After last night's bombs, Is there anyone who remembers the news when IRA bombs struck London and NI.
I remember back in 1996 when the IRA ended the ceasefire with Britian, BBC1 had updated news bullitins when Canary Whalf got blasted, their Friday night programmes (if I can remember a film on that evening) on 9th February ended with news updates from the BBC newsroom until closedown and a Saturday edition of Breakfast News was on the next day taking over the Saturday morning programmes execpt Live and Kicking to give the updates.
I also remember the Manchester bombings a few months later which happened on a Saturday morning. BBC1 had a newsflash just before Grandstand.
Anyone know how newsflashes went of other events before that. It never used to take the schedule all day like yesterday (and 9/11, Don't remember too much of Madrid cause I was at work that day but maybe they did)
Very much so - Interruptions were common. I remember the 'Canary Wharf' bomb well - I was on the station platform at South Quays 24 hours before and had headed out the following day on Holiday.
On arriving I switched on CNN and see this rather surreal image which looked like the view from my hotel window the previous evening. It was I had stayed in the hotel from which CNN were feeding pictures.
Blanket coverage is new with the advent of news channels - but interruptions were very common.
I remember Omagh because it interrupted the show I was watching. Bugs I think it was. Fab show. Lots of explosions. That may be why they kept it off for a week
They've ALWAYS interrupted television programmes for major news stories.
One edition of Mickey Mouse didn't get finished for seven years!
Actually, contrary to popular belief, BBC Television finished just
after
the Mickey Mouse cartoon had been shown. It was shown again, in full, when the channel resumed in 1946.
It was the main story on Newsnight the Verdict on 10th April 1992 when an IRA carbomb exploded in London - the same day John Major was re-elected as Prime Minister.
One of my main memories of the Canary Wharf bomb was L!VE TV, which had a locked-off camera pointing at the scene all morning after the building was evacuated. Also one of the broadsheets based there, I think the Telegraph, with a blank front page with just the masthead and a small typewritten message apologising for the empty spaces within the paper.
Back in Northern Ireland, we would often have captions coming up on screen saying "POLICE MESSAGE" on both BBC NI and UTV, with the announcer reading out a message from the RUC asking keyholders in a certain area to return to their premises to check for suspicious devices. Usually this was OOV, but there's an article on Transdiffusion by Robert Brown which mentions that UTV's announcers would often appear in vision looking serious and sombre to make such announcements.
I can't recall any particular bombing over here that warranted a news flash; many of the major attacks here in my lifetime which I remember (Enniskillen in 1987, Ballygawley in 1988, the Shankill Road and Greysteel in 1993 and Omagh in 1998) were usually covered in extended news bulletins from both stations - having said that, I didn't get to see much news coverage of the Omagh bomb as I was at a family wedding that day, and as most of my mum's family come from around the Omagh area, it was quite a traumatic and upsetting experience for everyone there.
However, I can recall the ITN newsflash about the Docklands bomb that Friday night, I think it was before Coronation Street or after it, with Trevor McDonald, and I remember my family and I thinking that the efforts of the peace process that had been building over the previous 18 months were shattered in one moment.
I remember when both Warrington and Manchester got bombed, ISTR ITN butting into the breaks on The ITV Chart Show (both bombs happened on Saturdays), I also recall a very long News Report before Grandstand when Manchester got bombed, I think Big Moira was the presenter that day.
Well Brighton happened in the middle of the Night, so all channels would have closed down, but this is the first major News event that Breakfast Time and Good Morning Britain covered IIRC. I don't know whether TV channels came on the air earlier, but this is probably unlikely.
Also the late great Richard Whiteley was the first reporter on the scene as he was in the Hotel when it got bombed.
The Night the IRA ended its ceasefire in Canary Wharf was the same night that the last 'Inside Ulster' was broadcast at 5:35. As i can remember the prestenters coming back on air about 8 oclock and saying that the studio was about to be renovated or something to that extent.