ITV News

He does still present he did the weekend news a few weeks back. He's been covering a lot of events though. It also may be to the fact that they now have a pool of newsreaders for weekends plus the main newscasters cropping up he's on less than he used to be. Any word who's the new Economics Editor?

There is a presenters and rota thread, This Thread is intended for the presentation of ITV News.

That's a good one, seeing how you replied and continued on the topic.

So Alastair presenting the Countdown to Midnight - wasn't Andrea down for that? Not surprised though - Alastair always seems up for doing days like these.

Two thing that annoys me - why keep cutting to Juliet Bremmer telling how great the fireworks are - with the fireworks in the background !!

Also why does it always cut of part though fireworks? Is there some sort of restriction in the BBC footage i.e not allowed to show it all ( don't think it's pooled is it?) It's not like Mars Attack can't wait 5 minutes!

I thought it was great to see Alastair present the bulletin... it would have felt far too low-key with a relief newscaster presenting the New Year bongs. You're right on the length of the programme - it should've been slightly longer, and I too wonder why we never seem to see more fireworks. That said, I thought it was a decent short bulletin (apart from that hideous weird 'coming up' strap at the top), better than the last few years' anyway, in part due to Alastair always making everything he presents an event!

What did everyone think to the "That Was 2010" programme, if you saw it? I thought it was alright. Some of the music choices were a bit dubious ("He's My Brother" playing beneath the footage of David losing out to Ed... ) but I liked the interviews with reporters and presenters. Well, all except that smug Bradby - jeez! Even some of the family who saw him on screen remarked on how "unprofessional" he seemed compared to the others!

Didn't see the review programme, but thought the live bulletin was fine.

As for the length of the bulletin, that's obviously down to ITV (as opposed to ITN), but there's certainly no restrictions on the amount of firework footage that can be used. This is just down to the constraints of the TX duration. Just a shame they mis-timed it so by the time they cut to Edinburgh, the firework display had finished.

Don't know where else to post this, but congratulations to Sandy Gall, aged 83, for yet further recognition in the Queen's New Year Honours List. His latest award is a bit of a moutful, but nonetheless, well deserved of a man who continues to support charitable causes to this day.

Happy New Year to all of you.

A fixed shot of Andrea at the end of the bulletin just now, not a sweeping shot like I normally see. Seemed like it was a long closer as well like NaT.

Missed this - congratulations to Sandy on that, he definitely comes across in interviews I've seen/heard as sincere and genuine so it doesn't surprise me that he's got another honour for his charity work.

I'm too young to remember him presenting the news (he retired shortly after I was born!) but I do remember seeing some of his reports on NaT as a child, oddly enough - did he return from time to time as a 'special correspondent' or something? I can't seem to find any info about that on the net.

Look at this amazing video uploaded to YouTube last month:
Trevor McDonald - Rehearsals & Studio Footage (News at Ten - 1995)

Neat, isn't it?! One of my very favourite eras of news on ITV and I love this peak behind the scenes.

And, just to top it off, here's a fantastic upload from Dave Hewson, the marvellous composer of the theme used on the programme at the time:

News at Ten titles 1994

God, this makes me so nostalgic...!

Looking at those two clips, I've noticed something a bit odd.

In the music clip, it clearly shows the News at Ten set in the same studio they used for the national news (i.e. next to the atrium) which was later used for the ITN News Channel and now London Tonight etc.

When Trevor did his side shots, the newsroom would be clearly be seen behind him.

However, in the rehearsal tape, his side shots show a blue screen - suggesting that the set had been moved to another studio and that they keyed the newsroom on.

Would I be right in saying that the set was moved? Possibly when they got a new set for the main ITN programmes (ie. the blue minimalist set with a yellow stripe on the desk (red for the evening news)?

Yes, I think you're right, Earlie37, though trying to figure out old ITN studio usage is a bit of a nightmare! News at Ten did leave the atrium in the mid-1990s for (I presume) one of the basement studios. At the same time, the voiceovers were re-recorded. They used to be "From the headquarters of ITN, News at Ten with..." but once the programme left the office surroundings, they were changed to "From ITN, News at Ten with...". However, between 1992 and 1995, both News at Ten and the Early Evening News used atrium-side sets. Quite how they managed this is a mystery. I'm assuming that at one point they had another studio next to the atrium, as it would have been impractical to constantly swap sets twice per day. Similarly, I've never been able to figure out where Channel 4 News or the News at 5:40 came from once ITN moved to Grays Inn Road. I know Channel 4's current studio alongside the atrium was only constructed in 1999, so they must have been elsewhere before then. At the moment, there's no Studio 3, so I'm guessing if that existed at one point, it's been removed somewhere along the line. Although ITN only occupies a few floors of the building now, I believe they initially owned the whole thing, so presumably there were other studios on other floors, especially when ITN produced so many different programmes; many more than they do now.

That video of the NAT music is interesting, as the bong is wrong. That's not the one that was used on air. ITN must have supplied that themselves. I always thought the pre-1992 NAT theme was the best of the lot. Hewson's two versions (1992 and 2008) don't sound as powerful as the original did.

Thanks for all the info on the studios, itsrobert - interesting reading.



Don't forget that the NAT music heard in that video was the second re-recording: there was a very less powerful version in use from 1992 for a year or two (without the "dum-dum, dum-dum"! before the bongs) before the above music was put in use. Out of the two, I prefer the 1994 version.

I noticed the different bong effect too in the NAT video. How would you explain the musical differences in this video of the Early Evening News from 1995? I'm guessing it's an early, unrefined 'draft'.