The Newsroom

BBC hourly daytime updates in 80’s/90’s

(July 2019)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
MA
Markyboy81
The regional/nations opt out was originally after the midday bulletin and then a slightly longer bulletin before the One O'Clock News.
JK
JKDerry
The regional/nations opt out was originally after the midday bulletin and then a slightly longer bulletin before the One O'Clock News.

12.55pm was always the main lunchtime regional opt out, I can't remember when they shifted it to 1.30pm.
JL
JamesLaverty1925
I think they varied a bit. As said they were on the hour until the One O'Clock news, then moved to BBC Two in the afternoon. By the 00's, they had very much reduced it down. I seem to remember it was bulletins at 11, 12:15 and 3:20 (moving to 3 when CBBC was shunted earlier due to Weakest Link moving over), Iirc, The afternoon bulletin stayed on BBC Two until 2003ish, which I'm guessing was the end of regional opt outs on BBC Two?

Think they ended when CBBC left BBC One at the end of 2012, but it could well have been before this. Ofc they introduced the 8pm summary as well in 2008, but if was always a little different.
JK
JKDerry
I remember being in the newsroom when they used the newsroom set for a bulletin. It was really cramped and small. On screen it looked fine, along with the Nine O'Clock News set of the same era, but when you were there in Television Centre, it really looked shoddy.
NT
Night Thoughts
Here's one all neatly wrapped up in under a minute during Wimbledon:

UKnews, chinamug and scottishtv gave kudos
BC
Blake Connolly Founding member
If I remember right, what was supposed to be the last ever mid-afternoon bulletin didn't happen because the newsreader got lost on the way to the studio.
IS
Inspector Sands

The hourly news summaries were our first glimpse of the BBC newsroom since the Nine O'Clock News of the early 1970s who used a CSO backdrop of the newsroom, the hourly summaries actually came from the newsroom I think.

Didn't they eventually use the same newsroom studio as the 9 o clock eventually used? The one seen at about 8:20 here:

Or is that example above with Richard Whitmore the same studio just a different angle, and lighter as its daytime?
Last edited by Inspector Sands on 9 July 2019 9:12am - 3 times in total
RN
Rolling News
If I remember right, what was supposed to be the last ever mid-afternoon bulletin didn't happen because the newsreader got lost on the way to the studio.

Who was the newsreader?
SW
Steve Williams
WMD posted:
As to why the final daytime BBC2 bulletin was at the peculiar time of 3:50pm, I wonder if this was a legacy of the previous even-more-oddly timed 3:53 regional bulletin on BBC1 in most of England (except London/SE) in the 70s and early 80s.


I think that was the case, the 3.50 regional bulletin was certainly longer than the other ones, and I know in the North West it was read by one of the main presenters, so presumably it was indeed because that was the established slot for regional news - of course at the same time ITV had regional news at 3.20.

In Paul Armstrong's book about editing Match of the Day, he says his first job at the Beeb was at BBC North East and pretty soon after he started he was directing that 3.50 news bulletin. He says that it was quite easy to direct when Mike Neville was presenting because during the last report he'd always say "How long for the weather?" and depending on the time remaining he'd either wax lyrical about it at some length ("it'll be a nice day for exploring the ramparts at Alnwick Castle, but watch out if you're hoping to enjoy an ice cream on the seafront at Whitby") or just dash it off a few seconds ("Minimum 4, maximum 6. Goodbye.").

I remember, from the school holidays, that the other daytime bulletin that was a bit different from the others was the 11am bulletin, because it was followed by an extended weather forecast for mainland Europe.

12.55pm was always the main lunchtime regional opt out, I can't remember when they shifted it to 1.30pm.


It was in February 1996, when there was quite a radical revamp of the daytime schedules. Breakfast News Extra was introduced, almost certainly because that meant BBC1 could now start shows at 9.20 and get one jump ahead of ITV who began at 9.25, and the 10am bulletin was axed. I remember reading in Broadcast at the time that this was considered absolutely amazing because under John Birt you usually introduced more news bulletins, not axed them.

