SUNDAY show newspaper reviews are normally routine affairs. Not this one. The segment had barely begun when presenter Sophie Raworth cut away to a government minister sitting in a fortified office, sandbags piled almost to the ceiling behind her. It has been that kind of week in Ukraine.

Before the interview with Deputy PM Olha Stefanishyna, the BBC’s Sunday Morning had opened with another live two-way, this one with Jeremy Bowen occupying the rooftop spot that is usually home to Clive Myrie and Lyse Doucet.

Bowen said Kyiv, with a 40-mile column of Russian forces parked on its outskirts, was going through a “strange, in-between period” compared to other parts of Ukraine that had suffered severe damage in the last week.

“One of the big questions on people’s minds is will this centre of the capital get attacked by the Russians,” said Bowen.

“I was in Grozny in Chechnya back in the mid-90s when the Russians attacked it and they flattened it. I’ve seen in Syria, in Aleppo, around Damascus and other places in that country, just what the Russians are prepared to do if they want to. I think it is very interesting that certainly up to this point, President Putin has left this place, so far, alone.”

In a move that reflected the story’s importance and the public interest in it, both Sunday Morning and Sky News’s Trevor Phillips on Sunday had extended running times.

Across the media as Spring approaches there will be a blossoming of broadcast coverage with new shows arriving and old faces in different places.

That these moves should be happening when the biggest foreign policy crisis in a generation is taking place, owes rather more to coincidence than careful planning on the part of broadcasters.

Most of the shows have been in the works since long before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. A more likely spur is the arrival, in "early 2022", of Rupert Murdoch’s news channel, talkTV.

Given the pelters GB News took after its disastrous launch you can bet talkTV editors will take their time to get the opening night right. They will also be watching, as will the newspaper trade, to see if the oft expressed desire for more news, especially foreign coverage, translates into bigger audiences.

First out of the blocks is ITV. From tonight, the half-hour ITV Evening News at 6.30pm becomes an hour, with Mary Nightingale presenting. STV News stays where it is at 6pm. ITV News at Ten remains unchanged, while Scotland Tonight will move from its usual 7.30pm slot to 8.30pm on Thursdays.

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Kevin Lygo, ITV’s managing director of media and entertainment, said the channel’s evening news programme had reached an impressive 35.6 million viewers last year.

Elsewhere it is a case of familiar faces in new places. The hour-long Tonight with Andrew Marr starts this evening on LBC at 6pm and runs Monday to Thursday.

Marr has largely maintained radio silence since handing in his notice at the BBC after 21 years. Given one of his main reasons for leaving the corporation was to “get my voice back”, will this new, unleashed Marr be much different?

Sky News’ political editor starts Beth Rigby Interviews this Thursday. There is a new midweek show, The Take with Sophy Ridge, launching in the Spring, and Ridge is due back in her Sunday morning show mid-March.

Trevor Phillips, filling in for Ridge while she was on maternity leave, gets a new show, Common Ground, on Tuesdays.

At the BBC there are several new appointments pending, chief among them a new political editor to replace Laura Kuenssberg, who is meant to be taking up a new role in the Spring.

Sophie Raworth’s stint on Sunday Morning is scheduled to end around the same time, though she is also reported to be on an all-women shortlist for the Sunday slot with Kuenssberg, Today presenter Mishal Husain, and one other.

Over on Channel 4, Andrew Neil will be avoiding the crowded morning market with a new Sunday night show, due to start in May.

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What effect these changes will have on existing output remains to be seen. A steadying of the ship will be required on BBC2’s Newsnight now that Emily Maitlis is joining LBC’s owners Global with Jon Sopel. Fellow presenter Emma Barnett has also left Newsnight.

At BBC Scotland, will more news viewers earlier in the evening mean fewer for The Nine? And how will the still creaky GB News fare with even greater competition for viewers?