well, one reason why that story received less attention than it have done was a certain engagement announced this week, which we think you might just have noticed. victoria derbyshire was on air when the long—awaited and much—predicted news broke on monday morning. clarence house have just announced in the last few seconds that prince harry is to marry his american girlfriend, meghan markle. for the rest of the day, the bbc news operation, in common with almost all british media organisations, went into overdrive. with presenters and reporters deployed to kensington palace, bulletins devoting more than half their time to the engagement, a scheduled edition of panorama changed to a special programme on the royal news, and extensive coverage on the news channel and online. the response of sarah louise ellis: ian holton told us:

other viewers had another objection, articulated here by carolyn watts. i was quite amazed that i heard the news reader actually say, ms markle, who is of mixed race, and then went on to the item of news, regarding the arrangements that are going to take place. why does she have to say that? why is it relevant that she is of mixed race? what difference does it make what colour she is? i do sometimes feel that by making these statements, the bbc is sometimes being divisive and is actually setting up barriers

where there aren't any. they just don't exist. i know that she herself actually says that she is mixed race and has used this to her own benefit and to the benefit of others, and i think that's great. to actually say it, in the introductory line, i don't think that's right. well, another viewer who contacted us this week about the coverage of the royal engagement was bob davie. hejoins us now from sheffield. with me in the studio is richard burgess, uk news editor for bbc news. bob, first, what did you feel about the coverage? i just thought that, with other events happening in the world of far more significance and importance to the people of this country, to waste more than half the six o'clock news bulletin to coverage of the engagement, which everyone knew about already, i thought was absolutely pointless. this is the issue, isn't it, richard, it's the excess.

it's a simple fact. most people knew it was coming. more than half the bulletin. well, it was announced that morning, so we didn't know it was definitely happening that day. and at six o'clock was the first time we'd actually had the chance to hear from both harry and meghan in the interview they did with michelle hussain. i think there were a lot of interesting issues to get into in relation to how their relationship developed, how he proposed, all stuff we found out for the first time in the six 0'clock news bulletin. so, i appreciate bob's point that there was quite a bit of time devoted to it. but, as far as we can tell, a lot of the audience was really engaged with the story and actually really enjoyed the coverage. bob, did you feel a lot of other stories got squeezed out? the announcement of the engagement matters not the slightest. it's not going to make the slightest difference to anyone in this country's life. and yet events that are happening in parliament are going to affect people in this country

for decades to come. surely we should be paying more attention to that than the fripperies of what the royals get up to. you see, you look at what was on the news. the pope in burma, the redacted brexit impact studies, you know, which the government released with a huge row, the chennai six. we needed to have these stories properly explained. they all get squeezed and other stories get dropped off for us to find out how he proposed? well, i think we did cover all those stories, and have done over the course of the week. we led with the rohingya muslim situation on tuesday, when the pope actually did not mention them by name in the meeting with ang sung su kyi. —— with aung sung su kyi. 0k, chennai six, on the day, that would have been your lead, wouldn't it? well, maybe. let's face it, the interest in the harry and meghan engagement was extraordinary. 5.6 million watched the six 0'clock news on monday. that's the biggest audience we've had for a news bulletin all week. it was the most popular news story on the website by a long distance,

nearly 7 million people read the main story. so, there really is the interest there in it. the other stories you mentioned, we have covered and we continue to cover in depth. i think, like a lot of viewers, you also had concern about the tone of the coverage of the engagement, didn't you? yes, it seems as though the royal reporters are fawning and sycophantic. i don't know how they get theirjobs. i thought nicholas witchell was quite a good reporter until he became the royal reporter, and then seems to have gone the way ofjennie bond. to be fair, bob, do you have an issue that you personally don't care for royal coverage? not really, no. to be frank. it was perhaps worth a mention. it would perhaps have been at the bottom of page eight in the guardian or something like that. but, apart from that, no. you know, richard, it is a happy occasion. we all know, it's not time for a tough grilling. but, a lot of viewers do detect

what they see as a fawning tone, don't they? let's face it. we were reporting what ostensibly was a happy story on monday. most people saw it as good news and most people saw it as a positive story. so, i think, you've got to reflect that in the tone of your coverage but we also reflected the issues that the royal family have had in the past with marriage. we reflected the fact that she is a divorcee. so i think there were issues to cover but ostensibly monday was a happy story that, clearly, when you look at the figures our audiences really enjoyed. richard, we also know a few viewers, and we had one on webcam there, felt uncomfortable about the amount of discussion of meghan markle‘s mixed race background. separate to whether she raises it, dropping it into an introductory line, did the bbc perhaps misjudge how to discuss that? make too much of it? no, i don't think we made too much of it. it was one question within michelle's interview. it is an element of the story, an element of her story. we're telling the audience about who she is. she also raised it herself, her and prince harry issued a statement about racial undertones,

