to the newswatch phone line. i just want to complain about your completely 100% biased news reporting on today's decision. every single person that has been interviewed on the news programme at the moment is against what the government has currently done. it's just... i am so angry. you have not given a fair, balanced view of what is actually happening. the coverage of the scottish ruling is pitiful. and totally biased. totally one—sided. absolutely... i am speechless, i am so... i am so appalled by the whole presentation of the news broadcasts, i can't think of the right words to describe how appalled i am.

strongly worded complaints like those that bbc news has a bias against brexit, significantly outnumber objections of a prejudice in favour of brexit. though there have been plenty of the letter also in the last few days have seen the arrival of a new television programme and this contentious area, hoping to shed some light on the twists and turns of the process. brexit cast which has been running as a podcast for more than two years has now taken over the thursday late night slot previously occupied by andrew neil's this week on bbc one. at the start of the first show one of its four presenters outlined what new audiences should expect. for people sitting in a box with headphones on. and it's not the usual thing of telly and suits and auto cues and all that kind of stuff. that is obvious.

it is not our usual persona on television either because if you see us on the ten o'clock news or if you hear us on radio four, we will be sounding a lot more serious and we give short answers. we summarise, here we go into detail and behind the seems a lot. the immediate verdict was largely positive. "i have been listening to brexitcast and love being informed and entertained along the way. congratulations on your move to bbc one." and deborah mack agreed. but a twitter user thought it was like an after getting together of a futile journalists. and for chris g it fails ultimately because it is too middle class and having bbc types agreeing with each other for 30 minutes doesn't make for great tv.

on the plus side, it is obviously cheap to make. finally here are the thoughts of nick goodman. "they did their best to retain the mood and feel of the podcast. it will be interesting to see as it progresses where there are subconsciously the presenters will be better behaved because they are on telly. i hope not." well, chris mason, political correspondent for bbc news and co—presenter of brexitcastjoins me now from westminster. chris, you have had successful podcast for this for over two years. what was the thinking behind transferring it to tv? someone offered us the chance and that was that and we grabbed it. very aware of the pitfalls are really because as you say, the podcast came about by accident but has become relatively successful in podcast land. and then we thought, we have this chance to put it on the tv, but that is tricky because we don't want it to be a conventional tv show, we want to make sure people who have always listened to it as a podcast don't feel like they have been forgotten or are hitting stop and start again. but at the same time we will be on bbc one and on the bbc news channel, we will get far more people

seeing it than have previously listened to it and will be coming at it from the start. the viewing figures, more than a million people saw it on thursday night which is greater than the number who were listening to it as a podcast and we needed to welcome them in in a way that they would understand what we're trying to do and that will be a work in progress. how far have you tried to adjust it, change it, to accommodate those new viewers coming to it? the first thing we thought it was we don't want it to be a normal tv show. we're not in a studio, we are in a radio studio. but as far as our first show was concerned, we will all together in the same room.

that won't always be the case. we decided we don't want to be doing the thing that so often happens where the reporter or presenter talks to the camera. we didn't do that. we let the cameras be incidental to hoover up the pictures in the studio. but not actually talk directly to them and to try and be as off the cuff and conversational as we can be. one of the tweeters talked about us looking like a bunch of tired journalists at the end of the day wittering on and bang on. that is exactly what we are and what we're trying to do. it's clear people who enjoyed the podcast like that informal tone and are wondering if you keep it up now. but as you have hinted there is the question about whether you need to adopt a more serious tone with some of the issues coming up. by by the way, i think you are too polite to say slightly chaotic. we are totally chaotic. and we embrace that. around the question of seriousness, it is a fair point because brexit

is a hugely serious topic and we'll take the hugely seriously. our every waking professional hour is consumed by brexit at the moment and we are fascinated by the detail and nuance and all the rest of it but our mantra is, we take the issue seriously but we don't take ourselves too seriously. we don't think it is misplaced to be very conversational and human, talking about something that sure is serious but we are going to be human about how we interact about it rather than state or formulaic in the way that sometimes we all are when we are on more conventional news programmes are. the other emotion that comes up around brexit is anger and lot of people are getting very angry. there are accusations of perceived bias coming against the bbc. more of them come from people who feel the bbc is anti—brexit and i wonder how you are dealing with that. every broadcastjournalist comes with their own baggage but it is absolutely fundamental

