that the duke of edinburgh has died. the statement says, it is with deep sorrow that her majesty the queen has announced the death of her beloved husband, his royal highness, the prince philip, duke of edinburgh. the bbc cleared its schedules for the rest of the day and some of the weekend, showing identical output, including tribute programmes, across bbc one, bbc two and the news channel. they also took bbc four off the air. the result was a significant drop in audience figures for the two main channels and the largest number of complaints made in broadcasting history. most of them submitted via a dedicated online form set up for the purpose. as well as those 110,000 people, hundreds contacted

newswatch direct, too. and i will be speaking to two of those viewers in a moment. we also wanted to discuss the coverage with someone from bbc television, scheduling or news, but no one was available. instead, we were pointed towards the statement they put out last week. we decided to wait until after the funeral to have this discussion on newswatch. so, let's talk now to fiona gill and barbara norris. thank you both for coming on newswatch. barbara, first, why did you complain? i complained because i thought

the coverage was absolutely excessive and not really on the grounds of schedule changes. i know some viewers were upset by that, but i complained because of two things. firstly, i am a great supporter of the monarchy, i think they provide stability and leadership in times that are good and bad. however, i am also conscious that a lot of people are not avid supporters of the monarchy and some people are just indifferent. and i think as we consider we are the future of the monarchy lies, the annoyance that is swamping all your radio and tv channels give to people, i think it undermines the feelings towards the monarchy, and that can only be a bad thing. and you also had a concern about people being more reliant on tv during covid, didn't you? yes, absolutely.

i think the situation might have been different had we not been in the middle of a covid pandemic, but also at that time we were in total lockdown. and for a lot of elderly people, people who are isolated, or in other ways totally rely on television for company, i thought it was so inappropriate because it gave them no choice. for people who were not interested at all, there was no escape either into another home or indeed to any leisure facilities or external premises. so one was absolutely forced to go through this repetitive cycle of up to 26 hours on bbc one. fiona, how did you react over the course of the day to the coverage? well, i listened at lunchtime on the radio, when the news broke just after midday, and it went straight

to broadcasting about that and into the world at one, which was fine as far as i was concerned. again, pm on the radio, that was fine. and then, by that sort of time of day, by the evening, you have kind of heard it if you have listened to the radio, and then the six o'clock news, and then it went on, and when it got to the evening and you had bbc one, bbc two, bbc news channel, nothing on bbc four, all showing the same programme, it was not even different programmes about prince philip. and ijust thought it was overkill. and as barbara said, not everybody is interested in royalty. when it got to bbc breakfast on saturday morning, even the sports section on the day of the grand national was about what sport prince philip was interested in. the only thing that was

news was the weather, really, as far as i... in the hour i was watching it. and then itjust went on. people stood outside windsor castle talking about nothing, really, because there was nothing more to say, for days. ijust felt it went on and on and on, i am afraid. overkill. barbara, you had concerns, as well, about the tone and the style of the coverage. i felt that some of it, particularly because so much of it was in the black and white style of the 50s, it came across as a bit fawning. the world has moved on, we are now in the 21st century. again, going back to my concerns about undermining the monarchy, rather than strengthening it, i thought that the coverage was less than objective. one can still exude warmth and sympathy, but without the sort

of fawning coverage that i thought a lot of it was. fiona, did you have concerns about what other news stories were not getting covered? yes. there was literally no other news. i mean, i saw on the app that there had been a volcano in st vincent and the caribbean, and there must be an awful lot of people in this country who have connections to that part of the world, who would have been interested and worried, and there was nothing for several days. before that was mentioned on the news. i am sure there was other stuff. i think bbc over perhaps the last year does seem to focus on a narrow set of topics. barbara norris and fiona gill, thank you both so much. as well as the many objections we received to the coverage

of prince philip's death, there was also a much smaller number of compliments paid to how the bbc handled it. and his funeral last weekend. but following the latter, this discussion on saturday evening between royal correspondents nicholas witchell and huw edwards also produced some negative reaction. so far as one can understand, william feels very disappointed, let down. harry feels resentful. now, what sort of interaction has there been? well, there was minimal so far as we could see interaction between them as they walked down to the chapel. there were some engagement we saw there as they walked away after the service, harry talking to catherine, william seem to be rather reluctant to engage initially. anne munroe was watching that and sent us this e—mail. why was it thought appropriate to have huw edwards

anna also took objection to the discussion. well, we put that point to the bbc news, and they told us...

