News At ten
ITV broke new ground in 1967 with the introduction of News
At Ten - an extended (30 minute) late evening news program
covering the daily news stories and looking at important issues in
much greater detail than their previous 12 minute bulletin, which
had screened at 8:55pm.
Two presenters were used so that late breaking news could be
fed to whichever newsreader was off-camera at the time.
The News At Ten team originally consisted of newsreaders
Alastair Burnet, Andrew Gardner, Reginald Bosanquet and George
Ffitch. Major correspondents were Sandy Gall, John Edwards,
Richard Linley and Alan Hart, backed up in the studio by another
team headed by Gerald Seymour.
The distinctive chimes of Big Ben opening each edition were, in
fact, only included by default. A sound engineer should have faded
them out but failed to do so, and the chimes stayed ever
since.
The individualistic sign-off from reporters was introduced to
show how international News At Ten was. For the inaugural
program, they had teams as far afield as South Vietnam and
Alabama, and the then Deputy Editor of ITN, David Nicholas, said:
"We thought we'll start this off in a way they'll never
forget. Then the Ford strike story broke and our first sign-off
line was 'Richard Dixon, News At Ten . . . Dagenham".
Viewers loved the new look and style, and News At Ten
became the first news program to get into the top ten television
ratings.
But those early days were pretty uncomfortable, crammed in a
tiny studio in Kingsway House with poor air conditioning. There
was a particularly hot summer in 1967 and it became so warm under
the studio lights that the newscasters had buckets and trays of
ice packed round their feet. Andrew Gardner, who read the first
bulletin with Alastair Burnett, said: "It was so hot we even
took our shoes and socks off".
On 6 May 1971, ITN transmitted its 1000th edition of News At
Ten, which was now the largest single news daily outlet in
Britain, and was watched by more than 15 million viewers. Of the
1,000 programs it had broadcast, 632 had appeared in the Top 20
list of the week's most popular programs.
Probably the best-loved of all News At Ten newsreaders
was the late Reginald Bosanquet. Reggie joined ITN in 1955, but it
was his partnership with Andrew Gardner on News At Ten that
endeared him to millions.
Gardner said he and Reggie were "a sort of Morecambe and
Wise of the news". Reggie owned the most famous toupee on
television, an claimed he wore it for medical reasons. His slurred
speech led to accusations of him being drunk on screen, but in
fact it was caused by his epilepsy and the drugs he took to
control it.
The twice-divorced Bosanquet had a colourful private life and
he was suspended for a month in 1976 to sort it out. He eventfully
resigned from News At Ten in 1979.
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