The ITN Nostalgia Thread

I've just found quite a rare example of this from Bank Holiday Monday on 4th May 1987. David Cass reading the "Early Evening News" with News at 5:45-inspired branding. Loving the dodgy voice-over - it's not by Simon Bates like the regular 5:45 v/o's so I can only assume they pressganged someone into creating one for David Cass at short notice!

Starts at about 20:00

Whilst having a look earlier to see if there was anything other than that 1st May clip (the only one I could find too), I did see this - which I only include for the nice picture of Jon Snow holding a telephone handset (from 10:09):



EDIT: I liked it so much, it is now my profile picture.

Changing tack slightly, I wonder if we could discuss The Channel Four Daily?

It's always been one of those programmes shrouded in mystery - probably very few people watched it at the time and even fewer recorded it to VHS. As a result, there is very little in the way of footage online.

I know that it launched with Carol Barnes at the helm in 1989 and that it was effectively in segments linked together at ITN. I'd quite like to know more about the relaunch that happened in April 1990. It is alluded to on Wikipedia but there isn't much in the way of detail. Apart from dropping a few segments, how did it change exactly? Did the presenters change? Did it move to a more traditional, fluid breakfast news programme rather than random segments linked together. Was it still presented from ITN? And what happened to it in the years between 1990 and its demise in September 1992? Did it stay relatively stable in terms of production or were further changes made?

Would love to know more about it if anyone can remember.

According to my mum, it's thanks to that show I learned to tell the time, comparing the on-screen digital clock with a carraige clock we had on top of the TV.

That strange David Cass VO is the voice of 5 Live legend Peter Allen I think (who was a Westminster correspondent at the time).

Yes the Channel 4 Daily did become a more fluid, less disparate breakfast show programme following the revamp I think. I suppose it was like a news channel in the days when most of us had never seen one.

Always thought their ‘Box Office’ arts segment was very good, and I’m surprised the acidic presenter David Roper was never really seen again. I hope Steve Williams has much more to add, as it’s quite hard to remember such an ephemeral programme. But I guess the writing was on the wall for it as soon as early 1991.

I seem to remember reading somewhere the reason they axed it was because Channel 4 was selling its own advertising from the start of 1993 and they knew it would never pay its way, so they replaced it with something more populist. Wonder if it would have continued if Channel 4 had stayed in its original form past 1993.

I have vague memories of them showing Dangermouse.

I know they went to a rolling news format during the Gulf War, dropping some of the lighter features. I believe there are episodes of Countdown Masters which were never transmitted.

I just went looking for some clips, and found some posted in a previous ITN nostalgia thread:
https://tvforum.uk/forums/post1002148#post-1002148

Odd to think that having a digital clock was a novelty at the time.

Southern's continuity clock in the early to mid 70s was digital, (Obviously set a second or two fast!)

ATV had one too, one that looked like a digital display from a VT machine.

Seems odd that when it came to breakfast TV both channels went for analogue clocks (although apparently TVam only got theirs because the BBC launched with one

Well it had numbers, but ‘digital’ is pushing it a bit!!