe) on digital satellite channel 972 on the BBC UK regional TV on satellite service. Selected video packages from the programme are available on the BBC news website.

History

The programme began at 6:10pm on Monday 17 September 1962. Its predecessor, a short News from Wales bulletin, started in 1957 and was originally presented by Michael Aspel. The new programme, originally presented by Brian Hoey, shared a 25-minute timeslot for regional news with Points West from Bristol - at the time, both programmes were broadcast to Wales and the West of England from the Wenvoe transmitter near Cardiff.

By February 1964, two new television regions, BBC Wales and BBC West, had been created with the addition of a new channel (13) for Wales on Wenvoe. Wales Today thus became a 25-minute programme broadcast only to Wales while Points West was only broadcast to the West of England. In 1969, separate UHF transmitters at Wenvoe (Wales) and Mendip (West) meant complete separation, except for overlap areas in South Wales.

Bulletins

On weekdays, Wales Today broadcasts six three minute bulletins at 27 and 57 minutes past each hour during BBC Breakfast. An 15-minute lunchtime programme airs at 1:30pm with a short update broadcast at 3pm. The main half-hour edition of the programme airs between 6:30pm and 7:00pm. A short 30-second headline update is broadcast during BBC News's 8pm summary with the late night bulletin airing at 10:25pm, following the BBC News at Ten.

Four bulletins air during the weekend: a lunchtime bulletin on Saturday, early evening bulletins on Saturday & Sunday and a late night bulletin on Sundays, following the BBC News at Ten.

From November 2001, a fifteen minute news bulletin was broadcast on the digital opt-out service BBC 2W, first as 2W News and Sport and later, Wales Today on 2W. The bulletin was axed in 2007.

The team

Main anchors

• Sian Lloyd
• Jamie Owen

• Lucy Owen

Bulletin presenters

• Tomos Dafydd (also reporter/stand-in main anchor)
• Ross Harries (also reporter/ stand-in main anchor)
• Jayne James (Lunchtime and breakfast presenter)
• Rebecca John (also reporter)

• Sachin Krishnan
• Garry Owen (Weekend presenter, also Newyddion anchor)
• Nicola Smith (also South West reporter)

Sports presenters/reporters

• Ashleigh Crowter

• Claire Summers

Weather presenters/forecasters

• Behnaz Akhgar (Breakfast/weekend/stand-in)
• Derek Brockway (Chief meteorologist)

• Sue Charles (Breakfast/weekend/stand-in)

Reporters

General Reporters

• Melanie Doel (also BBC Radio Wales)
• Caroline Evans
• Elin Gwilym (also Newyddion reporter)
• Bethan James (Westminster reporter)
• Carwyn Jones
• Kevin Leonard (also BBC News Online reporter)
• Rhodri Lewis
• John Meredith (also BBC Radio Cymru reporter)

• Matthew Murray
• Abigail Neal
• Nick Palit (South East reporter)
• Roger Pinney (North West reporter)
• Simon Pusey
• Matthew Richards (North East reporter)
• John Stevenson
• Arwyn Jones

Specialist Correspondents

• Iolo ap Dafydd (Environment Correspondent)
• David Cornock (Parliamentary Correspondent)
• Hywel Griffith (Health Correspondent)
• Vaughan Roderick (Welsh Affairs Editor)

• Ciaran Jenkins (Education Correspondent)
• Betsan Powys (Political Editor)
• Nick Servini (Business Correspondent)

Former presenters

Former presenters of Wales Today include Brian Hoey, John Darran, Tim Rogers, Gail Foley, Noreen Bray, Sara Edwards, Vincent Kane, Patrick Hannan, Chris Morgan, Jason Mohammad, David Parry-Jones, Bob Humphrys and chief reporter Penny Roberts.

External links

• BBC Wales Today at BBC Online
• BBC Wales Today at the Internet Movie Database

• BBC Wales News at BBC Online
• BBC Wales News on Twitter