Also as part of that revamp the lunchtime regional news was moved to 1.30, with Neighbours moving to 1.40 and then Pebble Mill at two for its last few months. Then of course there was an even more radical revamp in September 1996 when Anne and Nick and Pebble Mill were both axed.

Or is that example above with Richard Whitmore the same studio just a different angle, and lighter as its daytime?


You'd think it was the same set-up, but I don't know because in the One Day In The Life Of Television book they talk at great length about the revamped Nine, which had started the previous night, and both Michael Beurk and Martyn Lewis say that they were disappointed with how the newsroom set looks on screen and how the shots are so boring ("What happened to those bold shots we piloted?"), when you'd assume that wouldn't have been an issue had they used the same set for the previous two years. So I dunno.
JK
JKDerry
WMD posted:
As to why the final daytime BBC2 bulletin was at the peculiar time of 3:50pm, I wonder if this was a legacy of the previous even-more-oddly timed 3:53 regional bulletin on BBC1 in most of England (except London/SE) in the 70s and early 80s.


I think that was the case, the 3.50 regional bulletin was certainly longer than the other ones, and I know in the North West it was read by one of the main presenters, so presumably it was indeed because that was the established slot for regional news - of course at the same time ITV had regional news at 3.20.

In Paul Armstrong's book about editing Match of the Day, he says his first job at the Beeb was at BBC North East and pretty soon after he started he was directing that 3.50 news bulletin. He says that it was quite easy to direct when Mike Neville was presenting because during the last report he'd always say "How long for the weather?" and depending on the time remaining he'd either wax lyrical about it at some length ("it'll be a nice day for exploring the ramparts at Alnwick Castle, but watch out if you're hoping to enjoy an ice cream on the seafront at Whitby") or just dash it off a few seconds ("Minimum 4, maximum 6. Goodbye.").

I remember, from the school holidays, that the other daytime bulletin that was a bit different from the others was the 11am bulletin, because it was followed by an extended weather forecast for mainland Europe.

12.55pm was always the main lunchtime regional opt out, I can't remember when they shifted it to 1.30pm.


It was in February 1996, when there was quite a radical revamp of the daytime schedules. Breakfast News Extra was introduced, almost certainly because that meant BBC1 could now start shows at 9.20 and get one jump ahead of ITV who began at 9.25, and the 10am bulletin was axed. I remember reading in Broadcast at the time that this was considered absolutely amazing because under John Birt you usually introduced more news bulletins, not axed them.

Also as part of that revamp the lunchtime regional news was moved to 1.30, with Neighbours moving to 1.40 and then Pebble Mill at two for its last few months. Then of course there was an even more radical revamp in September 1996 when Anne and Nick and Pebble Mill were both axed.

Or is that example above with Richard Whitmore the same studio just a different angle, and lighter as its daytime?


You'd think it was the same set-up, but I don't know because in the One Day In The Life Of Television book they talk at great length about the revamped Nine, which had started the previous night, and both Michael Beurk and Martyn Lewis say that they were disappointed with how the newsroom set looks on screen and how the shots are so boring ("What happened to those bold shots we piloted?"), when you'd assume that wouldn't have been an issue had they used the same set for the previous two years. So I dunno.

If you look at the BBC Nine O'Clock News set in 1988, and see it the following year in 1989, you can see they re-jigged the set a good bit. The original set was awful, the window into the newsroom was poorly designed and there was on screen the gaping hole where the newsreader would enter the set from the newsroom.


From 1989 that was tidied up, the gap was not shown on screen and the large window into the newsroom was made smaller and the lighting changed, making the set that little bit better on screen.

Just take a look at the differences on the clips below:

BBC News from Boxing Day 1988 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6lvC0A-NLM

BBC News from October 1989 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXE8vgbk1Bo - notice the window on the newsroom has been redesigned here.

