at the which was newsworthy viewing at the expense of the families. he went on: those charges echoed by some members of the public were rejected by the bbc, he said in response: the issue of respecting or upsetting relatives and friends of the victims also cropped up in the bbc‘s news

coverage. alan little's report on the commemoration service contained this line. in the tv cameras stayed off the faces of the bereaved, respecting their right to priddis see in their grief. that decision was by jack carter. now, what will you viewing last saturday morning? well, almost 80 million of us were tuned in to the wedding of 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 yougov poll last week apparently finding two thirds of britons were not interested in the royal nuptials, it is that they everybody was satisfied. here is the reaction of three view as to what they saw

last weekend, starting with mike bryan's thoughts on the news priorities shown on last friday's bulletins. the final countdown to the royal wedding... bulletins. the final countdown to the royalwedding... my concern is that the most important news of the day was the terrible shooting in america, and the horrible plane crash in cuba, and i feel that those we re crash in cuba, and i feel that those were more worthy and more important then the events of the next day. two thirds of the british public were not interested in the royal wedding. that you wouldn't have guessed that from the bbc's coverage. if it is frivolous and it feeds the royal soap opera, that is fine. but the bbc has a duty to inform and to do that ina bbc has a duty to inform and to do that in a balanced way. once again it has shown that when it comes to the mikey, it's got a blind spot. —— monarch is. i'm not saying the bbc shouldn't coverage, but it should cover it as part of the new cycle,

but as the entirety of the news cycle. those who want to watch the royal wedding could do so on bbc 0ne. those who wanted a full and proper news cycle should have been able to do so on the news channel. and the fact that the bbc didn't have a choice, i think, it goes against their charter obligations of making sure that they offer programming for every licence fee payerin programming for every licence fee payer in the country. to discuss how bbc news handled the royal wedding i am joined by gareth allen, the control of daily news programmes, and by leo stevenson, one of the viewers who contacted us about the coverage. viewers who contacted us about the coverage. leo, what was your view of its overall? ridiculously over the top. i couldn't understand how so much saturation coverage of this one is and 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 news channel by this one story, and even so on the bbc one as well. how many people can't get bbc one and the news channel? what's that about? can we start with that? it does baffle viewers was showing exactly the same for five hours as bbc one and if you wanted news there was nowhere to go. except that was news, to be clear... apart from the royal wedding... what's the news channel tries to do is different to what bbc one is doing. bbc one is obviously broadcasting a special event for millions of viewers. what the news channel is trying to do, and does on a daily basis, is the main news, live events, go live to events. this was the main live event. rather than having a totally separate set up that duplicated or was separate to bbc one, it may be sensible as a decision to combine that and run it as one. with a news channel ticket, making sure you can see what other news is happening. but there was no news is happening. but there was no news at all on the new channel from

9am to 9:15pm on saturday except for 2/2—hour sports bulletins. how can you justify that? i think when the nation, on the day itself, as you said, when millions of people are tuning in for this one even at a time when, yes, there was other news, i totally accept there was the cuba crash and the shooting in america, jui did cover the day before when it happens. —— which we did cover. but on the date itself the whole country pretty much felt raped in this event. the ticker service is an important point. —— belts pretty much wrapped in this event. it shows in brief but consta ntly event. it shows in brief but constantly what is happening. people can watch bbc one, if they turn to the news channel they want news and they want more than the royal wedding. you have not explained why. .. wedding. you have not explained why... holbein. it is notjust the case that you must always show totally different events. if you are going to be news channel for the

news and this is the main live event happening, just as we did with manchester this week grenfell tower this week, then you are committing toa this week, then you are committing to a story. of course. and i don't deny that of course it pushes are the news out. you are making an editorial decision that this is the main thing that we want to look out. leo? whatever happened to choice? you've got to channels covering exactly the same event. for a long period of time. and headlines for days leading up to it, with everything else that is going on, i don't think this is just a poor editorial decision, this actually flies in the face and inroads the whole purpose of the news channel. the news channel is news, plural. other things were going on of great importance. you know what was going on. and this wedding, i've got nothing against it as an important story, it should have been up there. but to have such enormous saturation coverage like that, i think tv license payers deserve better than that. i am never going to argue that everybody is going to be delighted

with how much coverage we gave it, and i'm certainly not going to deny we gave it a fair bit of coverage. no two ways about it, of course we did, particularly on the day itself. but in the buildup to it, while we did doa but in the buildup to it, while we did do a lot of coverage, we absolutely covered either evens as well. if you don't mind me saying so, you've got our after—hours the most inane conversations and speculation about the wedding dress. what about the brief to educate and inform? and entertain. well, you are down on the entertainment side, but the education side, even the strap lines on the bbc news channel, our raft al, every time i turned it on, it had something about the wedding. and the wedding was on top of it as well. i accept, there are certain elements, to me, personally, was a massively interested? not particularly. but millions absolutely work in terms of the fashion industry, it being a british designer, why the flowers are chosen, i think, designer, why the flowers are chosen, ithink, it is designer, why the flowers are chosen, i think, it is a wedding. inevitably with a wedding there will

