the reporter could have described what the jury had had to witness and listened to, to explain the full depravity of the people found guilty. it was deeply distressing to be shown this. this would be the case at any time — but the fact it was broadcast at 6 o'clock, when children could be around and watching too meant that it went beyond all acceptable levels of disclosure and was not in the public interest. i want the bbc to explain what value, other than their ratings, was there to show this video and hear his distressed voice? totally unnecessary and such disturbing content. your meagre excuse of the content prior to showing was in no way sufficient. i do not feel this should've been shown at all. we've had other complaints of late about what some consider excessively graphic detail shown on early evening news bulletins. last month, david fuller was convicted of double murder and scores of offences of abuse. morning. david, it's the police. reporter: after 33 years, he almost seemed to be expecting it. all right, david, you're under arrest on suspicion of the murders of wendy knell and carolyn pierce in 1987. do you understand ? david fuller, "mr normal" — at least on the outside. jonathan evans thought the specifics provided elsewhere in that report about what david fuller had done were also inappropriate for an early evening time slot. here's the video he recorded for us. apart from the murdering aspect of his activities, the report went into graphic detail about his activities in a hospital morgue over many years. whilst i learned something about the sorry sexual practices of some people myself, i thought it was far too early in the evening to transmit such graphic details. i felt for the parents that might be watching news with their children, and the difficult questions that would've followed. i guess all adults need to know about his horrendous activities — but not at 6pm in the evening. the week before, there was another disturbing court case — that of penelope jackson, found guilty of murdering her husband. the retired accountant claim she'd been subjected to controlled coercion and violence throughout their marriage. the court heard david jackson had been aggressive to his wife on three occasions 20 years ago. other material broadcast in that report prompted petina solly tell us... well, the editor of the bbc�*s news at six and news at ten is paul royall — and hejoins me now. paul, arthur's killing shocked everybody and a lot of the audience questioned the decision to play recordings of his distress. why did you? we have to report the story. this was part of the evidence that was, in court, used to convict. and we probably used less than ten seconds of material that added up to hours and hours, and hundreds of videos and audio recordings that were played. one of the issues, and it comes up with every complaint, is that there is a concern about this material being shown at 6 o'clock, it would've been a different matter at 10pm. why didn't you hold it until later? the 6 o'clock news is in a sort of unique place in the schedule, in the sense that it is a news programme in a pre—watershed slot. and so, sometimes that does make some of the decisions around what we are and aren't showing more difficult. in the end, though, it's a news programme, unfortunately, and, in this particular case, the news can be distressing. and so, we think very carefully about how we will convey and portray that news. none of that material was in the headlines, there was an extensive and very clear and deliberate warning from the presenter, jane hill, in the introduction to the piece. the material is not at the start of the piece — so if viewers do want to turn over or turn off, or look away, you could do it. and i would say that our correspondent, phil mackie, who is a very experienced correspondent, and who found the story so distressing itself, i thought he covered in a very, very professional and measured way. david fuller, that case, his crimes were particularly transgressive — and again, one wonders whether the explanation of what he'd done was just too difficult to explain at 6 o'clock, and would've been best best not explained? again, it's very difficult, it's a very distressing and disturbing, and unusual case. and, sort of, finding that line between the amount of detail you need to tell the story accurately and make it intelligible to audiences — you know, we've all got families and audience members in our heads, as well, we do look at this with the audience at the forefront of our minds, and just try and get thatjudgement right. the penelope jackson case, who murdered her husband — in this case, viewers questioned the taste of her, kind of, boastful confession. what would you say? ——taste and decency issue of showing that police footage of her, kind of, boastful confession. what would you say? again, i mean, that was a key part of the evidence in that case. and an element of her defence was around the issue of coercive control, you know, which ultimately didn't stand. but that was part of the underpinning of the case. and in all these cases, in different ways, there is a, sort of, broader issue and wider point that underpins all these cases — which again, we have a duty, if we're going to fully and accurately convey these stories, we have to try and include. but, you know, as always, bearing in mind which programme, what time