BBC News nostalgia, including BBC World

To be fair, it was also an era when the concept of rolling news, advanced graphics packages, and the ability to tell stories in different, engaging ways was a far-stretch.

I appreciate the difference. Some might say the set designs of the 80s were drab, for example. For me, I see it as no bad thing that set design has changed as it signifies a change in the way that news is delivered. No longer - thankfully - is it a case of news being imparted. Instead, the 'consumer' is afforded a window in on a news operation, being told stories in a way that is consciously different and which treats them as informed viewers. I have to say, I am rather revealing my own attitudes that news of the 80s tended to border on the condescending and ever so slightly elitist.

All of this said, news is still (largely speaking) delivered from behind a desk, with reports, live two-ways, summaries, and a clear structure so it does make you question whether it's really (really) come that far...

I find the sets of the One and Six have some form of charm to them. The Six while being blue throughout made up for that with a great theme and top class journalism, while the One was functional and suited the daytime slot.

To be honest, since the end of the virtual era of the 90s, I've never been a fan of the corporate sets and generic on-screen branding that they've had ever since, although the current E studio at BH has been the best of the last 20 years.

For me, the consumer being 'afforded a window in on the news operation' is just unnecessary bells and whistles. Setting aside my interest in the branding and technical side of television news production, as a viewer wanting the news, I really don't give a flying fig how they gather it, I just want to hear it in a very straightforward way. Give me Martyn Lewis or Anna Ford reading down the barrel of the camera and linking together excellent VTs any day.

The move over the last couple of decades to catwalks, sitting on desks, pointless "interviews" with correspondents stood outside an empty building in the middle of the night, touch screens, patronising graphics where the words the reporter is saying flash on the screen, special effects/filters for file footage and all the other 'advances' are just a mere distraction. I genuinely don't feel they help to explain the news any better than it was 'imparted' in the 90s. My desire for television news is for them to just get on with it and have done with it. That's not to say it shouldn't have an appealing appearance, but a lot of the developments in recent decades leave me decidedly cold, I'm afraid.

I completely agree, itsrobert.

I have never been a fan of 'newsroom views', because they are fundamentally meaningless to the understanding of the information they are trying to impart.

It's also why I now have a 'pet hate' for touch screens in TV presentation, as I do for random OBs from pointless locations. You don't need to be stood outside a petrol station to tell me about a price increase. It's all just so uneccessary.

We're definitely on the same page, Stuart. I find a lot of it actually turns me away from watching the news and I'm supposedly still fairly young and probably just about in the demographic they want to attract with all this gimmickry. I actually find today's news presentation more patronising and condescending than it arguably was in the 80s and 90s. I feel they have gone too far the other way - from treating viewers almost like university-educated brainiacs to primary school children. It's almost as if we won't understand if the reporter/presenter doesn't wave their arms around and explain everything in simple terms so we understand. And there must be an animated picture or graphic or pointless live OB to help us to grasp what is being spoken of.

To be honest, it's not just television news where this is creeping in. I've always been a big fan of nature documentaries and even these are changing for the worse. Nowadays they have to be cinematic productions with sweeping orchestral scores and stunning HD imagery with a good deal of anthropomorphism thrown in. During lockdown I spent quite some time watching David Attenborough's early series, 'Life on Earth' and 'The Living Planet' and despite the lack of everything above - indeed probably because of it - I found them to be utterly intelligent and highly engaging. I learnt so much from them and I didn't even notice they weren't in HD.

Ultimately none of it matters but arguably bad presentation or a bad studio can distract from the simplicity of the news being delivered, so it is important to get it right. Completely agree things like touchscreens, OBs and using the catwalk can also be a distraction when they are used when not necessary.

Facts.

Indeed she was. She was nicknamed Sonia ("Get'S ON YA nerves", apparently. She was used from the introduction of the current trains, replaced in 2003.

Recent history:

Both of them would have suited Afternoon Live perfectly.

What studio is this, anyone? (26 secs onward into this clip) I don't remember it at all.

Edit: also a glimpse of Mike Smartt, former presenter of the Six O'clock.

That set was very close to N9 if I recall? It was sometimes used overnights in the early days of News 24.