away from royal matters, the pandemic has hit india particularly hard this week, with the country recording the highest number of covid cases in a single day anywhere in the world. yogita limaye has been reporting from india across many bbc outlets. a capital on its knees. at its biggest hospitals, people being pushed to the limit of human endurance. "my husband's in a very bad state, let me get through," this woman says. she has been carrying him around for ten hours. many of these people will not survive the night. reports like that have seen plaudits from viewers.

bbc news was mocked on social media this week after publishing this story headlined... hugh grant spotted in frome bakery. the article went on to explore why somerset had become a celebrity hotspot. but several twitter users were unconvinced by its significance, withjonathan posting this. elaine also deployed sarcasm in her response. thank you for all your comments this week. if you want to share your opinions about what you see

or hear on bbc news, on tv, radio, online and social media, e—mail newswatch, or you can find us on twitter. you can 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. good evening. the dry weather that has persisted for much of april so far is set to continue through the weekend and into the start of next week. as well as that, it's pretty cold air, so we're seeing some night—time frosts. but such is the strength of the april sunshine. we had 21 degrees celsius in porthmadog in north west wales during the day, and we had high levels of uv in the south because we barely had a cloud in the sky and the sun at this time of year as strong as it is in late august.

now, the dry weather's with us because of high pressure, but itjust subtly moves a little further north through the weekend, allowing more isobars, so more wind to develop in southern areas, and that will obviously accentuate the chill. that wind is with us in southern areas through the night, but there'll be a little bit of mist and fog elsewhere that'll be around the dawn period, and that breeze not enough to prevent a frost. although it won't be quite as widespread as it was last night, there'll still be patchy frost around, so farmers and growers beware. in fact, it's something that we'll have with us through the weekend as well. although staying fine by day, it's still chilly air and it's likely to result in some local frosts. there could be a bit more cloud around as well in eastern areas during the day on saturday. still some thicker cloud for the northern isles, the odd light shower here, but for most of us once again, lots of unbroken sunshine, strong sunshine. but with the breeze starting to turn and come off the north sea around that high pressure for eastern areas and that brisk wind in southern parts, temperatures will be down a degree or two on those of today.

and it's partly because the sea is so cold at this time of year — the lowest temperatures occur at this time of year, the highest temperatures, late summer. if you've got a wind coming in off just 8 degrees of the north sea, you're clearly not going to attain the 18 and 19 further inland. there'll still plenty of sunshine and dry and bright weather. it'lljust be a notch down, temperatures, compared with recent days. as we head through saturday evening and overnight, we pick up a bit more cloud once again because we're starting to pull in more of that north—northeasterly wind. but again, it's cold air, so we are going to see a patchy frost once again first thing sunday morning. may not last long, but it could be damaging still to plants, of course. little bit of mist and fog around, more cloud across central and eastern parts of england and eastern scotland potentially on sunday, so the best of the sunshine will be in the west. the highest temperatures here, too, because a notable dip with more cloud in eastern areas and that breeze as well. bye— bye.

this is bbc news. i'm lukwesa burak with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. india's health care system buckles, as a record surge in covid cases puts pressure on hospital beds and drains oxygen supplies. the fatal stabbing of a police woman near paris is investigated as a terrorist offence. a new malaria vaccine is hailed as a potential breakthrough as early trials prove it to be 77% effective. the jailed kremlin critic alexei navalny is ending his hunger strike after more than three weeks. the architect of britain's brexit policy, dominic cummings, turns on his former ally — the prime minister, borisjohnson — saying he lacks competence and integrity.