A cat walks across the studio mid-bulletin and the presenters cannot keep it together

It is one minute past ten and the top story is running. The cat comes in from the far side of the studio, walks past camera one without hurrying and stops for a moment to look into the lens. When the gallery cuts back to the desk, the presenter is still sitting there wide-eyed and the next sentence does not arrive.

Her colleague at the far end of the desk tries to pick the thread back up and gives in after three words. They go on like that for a good minute, the autocue scrolling into nothing, until the gallery gives up and rolls the break early.

There is usually a gap between what people say locally and what the paperwork shows. This time the gap is a little wider than usual.

What you can see in that minute

A similar scheme was tried in another borough two years ago. The results of that trial were never published.

Set the technical argument aside and one question is left: who ends up paying for it.

Whose cat is it

The written answer we received says the process is ongoing. On timings, it says nothing at all.

The cat, the newsroom says, has been living in the yard behind the building for weeks and has lately worked out the service door onto the studio corridor. He now has a name, a bowl at the security desk and, apparently, an audience. The clip was the most-watched video of the night, but what people passed on was not the cat: it was the presenter’s face.