BBC News from March 1990 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwAgaxbJyuk - by 1990 the set had been re-jigged properly to eliminate the view of the gap which led into the newsroom
NE
Newsroom
WMD posted:
As to why the final daytime BBC2 bulletin was at the peculiar time of 3:50pm, I wonder if this was a legacy of the previous even-more-oddly timed 3:53 regional bulletin on BBC1 in most of England (except London/SE) in the 70s and early 80s.


I think that was the case, the 3.50 regional bulletin was certainly longer than the other ones, and I know in the North West it was read by one of the main presenters, so presumably it was indeed because that was the established slot for regional news - of course at the same time ITV had regional news at 3.20.

In Paul Armstrong's book about editing Match of the Day, he says his first job at the Beeb was at BBC North East and pretty soon after he started he was directing that 3.50 news bulletin. He says that it was quite easy to direct when Mike Neville was presenting because during the last report he'd always say "How long for the weather?" and depending on the time remaining he'd either wax lyrical about it at some length ("it'll be a nice day for exploring the ramparts at Alnwick Castle, but watch out if you're hoping to enjoy an ice cream on the seafront at Whitby") or just dash it off a few seconds ("Minimum 4, maximum 6. Goodbye.").

I remember, from the school holidays, that the other daytime bulletin that was a bit different from the others was the 11am bulletin, because it was followed by an extended weather forecast for mainland Europe.

12.55pm was always the main lunchtime regional opt out, I can't remember when they shifted it to 1.30pm.


It was in February 1996, when there was quite a radical revamp of the daytime schedules. Breakfast News Extra was introduced, almost certainly because that meant BBC1 could now start shows at 9.20 and get one jump ahead of ITV who began at 9.25, and the 10am bulletin was axed. I remember reading in Broadcast at the time that this was considered absolutely amazing because under John Birt you usually introduced more news bulletins, not axed them.

Also as part of that revamp the lunchtime regional news was moved to 1.30, with Neighbours moving to 1.40 and then Pebble Mill at two for its last few months. Then of course there was an even more radical revamp in September 1996 when Anne and Nick and Pebble Mill were both axed.

Or is that example above with Richard Whitmore the same studio just a different angle, and lighter as its daytime?


You'd think it was the same set-up, but I don't know because in the One Day In The Life Of Television book they talk at great length about the revamped Nine, which had started the previous night, and both Michael Beurk and Martyn Lewis say that they were disappointed with how the newsroom set looks on screen and how the shots are so boring ("What happened to those bold shots we piloted?"), when you'd assume that wouldn't have been an issue had they used the same set for the previous two years. So I dunno.

If you look at the BBC Nine O'Clock News set in 1988, and see it the following year in 1989, you can see they re-jigged the set a good bit. The original set was awful, the window into the newsroom was poorly designed and there was on screen the gaping hole where the newsreader would enter the set from the newsroom.


From 1989 that was tidied up, the gap was not shown on screen and the large window into the newsroom was made smaller and the lighting changed, making the set that little bit better on screen.

Just take a look at the differences on the clips below:

BBC News from Boxing Day 1988 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6lvC0A-NLM

BBC News from October 1989 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXE8vgbk1Bo - notice the window on the newsroom has been redesigned here.

BBC News from March 1990 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwAgaxbJyuk - by 1990 the set had been re-jigged properly to eliminate the view of the gap which led into the newsroom



'The gaping hole' was never filled or replaced. That newsroom set/desk served as the summaries production desk during the week, there were up to 4 working Basys terminals to right of the presenter. Hence why the summaries opening shot was so tight and never showed the other producers.

Totally agreed the whole set looking tip top by the time 1990 arrived. I was never a fan of the two way shot though. Shot from behind the presenter to a CSO screen. I'll try and find an example.





Last edited by Newsroom on 9 July 2019 2:54pm - 2 times in total
IS
Inspector Sands

'The gaping hole' was never filled or replaced. That newsroom set/desk served as the summaries production desk during the week, there were up to 4 working Basys terminals to right of the presenter. Hence why the summaries opening shot was so tight and never showed the other producers.

I wish I could remember where I saw it but there is footage of this somewhere - a behind the scenes wide shot of the studio with computers plonked on the desk and someone sitting right next to the newsreader

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