Good Morning Britain

When he sat down in Cambridge for a discussion about the vexed question of impartiality in television news presenters, Piers ­Morgan was clearly still licking his wounds from his abrupt departure in 2021 from ITV’s Good Morning Britain. He was quick off the mark, offering a “hypothetical” scenario:

From the 6th January the morning line-up will see Good Morning Britain be extended by half an hour from 6am until 9am, bringing viewers a mix of breaking news, the latest showbiz stories and exclusive interviews every week day.

Lorraine will then be on from 9am to 10am, before This Morning starts – 30 minutes earlier – from 10am to 12:30pm.

Loose Women will then air from 12:30pm to 1:30pm, ending seven and half hours of live TV all filmed at the Television Centre in White City.

My alarm has been almost constantly set for 3:30am for seven years now. My body is so attuned to it that I almost always awake before it goes off. It’s now 3:03am on Monday morning and I’m staring at my phone, having just been happily dreaming about glaciers.

In her first major speech since being appointed Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, the Rt Hon Nicky Morgan MP called on broadcasters to “be as fleet-footed and as adaptable to change as their international competitors” such as Apple and Netflix.

She warned: “Those who do not pool their resources and talent will find it difficult to succeed in this new age.”

Shifting viewing habits, developments in technology and the rapidly evolving competitive landscape are having a fundamental impact on our industry,” argued RTS Convention Chair Carolyn McCall as she opened Cambridge 2019.

But amid the change and uncertainty, which included Britain’s future relationship with Europe and the rest of the world, McCall maintained that television had a bright future.

It’s September. That means back to school. And not just for the kids.

With Edinburgh hangovers barely forgotten, and TV execs and politicians still reeling from Dorothy Byrne’s outlandishly honest Mac­Taggart Lecture, conference season gets into full swing.

Not in Bournemouth but in Cambridge, courtesy of ITV, for the RTS biennial convention. There’s no prorogation for us.

OK, in the spirit of apologetic full disclosure, this ain’t a normal week for me. It’s August. Piers and Susanna are off (deservedly – thought I’d better slip that in) on their French car factory-style summer sojourn. I’m also sneaking in a bit of R&R and extra-curricular that the normal 100-hour week doesn’t allow.

At Latitude, the hybrid Glasto crossed with church fête Suffolk festival, where, among the middle aged of the mojito-fuelled mosh pit, I bump (literally) into my ex-ITV boss Peter Fincham for our annual blokey embrace.

Daytime TV has long been the butt of comedians’ jokes. In an episode of Mock the Week last year, Hugh Dennis pretended to be a weary daytime announcer: “Well, because they’re all the same, and I can’t be bothered to announce them all, here’s Flog Dickinson’s Antiques Sun Hammer Pointless Breakout in the Country… finishes at 5pm.”