ITN Nostalgia

Election coverage wise - ITN election night presentation has always been a hit and miss approach for me. I have been watching the TV Ark clips of the ITV elections, and sadly it seems ITN election coverage in the archive is only from 1983 onward, I can not find any presentation before the 1983 election.

The 1983 election theme tune and opening titles was very good for ITN, and the BBC had a poor version of their 1979 King Arthur theme. Also BBC decided to scale back their studio presentation for the 1983 and 1987 elections, all based at basic desks, whereas in 1983 ITN decided to build a two tier set in their small studio at Wells Street, with the presenters in the balcony area, and the election results gathering team on the ground floor area.

Then come 1987 they plunged downhill, their opening title music for their election night sounds like the theme to Michael Barrymore's Strike it Lucky with just a slight tweak, only Spitting Image before the election night coverage made ITV 1987 election night watchable, with BBC back again with a dull, boring set design - the only fun bit from the BBC that night in 1987 was David Dimbleby eating a Mars bar just when Robin Day handed back to him.

1992 election was huge for the BBC who re-introduced the massive sets in Studio TC1 at Television Centre, whereas ITN who had moved into their new studios at Grays Inn Road by 1992, opted for a basic desk bound small studio.

1997 and 2001 was the only time ITN tried to outdo BBC in election night feel, using their ITN atrium to provide a huge studio space to rival BBC's Studio TC1.

I really liked the 2001/2005 presentation styles "First, Fastest, Best. Don't Miss A Moment" Johnathon hosted brilliantly.

The 1993 music and set I quite liked. 1983 felt very ITN to me but the titles felt a bit repetitive in my opinion.

To be perfectly honest I really like their current look.

There’s clips of Peter Snow generating a very basic computer graphic in one of the 1974 elections for ITN, on the BBC documentary ‘Swing Time’ which aired in the 90s....36m32s in

Are these opinions formed by watching the coverage at the time, or viewing recordings of it far more recently ?

It's easy to sneer at the primitive pedestrian nature of both broadcasters back then, but believe me the same will be said in 2050 regarding today's telly.

It is my opinion. I have watched the 1987 election on my TV at home, and this is what I felt. I am just giving my opinion on the presentation style of ITN's election coverage. Please do not snipe at me for giving my opinion, otherwise what is the point of TV Forum?

Markymark was asking a very valid question though, not taking a swipe, as views do change in hindsight and in context of what follows. In any nostalgia thread it is fair to acknowledge that our opinions now may not reflect the views of the time, and election coverage especially changed hugely from the late 80s to the late 90s.

I'm certainly not invalidating your opinion, I'm just interested to know where and when in time the opinion was formed ?
So, to be clear, that was your opinion from the night itself watching the progs live ?

A lot of things 30+ years ago seemed far more exciting at the time, then reliving them today.

I've been trying to find out a bit more about the early years of ITN's overnight news service, particularly the Morning News, but information online is patchy and there aren't a huge number of good video examples from 1988.

I know the ITN Morning News launched on 15th February 1988 and there are varying descriptions of what the programme comprised. I believe there was some live news but also pre-recorded editions of ITN World News and also replays from CNN. Can anyone remember how it was all assembled into those early programmes? How much live news was there? Did they have commercial breaks during the Morning News?

I think at some point the CNN replays were dropped and the Morning News was mostly live news and recorded World News and at some point it was reduced to 30 minutes and dropped World News in favour of a fully live programme.

Any thoughts and recollections gratefully received.

I believe the Morning News one hour edition consisted of a live opening news summary, followed by en edition of ITN World News which would include CNN reports. The remaining half hour would be more focused on national UK news stories.

There was a commercial break certainly mid way during the programme, dividing the World News from the national UK news parts of the programme.

The one hour edition concluded on Sunday 3rd March 1991, with the half hour format at 5.30am launching on Monday 4th March 1991.

In the latter years they used NBC reports not CNN I believe. Faye Barker was the last presenter when they cancelled the early morning news

The original version of the Morning News was basically formatted similarly, but not exaclty as you said.

The opening news summary would run for about 5 minutes, and then run an edited version of the ITN World News, edited only to take out the commercial break and the close. An ad break would follow, then a quick reprise of the headlines, before they played out the news segment fron a CNN Headline News newscast pre-recorded during the night. Then at 0545, quite appropriate, the full bulletin including reports, taking you up to the end of the programme at 0559. The ITN Morning News was my first exposure to CNN Headline News, and CNN as a whole, long before the Gulf War. I think the CNN Headline News segment might have gotten dropped when they went to Grays Inn Road in 1991.

Sasha Williams presented the last morning news bulletin a few days before Christmas 2012....