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 where 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. and 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, and 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. i mean, 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 just 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. yes, 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. and 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. i mean, there was literally no other news. i mean, i saw on the app that there had been a volcano in st vincent, in 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. and 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 seemed to be rather reluctant to engage initially. anne munroe was watching that and sent us this e—mail.

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. siren wails. 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.

finally, bbc news was mocked on social media this week after publishing this story, headlined: 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. and 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. hello. wales reached 21 degrees on friday. scotland had its highest temperature of the year so farat 20. and after a warm, sunny start to the weekend, it will turn a little cooler and cloudier as the weekend goes on, especially in eastern areas. it's still largely dry throughout with high pressure here but the flow of air around that as the weekend goes on will become more of a pronounced easterly across the uk with that cooler air starting to move in and more cloud, especially by sunday and especially in the east, as we'll see in a moment. another chilly morning to kick off the weekend, but not as cold as recent mornings.

there will still, though, be a patchy, mainly ruralfrost around and temperatures head up in the morning sunshine quite quickly. once any early mist and fog patches clear away from eastern england and there will be a bit of patchy cloud for parts of scotland — especially in the east and into north—east england — but for most areas, it's a day of unbroken sunshine once again. shetland, though, turning cloudy with a chance of a little light rain. it will be a cooler day along north sea coasts with a breeze off the sea but in western areas of the sunshine, every bit as warm as friday — i9, perhaps 20 degrees again. and there will be moderate to high pollen levels and moderate to high uv as well. now, we are expecting more cloud to arrive as we go after dark on saturday night, just filtering in here from the east, particularly into parts of england and wales. there could be a few mist and fog patches around, too. and although temperatures again are a little bit higher as we start sunday morning, still the odd touch of frost in the countryside can't be ruled out. and then on sunday, don't be surprised to have some cloud, particularly across parts

of england and wales, and patchy cloud in scotland breaking to allow sunny spells, though parts of eastern england could stay rather cloudy with a chance of a light shower. an isolated heavy shower in highland scotland can't be ruled out. more of us noticing that easterly breeze, quite gusty through the channel, channel islands and south west england, as it's been for the past few days, and quite chilly along that north sea coast — cooler elsewhere but still perhaps up to 17 in western counties of northern ireland. into next week and high pressure giving way to low pressure and that brings a chance, anyway, of a little rain moving southwards monday into tuesday. doesn't look like it's going to amount to very much at the start of a week which looks like it'll be cooler than average once again, with a chance again for a few showers, but not enough to stop this being one of the driest aprils we've known.

a very warm welcome to use. this is bbc news. i'm mark lobel our top stories: india's healthcare system buckles, as a record surge in covid cases puts pressure on hospital beds and life—saving supplies — we have a special report from the frontline. if oxygen runs out, there is no leeway for many patients. there is no leeway. they will die. us regulators lift the suspension on the single dose of thejohnson &johnson of the johnson & johnson vaccine, of thejohnson &johnson vaccine, seeing benefits far outweigh any potential risks. president macron says france will never yield to islamist terrorism, after a man fatally stabs a woman police clerk near paris. the reality tv star

and transgender activist, caitlynjenner, says she's going to run to be