with samir ahmed. a week on from the royal wedding, did bbc news get the coverage it get too caught up in the fervour? and did the important stories eggy cu ban fervour? and did the important stories eggy cuban plane crash and the us school shooting get swept aside? —— like the cuban plane crash. first, this week started with the enquiry into the grenfell tower fire. that is not on tuesday by a number of bbc reports, and also by a bbc documentary, the night of the bomb, which traced the movements of the bomber, salman abedi. where it was put together was this flat, right in the heart of the city centre, which meant that he did not

have far to go, at all. although that programme was widely praised, the chief constable of greater manchester police, ian hopkins were wrote an open letter accusing the bbc of wholly inaccurate reporting, and showing footage of the aftermath of the bomb which was newsworthy viewing at the expense of the families. he went on, i quote, i've failed to see any public interest in footage of such an explicit nature being echoed this regard to the feelings of those who matter most. by feelings of those who matter most. by the families wish to view such footage is a private matter and is not something that should be publicly aired on national television, taking away any choice. some families are left with the question, is this my loved one on the floor? those charges, echoed by some members of the public were rejected by the bbc, who said in response," theissue

the issue of respecting or upsetting relatives and friends of the victims also cropped up in the bbc‘s news coverage. allan little's report of the commemoration service contains this line: "the tv cameras stayed off the faces of the bereaved, respecting their right to privacy and their grief. that decision was applauded by jack carter. now, what were you doing last saturday morning? well, almost 80

million of us were tuned in to the wedding of prince harry and meghan markle. most of us were watching on the bbc, which was widely praised for its coverage of the event, but with a u golf cup poll last week, finding two thirds of britons were not interested in the royaljewels, it is fairto not interested in the royaljewels, it is fair to say that not everyone was satisfied. —— notjewels. we sat with mark ryan's thoughts on the news priorities shown on last friday's bulletins. the final countdown to the royal wedding... friday's bulletins. the final countdown to the royal wedding. .. my concern is the most important news of the deal was the terrible shooting in america. and the horrible plane crash in cuba. and i feel that those were more worthy and more important than the events of the next day. two thirds of the british public were not interested in the royal wedding, but you would not have guessed that by the bbc

coverage. if it is frivolous and feed the royal soap opera, then that is fine, you see, bbc has the duty to reform, and to do that in a biased way, but once again, it shows that it has a blind spot with regard to the monarchy. i am not saying that the bbc shouldn't cover it, but it should be covered as part of the news cycle not as the entirety of the new cycle. those who want to watch the role wedding, which do so on bbc one, those who wanted a full and proper new cycle should have been able to do so on the news channel. and the fact that the bbc did not offer that choice, i think goes against their obligations of making sure that they offer programming fare every licence fee payerin programming fare every licence fee payer in the country. to discuss how the bbc handled the royal wedding, i am joined by my guests. leo, what was all view of its overall? ridiculously over the top. ijust

couldn't understand how so much saturation coverage of this one eventin saturation coverage of this one event in all the days leading up to the wedding and the wedding itself could be so ridiculously exaggerated, to the point that it pushed out far more important stories, backwards into oblivion. to have a whole day on the saturday, dominated on the news channel by this one story, and even so, on the bbc one as well. hauman people can't get both? let's start with that one. —— how many people. the news channel and bbc one were showing exactly the same thing for five hours. if you wa nted same thing for five hours. if you wanted news, there was nowhere to go? except that was news, to be clear. i think what the news channel residue is different to what bbc one is doing. the bbc one is broadcasting a special event. the news channel normally takes the main

news, live events go to live events, this was the main live event. rather than having a separate setup that do to get it all the separate, admitted sensible as a decision to combine the two and run it as one. with a news channel tick are making sure that you could see what other was happening. but there was no news at all on the news channel except the two half hour sports bulletins. how can you justify that? i think when a nation, on the day itself, as you said itself, when millions of people are tuning in for this one event, it is time when, yet there was other news, there would the cuba crash, and the shooting, in america, which we did cover the day before, because, forgive me, when it happened, but on the day itself, the whole of the country pretty much but wrapped in this event. now i say, the ticker serves an important point, and an important purpose of trying to show in brief, i grant

you, but constantly what else is happening, and did that throughout the day. people could just what bbc 0ne, so if they turn to the news channel, they want news and more than the royal wedding. you haven't explained why. .. than the royal wedding. you haven't explained why... hold on, it is not just the case that you must always showed different events, if you're going to the news channel for the news, and this is the main live event happening, just as we did manage this week, or grenfell this week, then you are committing to a story, of course. it does of course push other news out, but you are making a editorial decision that this is the main thing, that we want to look at. leo? whatever happened to look at. leo? whatever happened to choice? you have got two channels covering exactly the same event. for a long period of time. and headlines the days leading up to it, but everything else that is going on, i did think this isjust everything else that is going on, i did think this is just a everything else that is going on, i did think this isjust a poor editorial decision, this is actually flies in the face and erodes the whole purpose of for instance, the