they talked about in comment pieces and racism on social media. she talked in the interview about her pride at her ethnicity. so, i think it was an element of the story and it was important we reflected that element of the story. do you think you got anything wrong in the coverage of this? quite clearly, people enjoyed the coverage and we've had a lot of positive feedback but i know there are people like bob who will always think, actually, too much. there are people in my own family who think that. it divides people. of course. but i think this was a good news story for a lot of our audience and i think they enjoyed the positive news. bob, a final word to you. the wedding is in may, how would you like to see bbc news coverage handle this story over the next six months? well, i think it would be interesting for some people. i don't know if ok or hello magazine is going to cover it but i would have thought that would be sufficient. those that are interested will buy hello and 0k magazines, the rest of us can get on with our lives and address important things. bob davey, thank you so much,

and richard burgess. finally, the bbc two comedy series wia presented a satirical, but not entirely unfamiliar, view of life at the bbc. one episode in the last series dealt with an issue we've addressed on this programme. so, it's been live for 2h hours now and basically we're looking at 93% accuracy. right. except in those one or two areas, obviously. a new version of the bbc state—of—the—art syncopatico operating system hasjust gone live, including a major upgrade of the syncopaticaption automatic live subtitling software. so, can we talk about the other 7%? yeah, sure. although synchopatica ption 2.0 is already out subtitling its predecessors in many areas, the area where it's least accurate is that of proper names. like tweezer may, for instance. to be fair, phonetically, that's actually pretty close. politically and in every other way except phonetically it's a disaster. yeah. worse still, vladimir puking. yeah, that was really bad. subtitling blunders like that

couldn't happen in fact as well as fiction, could they? well, on monday, jeremy corbyn was congratulating prince harry and meghan markle on their engagement in a speech saying, "i really do admire the way that harry and his brother have drawn attention to mental health conditions." but this is what viewers with subtitling switched on saw on their screens. it was a particularly unfortunate error, considering the criticism mr corbyn has faced for referring to his friends in hezbollah and some viewers were unimpressed, with will pollock asking: while elisabeth lefebvre commented, wia in real life. the bbc is said the voice recognition technology used when subtitling live news broadcasts misrecognised the phrase, "his brother", and the error was corrected on screen. but that wasn't the only on—screen oddity on monday. not a subtitling issue this time, but it will have come as a surprise to many that the royal engagement led to crisis talks

between the leaders of the two main parties. thank you for all your comments this week. if you want to share your opinions on bbc news and current affairs, or even appear on the programme, you can call us on 0370 0106676, or e—mail newswatch@bbc.co.uk. you can find us on twitter at newswatch bbc. and do have a look at our website. the address for that is bbc.co.uk/newswatch. that's all from us. we'll be back to hear your thoughts about bbc news coverage again next week. goodbye. after a fairly wintry end to november, december has started on a little bit more of a milder note, and through the course of the weekend it will gradually turn that bit milder. we'll still see some sunshine on offer, as well as a little bit of light rain. a few showers, but not all of us seeing them through the course of the weekend.

as we start off saturday morning, this is how things look. one or two showers lingering around the east coast of england and a few coming down the irish sea, affecting wales and south—west of england. a little light rain also pushing across scotland that will be persistent over the north over higher ground. let's look at saturday afternoon. quite cloudy for the south—west of england and wales, a few spot of showery rain. further east across england — you are likely to see sunshine here, although temperatures still only around five or six degrees. some sunshine across parts of northern england, perhaps a little more cloud over the west midlands at times, heading northwards into northern ireland and scotland. the cloud will gradually increase from the north—west, things will turn milder. quite windy for the north of scotland with the arrival of some rain too. heading through saturday night and into the early hours of sunday morning, that milder air creeps its way slowly southwards and eastwards across the country. so it won't be quite as cold as it has been first thing sunday morning. in fact, most of us start the day frost—free. but it will be quite cloudy in the south as that warm front sinks its way southward,

with some outbreaks of rain. but then as we move through the course of sunday, a cold front heads its way southward across the country. behind that, clearer conditions as a ridge of high pressure tries to build in from the atlantic. that will bring slightly milder air than we've seen. colder air is pushed away towards the near continent and milderair spills in from the atlantic. so, as we move through sunday, after that cloudy start to the south with some outbreaks of rain, that should clear away and then we're all into the brighter skies come sunday afternoon. so sunny spells developing across eastern scotland, northern and eastern england too. a bit more cloud and a few spots of rain in northern ireland and the west of scotland, but temperatures for england and wales back into double figures — something we haven't seen in quite a while. 0nto monday then. another largely settled day. high pressure moving in. a bit of a breeze in the north bringing a few outbreaks of rain to the north—west of scotland. sunny spells elsewhere. the best of the sunshine towards the east of the higher

ground and temperatures around eight to 11 degrees. a similar day on tuesday with some rain in the far north—west, but after that fairly mild few days, it could turn colder again later in the week. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is reged ahmad. our top stories: michael flynn has pleaded guilty to lying to the fbi about his contacts with russia. he's now cooperating with an inquiry into election interference. the british government has issued a fresh warning about the security risks of using russian anti—virus software. pope francis has met with rohingya refugees in bangladesh, referring to the group by name for the first time on his regional tour. and hundreds turn out to cheer prince harry and meghan markle as they make their first official royal visit since announcing their engagement.