Liquid News

Overview

Liquid News was the daily round up of entertainment news for BBC Three running from 30 May 2000 to 1 April 2004. It was originally a vehicle for presenter Christopher Price. Following his death on 21 April 2002, the show continued with a variety of presenters including Colin Paterson, Claudia Winkleman, Iain Lee, Jasmine Lowson, Paddy O'Connell, Jo Whiley, Joe Mace and Amanda Byram. The programme originally evolved from Zero 30, the previous entertainment programme on BBC News 24, also hosted by Price. Once this was dropped from the 24 hour news channel, controller of the then BBC Choice, Stuart Murphy, took the format and brought it to the channel where it soon became the flagship programme as part of a radical change to the schedules of both digital-only BBC channels BBC Choice and BBC Knowledge from June 2000 as they became more focused and targeted to specific audiences. The show continued on BBC Three which replaced BBC Choice in February 2003, but in April 2004 the show was axed. Murphy, who also went on to be controller of BBC Three, stated that the show would end as a way to "refresh the channel's output to best serve the audience". The news element of the channel was unaffected by the ending of the programme with 60 Seconds and The 7 O'Clock News already in existence serving as the replacement. Although The 7 O'Clock News was later axed in 2005, 60 Seconds remains on BBC Three to this present day.