news channel. the news channel is news, almost plural news, other things were going on of great importance. i could list them, you know what was going on. and this wedding, i have got nothing against it as an important story, but to have such enormous saturation of coverage like that, i think tv licence payers deserve having better than that. and never been to argue -- and never let argue that than that. and never been to argue —— and never let argue that everyone will be delighted, and we certainly gained a fair bit of coverage, there is no two ways about it. dicky on the day itself. in the days before it, we also did a lot of coverage, but we absolutely covered the news about, as well. you have got our last hour of the most inane conversations and spec illusions about the wedding dress. you are down on the entertainment side, the information site, and even the strap 20 mentioned on the bbc news channel, for our after now our hats on the about the wedding. and yet

the wedding at the top of it, as well. i accept that there are certain elements, what dress she is wearing, what flowers it are, to me, personally, was registered? not particularly, but millions were, in terms of the fashion industry, the fa ct terms of the fashion industry, the fact it was a british designer, why the flowers were chosen, it is a wedding. there will be a lot of conversations about who is arriving at the wedding, but that is still informing. that is still entertaining. but there is an argument about how much of that is news. i want to pick up on some of the other issues raised into the weeks running up at the wedding. lots of complaints, viewers saying you are teaching thomas markle, meghan's father, about whether he was attending, at the same time as they were asking for oversee? why we didn't send anyone outside his house, as many news agencies did. when he issued the mince, which he

did, when the gum —— meghan markle herself did, we covered that as news events. it wasn't if hard news to be focusing on what is going on in the family. it is hard news if he himself is issuing a statement on the events that the event is a big event itself, then of course partly that will be news. another question set in, you sent a correspondence to los angeles to interview a man describing in detail meghan's first kiss with him in school. was that appropriate? no, but we did not do that. we sent a correspondence to send a piece on the background of who is meghan markle. as part of that, you interview people who are pa rt that, you interview people who are part of her life. it is legitimate to find out who that person, because there was a massive interest in something that will most able

found... afinal, brief something that will most able found... a final, brief word, to you. that is a good example of how bad the editorial decisions well, that that was included on a major news bulletin, at all. i'm sorry, somebody‘s first kiss is about as important as my first kiss. it is not news. if you married a princess, we may well cover that, actually.|j would we may well cover that, actually.” would have to leave it there. thank you very much for all your comments, this week. you too could appear on the programme will have your thoughts quoted. do call us. do have a look at our website. that is all from us, we will be back to hear your thoughts about bbc news coverage, again, next week. goodbye. 0ne

one thing is certain is that this week will be warm. further south there will be an increasing threat of some really heavy and thundery downpours. for the rest of this evening and overnight, it looks i could will stay quite murky and cloudy across much of england and wales, if you shout around, this rain will tend to use away, should be dry by the end of the night. quite a warm and sticky nights to come for central and southern areas, a little less across the north of the uk. now we are drawing some really warm and thundery and from the near continent as we head into the weekend. as temperatures will be going up day by day. saturday starts off rather misty and murky, fairly cloudy at times, but there should be some lovely sunshine across the north. there will be some threat of heavy showers and thunderstorms, and the main threat will be across more southern and south—western portions of england, maybe on towards south wales. could

see the shower, as well. in northern ireland, could be quite heavy, but much of midlands, northern england and scotland and most of northern ireland, a cracking day with lots of sunshine. temperatures reaching the low 20s, we could see even higher across the warmer spots in the south—east. things get a bit more reactive as we head into saturday night, we see the threat of thunderstorms increasing across the south, becoming more widespread, and really torrential downpours. further north, it will be a dry story, again. low cloud and mist heading into nor seacoast. cool here. the sunday, that threat is under tarmac thunderstorms. good season torrential downpours, local flooding and large hail. by that in mind. he wa nted and large hail. by that in mind. he wanted to come, temperatures were divided 26 degrees, but lovely and i across the northern half of the uk. and from the bank holiday monday, looks like that threat of showers

shifts a little but further northwards. heavy rain and thundery rain across the northern ireland and into central and southern scotland. the much anywhere will be... after that misty, cloudy start, we should see some sunshine developing. it will be a warm day again, particular across central and southern areas. meant to be quite humid, as well. this is bbc news. i'm robert hall. the headlines at 8:00. harvey weinstein appears in court charged with rape and sexual abuse, his lawyer says the film producer will plead not guilty. mr weinstein did not invent the casting couch in hollywood, and to the extent that there is bad behaviour in that industry, that is not what this is about. bad behaviour is not on trial in this case. the modesty of a 96—year—old d day vetera n who fought off a hammer attack

and was left for dead. i name myself because i was special services and i think i should really have known how to deal with this. is it off or on? president trump says the planned north korea summit could go ahead, one day after it was cancelled. also in the next hour: disappointment for some liverpool