The ITN Nostalgia Thread

How could we forget the great Nicholas Owen - ITN to BBC

Fiona Armstrong ITN to GAP to BBC

Julia Somerville BBC to ITN to GAP to BBC

Nik Gowing ITN to BBC

Did he work for the BBC before ITN as well. I'm sure I've seen a clip on youtube of him reporting on the BBC during the miners trike


Tenuous given it's not ITN and it's a regional programme, but back to ITV to present Border Life in Scotland

Yes, he worked at BBC North with Mike Neville, who was one of his mentors.

Pamela Armstrong, like Katie Derham, didn't move to the Beeb to be a newsreader, she moved to do a daytime show, the imaginatively titled Pamela Armstrong. She did later do Breakfast Time but, like Derham, she was presumably looking to move on from newsreading.

Julia Somerville was a very high profile move at the time, she was one of the senior presenters on BBC News at the time, having fronted the Nine O'Clock News for four years, I think it was a bit of a rancorous departure as well. Martyn Lewis was apparently hired because the Beeb specifically did research to find housewives' favourite newsreader. Peter Sissons moved over from Channel Four News to do Question Time specifically, which when Robin Day left was a very high profile role, but he asked if he could do newsreading as well to keep his oar in with the news on a regular basis.

A lot of these moves were quite minor in the grand scheme of things. Up until the nineties there weren't many opportunities in TV news, just the Beeb or ITN, and there weren't many news programmes either, so if you were ambitious and wanted to get on you would often have to look at the other side for potential openings. I think the general feeling has always been that most people would generally gravitate to the Beeb - even in the seventies and eighties, when ITN were considered superior by every margin, there was a prestige about the Beeb that made it very appealing.

I do wonder if ITV have ever made Huw Edwards an offer - certainly been at least three opportunities over the last 12 years where they could have bought him on board to do the Ten.

You don't get as many of the big ITN to BBC and vice versa crossovers these days. A lot of the time it's people promoted within the ranks and from the regions. The last ITV News newscaster acquisition was Julie Etchingham from Sky wasn't it? They usually promote from within the reporting ranks.

I always thought that Sky News Jeremy Thompson would have made a great replacement for Sir Trev.

It depends how you look at things but you could count Mark Austin as a recent high profile mover - ITN to Sky News.

And most transfers are either people in a junior role crossing channels to gain a more senior role

Or people wanting a new challenge, such as people like Nicholas Owen in his later years wanting to move to rolling news. Mark Austin is similar although not semi-retirement like Nicholas Owen was.

The last person who move to do an identical job was probably Susanna Reid, although that decision had the complication of the Salford move

Apologies if this is presenters only, But Robert Peston and Laura Kuenssberg

In terms of anchors, there haven’t been that many big moves of late, but reporters there have been some big names shifting in the last ten years - Faisal Islam, Robert Peston, even Laura Kuenssberg.

Yeah the political correspondents/editors have done some of the most swaps over the years. Off the top of my head I can think of Nick Robinson (BBC to ITN to BBC, I think) and John Sergeant (BBC to ITN) as well. But there may have been more? Laura Kuenssberg did the 'boomerang' like Nick Robinson - BBC-ITN-BBC.

I guess these things are the same as goes on in any industry. You have colleagues who are ambitious with little to no company loyalty and will move at the drop of a hat to further their career - and at the other end of the spectrum you have those who value familiarity, safety and loyalty to a company.

i don't think Mark moved? Was demoted for Tom Bradby and left, turning up on Sky months later - he isn't great on there at all.
In fact it's the second time ITV haven't quite fancied him for News at Ten full time - bringing back Trevor to host the relaunched version in 2008 with Julie Etchingham.