Freakish weather serves up TV and radio coup d’etat

Home owners lose their Freeview access and pick up French broadcasts as high pressure skews signals

‘Please do not retune your television as reception will improve with the weather’

THE famously changeable British weather has delivered another surprise, leaving some television viewers without access to the BBC while providing radio listeners with French channels.

Freeview has been disrupted across the UK due to high atmospheric pressure over the Christmas holidays.

A high pressure zone is skewing signals across southern England, East Anglia, and into the Midlands and Yorkshire, leaving viewers without access to television through the provider for up to a week. It comes after the warmest December day in 70 years on Sunday, with balmy temperatures caused by a “tropical plume” of warm air rising from the Azores.

While the conditions persist audiences could be treated to the latest chansons instead of the Today programme, as French stations are being heard loud and clear on British radio.

Flemish transmissions were being heard instead of BBC Radio 1 in Suffolk, and Parisian radio has been booming in Pembrokeshire.

Some radio fans were enjoying the change as local stations from Devon to

Oxfordshire were drowned out by more exotic broadcasts. As listeners took to Twitter, one wrote: “Was enjoying Dutch radio on the Isle of Wight.”

While radio is being replaced by Continental counterparts, television is off-limits for many customers across the UK – a situation that could continue into the new year.

One customer wrote on Twitter about a surprising change in programming: “What’s happening in Basildon Essex? We retuned three times and still channels moving around – poor son wanted to watch Wallace and Gromit on BBC One, only to suddenly find himself watching the Bible Network.”

A spokesman for Freeview advised: “Current high pressure weather conditions across the UK can cause picture break up or loss of channels. Please do not retune your television as reception will improve with the weather.

“Viewers experiencing difficulty can still watch live and on-demand television through the BBC iplayer and ITV Hub on an internet connected Freeview Play television or alternatively viewers can live stream shows via the Freeview mobile app.”