BBC News nostalgia, including BBC World

Yes, my guess would be 2002 for that video. The war on terror is mentioned and potential war with Iraq. From what I can recall, 2002 would be about the time those stories were in the news and by 2003 they had changed N6 completely. It's definitely not from 1999 - apart from the design of N6, it's in widescreen which didn't come to BBC News until, I think, October 2000.

A further thought - I wouldn't be surprised if Fiona standing at the screen for the top of the programme was a trial for the 2003 relaunch. That was when the Six started being co-presented again with one presenter stood at the screen for the opening headlines.

An interesting video - great find!

yes that's the 2001 set, my favourite one. There was a sort of inbetweeny set where they added a random bit of red panelling to the right hand wall of the cream set

Yes, I was told that the reason they added the red panels and changed the window into the newsroom was they got feedback from viewers who felt the original 1999 set just looked too bland.

As someone who couldn’t remember a time before the virtual set era, any BBC News set that followed always seemed a bit underwhelming and missing something growing up. Whilst I know the virtual set was very of its time it had an epicness about it, which I don’t think we’ll see again. I guess I would suggest some of the German sets are the modern day equivalent, and ARD manage to have that kind of feel without it feeling dated.

But yeah, I don’t really get the love for anything after the 1999 rebrand it’s always seemed a bit bland.

They were certainly going for “epic” with the move to New Broadcasting House. The flyover the newsroom and the whizzy set were a far cry from the by-then stale N6.

We all know you're actually nearly in your 70s, Jon (JOKE).

I never really understood people's fascination with the BBC News virtual set. It was a case of "because we can, we will". Simply a demonstration of technology, with an unnecessarily huge desk appearing on screen. Other than during the title sequence, much of the studio seen was actually real.

What followed was far better, even if initially slightly 'bland'. However, I seem to recall that magnolia was rather popular at the time when decorating homes.

They needed feedback to figure that out?

This is the BBC remember, feedback is everything to them

In my opinion, out of all of the refreshes since 99 (graphics and music wise - not studio or presenters) - 99 was the best. It was major, it was different, and it was all in one. New presenters, new studio, new titles, new sound package - the lot. Everything was different and it shapes what we have today.

I don’t think we will see a change of the sort for decades. I think the reith update certainly tidied the on screen look up a little but it wasn’t exactly massive compared to what we’ve seen before. E hasn’t aged in my opinion - it looks fine. The presenting line up isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, whether it be on a 1 day week or 4 day week. All that really needs to be done is the music package and titles when they next come round to it, because they’ve been largely the same for 12 years now.

The virtual set was the BBC response to ITN who actually were beating the BBC in news audience at the time. They revamped and relaunched News at Ten in November 1992 with Trevor McDonald as the sole anchor and proved popular, with the new atrium view of ITN for the news bulletins at early evenings and weekends, proved very popular and BBC wanted to hit back bold.

BBC always tried to outdo ITN, the case in point was the 1970 general election, when the BBC who got hammered over their 1964 and 1966 coverage went massive scale, using Studio 1 at BBC Television Centre to the full, huge massive sets, however it didn't go down well with viewers, even presenter Cliff Michelmore said it was a waste of time and money, as it would all be viewed on 19 inch or 21 inch TV screens, and most viewers still watch in black and white.