BBC Studios Live Studio/OB director. Love a green sofa at 7 on BBC One & Eurovision any time. Ex-BBC News/BBC Three/Look East. Speak Swedish. Once an engineer.

London
Joined January 2009
10 years ago today we launched @BBCTheOneShow. Very proud to have been involved since day 1. Still a joy to work on. xitter.cf/BBCArchive/status/7648…
#OTD 2006 'The One Show' debuted ten years ago (to the minute) @bbconeshow @bbcone xitter.cf/BBCArchive/status/7641…
3
2
61
Here's a thought (I'm sure unoriginal and widely stated by others)... If you put 256GB of storage in a new Apple TV 4K you'd effectively have something like a Mac Neo wouldn't you?
1
1
329
We're seeing this type of thing more and more... 8mm and 16mm home movies and historic films showing up "enhanced" through the use of AI software. Removing dust, dirt, scratches is one thing, but using software to intuitively add detail to shots, and get rid of the texture and grain of the original film stock too -- really bothers us. It's taking something authentic and rendering it — inauthentic. Why rely on the real Apollo image on the left, with its original limited depth of field and detail, when you could have the one on the right which looks like it was shot with a modern 4k video camera or just entirely rendered by an AI? (Simple answer silly: because it's real!) Why process the 8mm Kodachrome home movie circa 1955 so that the woman's complexion and teeth are so sharp, that they look like plastic? We don't get it -- you may as well have asked an AI to generate a completely synthetic version, it would probably look very similar? Look, we know AI enhanced content is here to stay — and there may be legit reasons to use it for personal projects (such as: the woman in the shot if your grandma and you're going to show it to her on her 96th birthday). But when Hollywood and the content creators start doing this -- what gets enhanced, and how much it gets enhanced, is a legit conversation and something that should get plenty of scrutiny and push back. What say you?
7
15
101
6,067
Stephen Neal retweeted
Half of all articles about statistics are below average:
76
112
10
1,691
112,412
Stephen Neal retweeted
I used to save clippings of Clive James from the Observer. This one is quite apt.
The #BBC announces it is axing #SkiSunday, so #BBCBreakfast runs a long item lamenting that the programme is being scrapped!
26
114
8
683
69,467
It’s a small hill, but the trend for, ‘holding the tiny mic in your fingers instead of clipping it to your clothing as God intended’, is wildly annoying.
8
4
42
1,503
This really doesn't sound like a great idea.
Starting 8/24, views will count the moment a video begins to play (w/ no minimum watch time) across all formats (VOD, Shorts, & Live). We’re standardizing views to reflect creators’ true exposure across YouTube, making it easier to show their value to brand partners. This update won't impact creator earnings or YPP eligibility. Details: goo.gle/4gkNM1e
3
404
Another reminder that cloud storage is just someone else's computer. If that 'someone else' goes bust and prevents access to your data - you're stuffed if it's your only copy...
PBS broadcaster loses access to 50TB of data comprising 70 years of TV history after contracted cloud storage vendor goes defunct — public TV channel sues Iron Mountain data center, which hosts archival materials, to ensure preservation tomshardware.com/software/cl…
1
8
518
Why does everything keep getting worse at the moment... Google changing the default action of quoted text (if that's what they've done) is really annoying.
This quoted post is unavailable.
6
443
Stephen Neal retweeted
The Partial Solar Eclipse of 12th August 2026 over east Devon – maximum obscuration around 94% ☀️🌗🌍
6
78
2
840
17,459
Stephen Neal retweeted
JPL engineers have freed up power on Voyager 2 by simultaneously turning off certain devices and substituting them with lower-power alternatives. Learn more: science.nasa.gov/blogs/voyag…
36
223
29
1,117
92,137
Stephen Neal retweeted
The One Show is turning 20 🎂 To celebrate, a week of special programmes begins on 14 August, featuring celebrity guests, surprise moments, reunions and standout stories from the past two decades. Find out more➡️bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/mediap…
44
30
12
194
69,626
Stephen Neal retweeted
BBC Regional news at 6.30pm the most watched individual show every night this week with consistent c.3m audiences, by this time next week catch up viewing will change that with ITV soaps, #SewingBee pulling ahead but still, an achievement worth noting. 👏 Ratings data @Digital_i_
Come hail or shine, some things never change….like the appeal of regional news? With 3.1m viewers, teatime prog on BBC1 attracts biggest audience Monday, & 2.1m for ITV1 equivalent, only marginally behind soaps as their biggest audience (& higher share). Ratings data @Digital_i_
1
6
24
4,435
Thank goodness sense has prevailed...
Re: our statement on Image Generation in Google Earth: “We know that people uniquely trust Google Earth for a reliable view of the world. We’ve seen geospatial professionals using this feature for a range of useful purposes, however we’ve also seen people sharing screenshots of generated imagery that appear to violate our policies. So we’re rolling back this feature in Google Earth while we work on implementing stronger guardrails. It's important to note that generated images didn’t appear in the main Google Earth experience for others to see and were watermarked as AI generated.”
4
542
Stephen Neal retweeted
Come hail or shine, some things never change….like the appeal of regional news? With 3.1m viewers, teatime prog on BBC1 attracts biggest audience Monday, & 2.1m for ITV1 equivalent, only marginally behind soaps as their biggest audience (& higher share). Ratings data @Digital_i_
3
6
3
16
8,154
The central tenet of this article struck very true, and wasn't something I'd ever really consciously thought about. Irritatingly accurate.
One of those columns that lots of people are emailing me about but hardly anybody seems wants to post about publicly. Funny, that. thetimes.com/article/4225639…
143
Stephen Neal retweeted
We’ve reached the “actually SDTV had a better aspect ratio” stage of film discourse…
Only 40 cinemas on EARTH could show what NOLAN actually filmed.
1
1
7
481
Stephen Neal retweeted
A peak of 21.5m viewers watched England crash out of the World Cup after a 2-1 loss to Argentina. Will almost certainly be the biggest TV audience of the year. Not quite as high, though, as the peak audience of 26.5m for England's 2018 World Cup semi-final defeat to Croatia.
2
11
2
12
5,932
Stephen Neal retweeted
good morning
11
8
84
25,873
I honour of @erling let me reshare this reminder that the Norwegian flag is the Swiss Army knife of flags: It contains six other flags!
129
2,041
84
15,580
1,165,202