BBC News nostalgia, including BBC World

Also speaking of the golden days of BBC World, I came across this clip of The World Today from late 2003 featuring the 'ice maiden' (credit to JamesWorldNews) Anita McNaught & Sally Bundock from what appears to be at first glance N6 which was the home of the national bulletins around then.
Was BBC World often in that studio during this period or would this have been a one-off/rare foray over by World to N6?


A particular highlight too is Anita's handover to sport too which didn't exactly give Celina Hinchcliffe much to work with.

I don't know if you recall but they actually switched the break stings around at one point. Initially, from April 2000 until April 2002, the into break sting featured the globe zooming in, whilst the from break sting went the opposite way. When they refreshed the music in April 2002, they decided to reverse them, so what you see as the from break sting in that video originally started out as the into break animation! No idea why they changed them.


You're not wrong, the red and cream era was cut far too short. Having been introduced in May 1999 and taking until October 2000 to roll out across all BBC News outlets, it then only lasted until December 2003. It could and should have carried on far longer. The orange and black look that replaced it with those red and white plasticky sets was a tremendous step backwards.

Personally speaking, BBC News has never looked and sounded as good as it did between 1999 and 2003. I'm glad I lived through it. I'll never forget the first time I saw BBC World on a holiday to Rome in 2000. I was absolutely mesmerised by the whole channel. I had been actively interested in BBC News presentation from an early age and had absolutely adored the "virtual era" of BBC1 news bulletins - but World was like nothing I had seen before. I had occasionally seen snippets of the "flags era" because certain airlines (British Airways, maybe?) had shown a bulletin of BBC World News on the in-flight entertainment system. But that visit to Rome was the first time I had ever seen the channel in all its glory. And guess what, as soon as I got home, I found TV Home (the forerunner website to TV Forum) because I took to the Internet to try and find out more about the channel. And the rest is history. So, thanks BBC World

I always understood the reason for having branded programmes is to sell them worldwide, but is there any info on where these bulletins are sold?

That was a great looking set. Didn’t feel like it was in use for very long? It all felt a bit all over the place at that time.

Ah! I can explain that no problem. The 8th December 2003 was the very day that the orange and black relaunch took place across BBC News 24 and BBC World. The change happened at 09:00 I seem to recall, so that TWT shift was the very last one of the red and cream era. For a short time before relaunch day, BBC News 24 had moved into a temporary CSO set-up in studio TC10 whilst BBC World temporarily moved out of N9 and into N6. At 09:00 that morning they moved back into N9 (and News 24 into N8 ) to usher in the orange and black era.

On other occasions, when maintenance was required, News 24 and World would do joint weekends from either N8 or N9. And on at least one occasion, World moved into TC7. Of course, TV Forum used to get very excited when one of these maintenance weekends came around! In the 2001-2 period, you could always tell when they were simulcasting across News 24 and World because that very dodgy overnight vamp at the wrong pitch would make a daytime appearance along with the World-style titles!

That red and cream era was very much the time I started to get into news and in particular BBC News and weirdly that world look is something that springs to mind quite quickly if I think of TV when I was growing up. It just had a real 'proper news' feel even to me then as not even a teenager.

As naff as it may sound, whenever I was young and going abroad the BBC World channel was almost a source of comfort back then in a world without smartphones, widespread broadband internet etc. I could be whether in the world I was and tune in and see a brand in BBC News that I respected and trusted.

I was a weird kid it's fair to say.

IIRC it launched in Jan 2003 when the presenter reshuffle took place and lasted until May 2006 when the cityscape video wall launched.

You are right that everything felt all over the place, the set launch in 2003 carried over the cream and ivory titles until 2004 when the clamshell look launched. The backdrop was changed to a much brighter version more in keeping with the N24 design at some point in I think 2005 as well.

BBC World in TC7 with Al Yates.



With David Lowe’s bass pumping rework to boot!

Always thought those titles started off great but kind of fall apart halfway through. I still don’t really get what the ‘clamshell’ bit at the end is all about. It’s almost as if the first half was designed by someone externally, and somebody in house bodged the rest of it.

Best music of the whole red look though.

Yeah, they unpicked the BBC1 bulletins during this period, too. It really was a mish-mash in 2003. Like you say, the titles and stings were still red and cream, the set didn't seem to go well with the titles as there was no cream and a much brighter red on the walls than the China red of the titles. What's more, the big screens featured a holding graphic of a red and white design with the relevant 1/6/10 logo. They were similar to the daytime summary stings that had been introduced, which were also out of sync with the red and cream main bulletin titles!

To add insult to injury, when BBC1 bulletins were properly rebranded in February 2004, they kept the old May 1999 headline beds whilst the titles and stings used a new version of the music! This was despite David Lowe providing a suite of updated headline beds, most of which were never used on air. The only new beds used were for the Ten halfway promo and closing headlines on all bulletins. The 1999 headline music lasted right the way through until 2007! I believe the reason stated at the time, unofficially, was that it was too hard a job to update all the regions/nations with the new beds for the headline opts. No idea if that was true as they had managed it in 1999 and again in 2007/2008. It does, however, seem consistent with the old beds only being kept for sequences with an opt, i.e. opening headlines and One/Six halfway promo.



That was the only part of the red and black era I actually liked. The music was fab in 2007 and I liked the glossier titles. Once again, though, they had finally finessed the style by 2007 but dumped it in 2008! Whenever they get something good it's always dropped quickly in favour of something inferior that lasts for years. Same goes for ITN - the best designs they had in decades were for News at Ten in 2008, but dropped in 2009.

Have gone gloriously off topic here (we're not even in the presentation thread) but do wish they'd drop the regional opt in the headlines - it's always been so awkward. Would be better if they just used the midway opt to soley promote the upcoming regional bulletin

I agree. Then on the ten every night, we could time how long it takes the presenter to get to the catwalk during the short titles