9/11 Anniversary Coverage

Breakfast were already covering it on BBC Two (might even have been Weekend 24 at that point), but they broke into CBBC on BBC1 (I think it was the middle of a Wild Thornberries cartoon) with a balloon ident and then straight to the same News 24 coverage. I think The Saturday Show then started on BBC2 shortly afterwards around 9am while the news continued on 1, before swapping around again about 10am!

Yes! I'd completely forgotten about that. I've just dome some delving on my ancient data CDs and... hey presto:

http://up.metropol247.co.uk/itsrobert/BBC%20News%20Special%20(Michael%20Buerk%20%20Gavin%20Esler).rm

Apologies for the format - Real Player was prevalent back then!

Yes, Breakfast on Saturday didn't move full time to BBC1 until January 2006 - apart from the summer of 2004 - and so BBC1 opted into News 24. I think they both simulcast for about twenty minutes before BBC2 went off, as you say, for The Saturday Show. BBC2 were supposed to be showing a repeat of the Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony at 9am, which had taken place overnight, so they started it at 10am and it looked like they just started it halfway through so it finished at the scheduled time.

Before September 11th, Breakfast was only shown on Saturday mornings on BBC2, and not at all on Sunday, but after that they started showing it both days, the Sunday edition on BBC1 (no Match of the Day at the time, of course) and they just never stopped. The Saturday BBC2 simulcast actually started at the beginning of 1998, although it only ran 8-9am around the OU programmes.

I don't think there was any simulcasting for Jill Dando, I'd actually found out about it in the university computer room because I couldn't get any news site to load, unsurprisingly, and when I finally got one up (it was IRN's site, in fact) I was staggered and immediately ran and got a bus home. I remember watching the old 3.20 BBC2 bulletin, I'm pretty sure that was it until six o'clock, although there was of course an obituary at 9.30 with Des Lynam, presented from a broom cupboard-esque studio with an odd backdrop with a laser beam effect on it.

I remember when John Major resigned in 1995, the Put Up And Shut Up business, it was announced during Newsround as breaking news, then they carried on for about thirty seconds before being faded out and replaced by the proper news. ITV couldn't do anything though as they had England playing in the Rugby World Cup at the time so they were reduced to on-screen messages and eventually John Taylor the commentator had to read it out ("the players certainly not aware of that").

I also remember the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 which was announced around five o'clock but BBC1 were about fifteen minutes away from the end of Ben Hur, which is about four hours long, so they did a newsflash on BBC2 from the Breakfast News studio, but even when the BBC1 news began, BBC2 kept on going for about half an hour.

I don't think there was either. I can't remember what the lunchtime schedule was at that time but there was an initial newsflash at whatever junction BBC1 had between 1:30 and 2:00 (after Neighbours at 1:50?) Incidently that obituary programme was finished very late - it was still re-cueing in the edit suite when the ident was being played!


Back then in the early days of News 24 it was a very separate setup to the main BBC News programmes and was treated with much less importance. It's not been that long since the 2 have been fully integrated

It's strange to think how TV was effected by 9/11. Doctors became popular when it was moved to the late-evening slot after being on its deathbed for a year, CNN started rolling its ticker and didn't stop until 2008 (when it was replaced with the 'flipper'), and Breakfast started being shown on Sundays.

Yes, that's right, that began back in 1986 with fifteen minute news bulletins at 7am and 8am on Bank Holidays (before that the original Breakfast Time carried on on Bank Holidays) and it does seem bizarre because kids wouldn't sit through fifteen minutes of news and adults wouldn't sit through 45 minutes of kids shows. It carried on until the mid-nineties anyway, although eventually they dropped the 8am one.

During the first Gulf War, they introduced hourly news bulletins at the weekend and on Saturdays the 7am one was during the Open University and the 9am one delayed Going live by five minutes, and I remember on the first weekend they also did one at 10am during Going Love. Then in the autumn they started a full-time bulletin at 7.25 on Saturday before the kids shows, but again you wonder who bothered watching that, as it was between the OU and kids shows, and must have been a pain to do as the next bulletin wasn't until one o'clock.

I don't think they dropped CBBC on Good Friday 1998, they may have moved it to BBC2 though.

Ten News - Extended and revealing interview with Ten Late Night News anchor Sandra Sully on the moments she broke the news live, how she single-handedly scrambled to get information and the bond she retains with viewers who were with her that night. Sandra also speaks candidly of her emotional turmoil and her anger at network bosses for taking her off air at 3:00 AM Australian Eastern time, around five hours into the attacks. Ten News was on air at 10:43 PM Australian Eastern time when the first strike occurred and continued broadcasting for over 24 hours. Sandra crafted new memories around 9/11 this year, celebrating her marriage to Symon Brewis-Weston at the Sydney Opera House on September 10. Part 2



Ten News - Extended interview with Ten's former US correspondent Michelle Stone. Stone shares her personal recollections of 9/11, being in the middle of the disaster on the streets of New York and her decision not to record the deaths of hundreds of people she witnessed jump from the towers. Part 2 Ten News at Five Sydney anchor Deborah Knight recalls being moments from The Pentagon.

I used to watch it before CBBC, so it had one viewer Who used to present it, or was it just whoever (no fixed presenter)?

Well, Chris Lowe certainly presented the first one, and I certainly remembering him doing many more over the years. I think the same presenter stayed on and did the 1pm bulletin during Grandstand. Here's the first one anyway . . . 24th September 1991: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3j44kb-kRA

And, for the sake of it, here's an example of one of those Saturday 7am bulletins during the Gulf War which interestingly came from the main national studio at the time, but used Breakfast News branding . . . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gj13LSOjF1U

I can distinctly remember the news flashes, with Jennie Bond. The initial report suggested she had been stabbed.

Apart from during strikes, overnight and Weekend24 I don't think they ever simulcast during the flags era of News24 did they?

The day the world changed forever.... well, a daytime soap moved for a bit and a TV station changed their graphics slightly