TV news have had lots old fashion newsreaders like Sir Alistair Brunet, Peter Sissons as well as minor ones like Alistair Yates and Mark Longhurst. But the days of the broadcasters in the mould of these figures are long gone because of the celebrity culture. It would be great to see the type of broadcasters again by starting career on Sky News' kids show.
For me, Sir Alastair BURNET (sp.) was THE maestro, and there were/are very few who followed in the mold. Some came close (I believe Peter Sissons was one; Alastair Yates another; Alastair Stewart the only one remaining), but times have changed and, as much as I also long for those days of the “anchorman/woman” in that classical sense, I’m often told here on TVF and elsewhere that I must move with the times.
Will we come full circle again and see the re-emergence of the classic anchor? I guess we will.
For example, I recall when Huw Edwards starting newsreading, I thought he was a young whippersnapper and couldn’t hold a candle to the likes of Sissons, Buerk, Burnet, et al.
Now, Huw has replaced them. And has somewhat become them.
For the record, I certainly wouldn’t consider the likes of Alastair Yates as a “minor” newscaster. He was very much senior in the school sense.
Whilst perhaps not evident on UK terrestrial television news, many of the international news channels do still have anchors who hold incredible authority.
Adrian Finighan, Peter Dobbie, Mike Embley, Philippa Thomas, Lyse Doucet, Christiane Amanpour, Kamahl Santamaria, Martin Stanford........
And finally, I’m not sure what you mean by developing new talent on the Sky News Kids Show (whatever that is). But, I guess, it’s not totally impossible.
I do think with the world of 24 hours news channels we have today it is harder to be an 'anchorman' than it previously was as you do need to deal with lighter stories as well as hard-hitting news stories.
That said there have been newsreaders in recent times who I think still are authoritative but who have adapted brilliantly to the rolling news environment.
When you see the below anchoring a newscast/news programme, you know you'll get a comprehensive news summary from somebody who knows their brief
-Becky Anderson
-Fionnuala Sweeney
-Maxine Mawhinney
-Emily Maitlis
-Anna Jones
-Matthew Amroliwala
-Zeinab Badawi
-David Eades
-Annita McVeigh (superb on breaking news)
-Mary Nightingale
-Alistair Stewart
-Nina Hossain
-Gillian Joseph
It is quite funny now looking back at some of the relative outcry from when Emily Maitlis joined Newsnight - these days she seems a perfect fit for it.
Not a newsreader as such but it felt a bit odd having Lizo talking about Peter Sissons on the news last night, it only feels like yesterday since he was a young new face on Newsround! (He’s now 50 which stunned me even more!)
Not a newsreader as such but it felt a bit odd having Lizo talking about Peter Sissons on the news last night, it only feels like yesterday since he was a young new face on Newsround!
(He’s now 50 which stunned me even more!)
I grew up in the 80's when News At Ten was probably at its peak. For me the quintessential anchors were Alastair Burnet and Sandy Gall. There you had two highly professional presenters who were also excellent journalists who specialised in their fields (its worth remembering that Burnet presented NAT and was editor of The Economist at the same time whilst Gall was a superb war reporter)
The current crop of presenters are different. Don't get me wrong the likes of Annita Mcveigh, Emily Maitlis and Martine Croxall are superb at what they do but the requirements are different now.
As much as he is lauded generally, I always found Trevor vastly overrated as a newsreader/caster. His delivery was often robotic in style, and certainly not in the same league as some of the names mentioned above for me anyway.