of day, how far we can go at one, at six, at ten, is always at the forefront of our mind. paul, given that so many people watch the news online or on catch—up, do you think the concept of a watershed is meaningless now? millions of people still watch bbc one every day. the six o'clock news reaches nearly six million people every day. and so, there is still the place for the watershed because obviously, somewhere like bbc one or all the tv channels are still dominant, large platforms for viewers. but as you say, obviously people are getting information and video, and detail about stories in all sorts of different places. and so, perhaps it makes the watershed challenge a little bit more difficult when you're bearing all that in mind, as well. obviously we're talking about three horrific murder cases which, just by coincidence, ended up happening within a few weeks of each other. i wonder if the bbc does need to reassess how much and what kind of coverage it does give to these kinds of stories? i think we get the balance right. i mean, maybe i would say that but we clearly are not gratuitous. as journalists, we don't really want to be covering stories like these either. the arthur story has clearly affected many millions of people around the country in the way that what we've heard what happened to him. so i do think we get the balance right, we take it seriously and do take great care. but i think where we're at the moment, as i said, sometimes news is distressing, and that's an unfortunate reality of news programmes and thejobs we do, and some of the things that happen in the world. paul, thank you so much. thank you for all your comments this week. if you want to share your opinions about what you see, hear, or read on bbc news, on tv, radio, online and social media, email newswatch: or you can find us on twitter at... you can call us... and do have a look at our website for previous interviews. that's all from us, we'll be back to hear your thoughts about bbc news coverage again next week. goodbye. hello. a big change in the feel of the weather through this weekend, with some milder air spreading from the west. but with that, a fair amount of cloud, some mist, and murk and hill fog and some outbreaks of rain at times. on the earlier satellite picture, a slice of clear sky, and where that clear sky remains, quite a cold start to saturday morning. the coldest weather of the whole weekend, in fact. out west, more cloud, and with that some milder weather, which is slowly but surely going to crawl its way eastwards through the day. so, temperatures in eastern parts starting the day below freezing, western areas well above. belfast at six, plymouth at eight degrees, and as we go through the day, the milder but cloudier and wetter conditions will work eastwards. so early sunshine in eastern scotland, eastern england, that won't last long, things will tend to cloud over. briefly a bit of sleet and snow over high ground in scotland. but as you can see, it will turn back to rain because as this wet weather continues to track eastwards, it will introduce ever milder conditions. so 12 degrees for belfast, for cardiff, for plymouth, just six in aberdeen, seven in norwich. but actually, as we go through saturday night, we will bring that milder weather further eastwards. whereas we normally expect temperatures to drop through the night, they won't across some eastern parts of england, for example, ending the night at 10 degrees in norwich and hull, five there in aberdeen, very mild out towards the west. all the while some cloud, some outbreaks of rain, some clear spells across the northern half of the country. then through sunday, again, there's going to be quite a lot of cloud. that cloud producing some outbreaks of rain at times, especially through northwest england, northern ireland, up into southwest scotland. some brighter glimpses here and there and a very, very mild afternoon, eight to 14 degrres. now, we have to keep a close eye on developments during sunday night, because this small but potent weather feature is expected to pass closer to the far northwest, a deepening area of low pressure. that is set to bring some very strong winds across parts of northern ireland, but perhaps most especially in exposed parts of western and northern scotland, particularly for the western and northern isles, there could be some really quite stormy weather for a time. we will keep you posted on that one throughout the weekend. into next week, it stays relatively mild. a bit of rain around for a time, perhaps settling down later in the week. this is bbc news. i'm simon pusey. our top stories: british scientists warn that two doses of vaccine offer little protection against the omicron variant, although boosters do cut the risk of serious illness. the wikileaks founder julian assange can be extradited to stand trial in the us according to the latest legal ruling in britain. the us supreme court leaves a controversial texas law banning most abortions in place. president biden says he's "very concerned". britain's foreign secretary warns russia of severe economic consequences if it invades ukraine ahead of a g7 meeting this weekend. # hey, hey, we're the monkees... mike nesmith, singer and guitarist with the 60s band the monkees, has died at the age of 78. and we meet the woman behind some of netflix's most binge—worthy original programming,