BBC Strikes 

4 November 2010 tbs.pm/1224

As I type it’s about two hours to go before the start of a 48 hour walkout by BBC members of the NUJ union as part of a protest about pension changes at the broadcaster. The walkout is expected to affect most of the Corporation’s news and current affairs output with high profile casualties likely to include the Today Programme and Newsnight, as well as BBC One’s news bulletins and the BBC News Channel.

All of which should make interesting viewing for TV fans as a mixture of managers, freelancers and non-striking staff attempt to provide some sort of service for viewers and listeners.

The last strike to hit the BBC was in 2005 and memorable moments for me involved the frankly strange sound of Alan Dedicoat reading the news on BBC 6music, and a rather petrified looking woman trying to present a cut down BBC London News.

One person who did particularly well out of the last strike was Stephen Cole. The then presenter of BBC World and BBC News 24’s Click Online, Cole took charge of the Six and Ten O’Clock bulletins and even managed to bring in a larger audience than normal, and saw him quickly snapped up by Al Jazeera English. It remains to be seen if this strike sees anyone else get offered a new job…

At this point I should state that I do work for the BBC myself, however I certainly won’t be appearing presenting the news tomorrow…