bea inevitably with a wedding there will be a lot of conversations about who is arriving at the wedding, who the stars are. that is still informing. that is still entertaining. there is an argument about how much of that is news. i want to bring up some other issues viewers raised in the week running up to the wedding. that connects to the larger issue about how hard this news was. lots of complaints. viewers saying you are treating thomas michael, meghan‘s father, and weather he would attend, as this huge story, at exactly the same time the royal fire —— as this huge story, at exactly the same time the royalfire —— royal family was asking for privacy. we did give him privacy, we didn't send anybody to camp outside his house as many news organisations did. he speculated a lot. when he issued statements, which he did, through tmc, when meghan markle herself issued statements, of course we cove red issued statements, of course we covered that is newsworthy events. i think that is perfectly legitimate. 0ne viewer says it was not hard news to focus on what was going on within the family. it is hard news if the palace is issuing statements and if he himself is issuing statements in any event, which under saturday and building up to it, is a big event.

of course contributory parts to that are going to be news. the bbc sent a correspondence to los angeles to interview a man describing in detail meghan markle's first kiss, with him, at school, when she was just 13. if that really appropriate? no, but we didn't do that. we didn't send a person specifically... were sent a correspondent to do quite an in—depth background piece on, who is meghan markle? now, as part of that, yes, the interview the people in the past yes, the interview the people in the pa st of yes, the interview the people in the past of her life. i think that is perfectly legitimate and try to find out, who is this person? there was a massive interest in somebody that most people are still unfamiliar with. we didn't send her to interview the person who was the initial boyfriend, no. leo, a final brief word? that is a good example, iam afraid brief word? that is a good example, i am afraid to say, of how bad the editorial decisions were, but that was included in a major news bulletin at all. i'm sorry, somebody‘s first kiss is about as important as my first kiss. it is just not news. if you marry princess

we may well cover that, actually.|j will let you know. thank you for both of you. and thank you for all your comments this week. you too can appear on the programme or have your thoughts included. do call us or email us. that is all from us. we will be back again next week. the buyer. hello again. we are all going to see some warm spells of sunshine this weekend but it won't be dry for all of us. we are going to see some pretty big storms which initially affect parts of southern england, wales and the midlands before gradually spreading further north over the next couple of days. quite a misty start to the day round the downs and the chilterns.

low cloud and fog patches extending in from east anglia, and across parts of the midlands as well. high pressure in charge across the north, so it will be dry. further south, the risk of some showers. showers will work in early in the morning across southern england, probably the heaviest of these just to the south—west of london. working towards wales in south—west england before fading away during the morning. in the afternoon the cloud will gradually start to break up for many of us with warm spells of sunshine coming through. in the sunshine, highs of 22 in edinburgh, 26 towards london and the south—east of england. it is during saturday evening that things start to get pretty lively. a clump of thunderstorms working into central and southern england, south—west england, probably wales in the south was midlands as well. these storms are capable of bringing 30 millimetres of rain in the space ofjust one hour, so that could bring localised flooding issues. then the storms will gradually push further north overnight. they will probably weaken at the same time. through the night time it will be another mild and muggy night. temperatures falling no lower than 15 or 16 in the capital. cooler and fresher further north. 0n into sunday's forecast. another day of sunshine and showers.

if anything the showers will work a bit further north across wales, the midlands, some heavy downpours across southern england, largely speaking both saturday and sunday will be dry across most of northern england and scotland. for the most part, northern ireland as well. things will begin to change more on monday as we start to see those showers going further north. we have got a little weather front enhancing the rain as it works into northern england and across the midlands as well. some wetter weather across northern areas of the uk for the holiday monday. further south, probably a bit dry. a few showers. more in the way of sunshine and maybe a slightly fresher feel to the weather as well. still warm, temperatures climbing up to 2a, 25 or 26. a bit cooler and fresher around some of the coast. this holiday weekend, watch out for the risk of localised flooding from these lively, thundery downpours. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers

in north america and around the globe. my name is gavin grey — our top stories: exit polls in ireland's referendum on abortion suggest a big win for the campaign to liberalise the law — the official count begins later. hollywood mogul harvey weinstein is charged with rape and sexual abuse — his lawyer says he'll 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. it's on, it's off — and now it could be back on again as president trump says he is having very productive talks with north korea. we're talking to them now.

they very much want to do it. we would like to do it.