to the british broadcasting tradition and it is written down in laws and regulations that due impartiality is essential and none of us want to do the job if that wasn't the kind of guiding principle. sure, we are always challenging ourselves about all hearing the right range of voices, i'll be going to the right places to hear those voices, i'll be falling into unconscious bias? but all of us are driven by that motivation to put the story first, to find the best voices to illustrate it and understand it and crucially, that word understand. trying to get under the skin of what is going on so we can explain it. people are simultaneously bored and motivated by the whole brexit question, so fascinated and bored at the same time and the same person can hold both thoughts. the sense there is a huge at stake, huge amount at jeopardy but at the same time, it is perfectly human that you can take on the tv and radio and think, flipping out, they are still talking about brexit. that is why we have gone for this conversational tone so we are not putting people off even if sometimes the subject matter might be heavy going or something that people

have a weary familiarity with. given all the uncertainty, one can't help but ask how long this podcast will be going, year, five years? it's a fair question! as far as our tv stuff is concerned, for as long as they will have us. nobody knows. no one has a clue about how long this will go on. the reality is the brexit conversation in the uk will go on for quite some time. i suppose at some point it will slip down the agenda but there is no sign of it yet. from our perspective professionally, this is the story of our lifetimes. this is a huge question about britain's place in the world, its relationship with its nearest neighbours, how it sees itself in the world and how the world sees

it and it's a privilege to be involved in the coverage of a story like this that so often is at the top of the news bulletins and as i say, people do seem fascinated by day—to—day even if they are a little wary of. chris mason, thank you so much. just time for a brief mention of what else you have been contacting us about this week. the clean—up operation in the bahamas is still going on after the damage wrought by hurricane dorian. at least 50 people were killed with a number missing are now standing at 1300. for ken, the reporting of this has eased off too soon. he writes, "i find the follow up on the ground coverage by the bbc in the bahamas woefully inadequate. tens of thousands are homeless.

their residence is completely destroyed, the infrastructure is a shambles that any normality would take a long time to come about. clearly there needs to be an ongoing coverage of this human tragedy." thank you for all your comments this week. please get in touch with all your opinions on what you see on bbc news. you may even appear on the programme. you can e—mail us at... orfind us on twitter or call us... to have a look at previous interviews on our website... that is all from us. we are back to hear your thoughts about bbc news coverage again next week. goodbye. hello there. the kind of weather you should expect this weekend depends very much upon where you are going to be spending it. the further south you are across the uk, you can expect plenty of sunshine, it will be dry

and it will turn warmer. the further north you are across the uk, there will be some outbreaks of rain at times, not all the time, it will feel a bit cooler and it will be windy, particularly across the far north of scotland. because low pressure will be trying to muscle its way in here, quite a deep area of low pressure with a set of frontal systems, down towards the south though, high pressure will hold on, giving a lot of dry weather. underneath that high, quite a cool start to saturday morning — in fact one of two spots in the countryside hovering around two or three degrees. further north and west, northern ireland and scotland not so chilly to start the day, because more of a breeze will be blowing, we will see more cloud, some outbreaks of rain, particularly across the far north of scotland where it will be very windy through the day. further south across england and wales, once any early mist has cleared, you can expect a lot of sunshine and those temperatures not doing badly at all for this time of year, 23—24 in the south—east, 16—19 for scotland and northern ireland, which is still not bad by any stretch. in to saturday night, some pretty windy weather across the far north,

in fact for shetland we could see gusts of 60—70 mph, maybe a touch stronger than that, at the same time this band of cloud and increasingly patchy rain will be sinking southwards across scotland, northern ireland down into northern england, to the south about some clear spells and generally speaking not quite such a chilly start to sunday morning. sunday's weather will be split essentially by this frontal system here. this will wriggle around through the day, there is a bit of uncertainty about exactly where its wriggles will take it, but it looks like we will see some cloud and rain for northern ireland, that rain fringing into southern scotland at times, perhaps getting as far south as the north midlands and north wales. to the north of that we will see some spells of sunshine, but again a brisk wind across northern scotland and a rather cool feel to the weather, 15 in aberdeen, but to the south of that frontal system, it will be pretty warm. 25, maybe 26 with a lot of sunshine. as you go through sunday night into monday, that front, weakening feature, will push away southwards, building back in from the south—west, but that brings us a flow of air from the north or the north—west, so generally speaking as we head into next week, things

are going to feel rather cool. there will be a lot of dry weather, one or two showers here and there, but those temperatures around the high teens or low 20s at best.

this is bbc news — welcome if you're watching here in the uk, on pbs in america or around the globe. i'm maryam moshiri. our top stories: we are at the races, we are going to get a deal. borisjohnson says he's ‘cautiously optimistic‘ a brexit deal can be struck as he prepares for talks with the european commission president. but the eu and ireland say they've still not seen enough detail. american actress felicity huffman is sentenced to 14 days in prison for her role in a university admissions scandal. dramatic rescue scenes in south—eastern spain as hundreds of people are evacuated due to heavy rain and flash flooding. from fantasy book series to television and now to tapestry —