Unlike newsreaders, weather presenters avoid reading from autocue machines, according to a well known face on the BBC.
Molly Brewer, who provides insights into her job on her Instagram account, provided a behind-the-scenes glimpse into her studio, explaining as well as help from her pal, she also relies on memory to provide her forecasts.
“I’ve had lots of people message me, surprised that weather presenters don’t read from an autocue so I thought I’d explain why,” she began in a video. Introducing Katie, her “best friend and director supreme”, Molly revealed her pal talks to her in her ear and cues her in.
The BBC North West star then showed a clip of Katie in action, before the camera panned to herself at the beginning of one of her bulletins. “I’ll do the forecast unscripted using my graphics as a prompt,” she explained.
“The reason for this is because weather is at the end of the programme. Our time can be cut or extended last minute, depending on if the programme is running over or under.”
Molly said she’s also getting used to people talking in her ear while she’s presenting. “Katie will count me out like this,” Molly added over footage of her friend counting down from five while she was talking on air. If successful and the pair are in sync, they stop talking at the same moment as the programme reaches it’s conclusion.
“It’s a tricky thing to get used to and I’m still learning,” closed Molly. “But I feel very lucky to have the comfort of having my best mate as one of the directors.”
Her followers found Molly’s video both interesting and enlightening, as one responded: “Interesting… I think I’d struggle so much with talkback though! No doubt you can rub your tummy and tap your head at the same time. Me? nope!”
A second praised: “So very interesting to see behind the scenes. Presenting at the same time as having someone talking in your ear must be tricky especially at first. Thanks for uploading this and well done again.”
And a third added: “Wonderful to see it from your point of view. Gives an even greater understanding of your skill involved in multi- tasking and remaining calm and collected. You’re a naturally brilliant presenter.”
While a fourth agreed: “Brilliant insight to behind the scenes. I’ve always been interested in things like this but have never seen anything like this before. Thanks Molly.”
