For all of my adult life, news programmes have had a pretty rigid structure within the broadcast day, especially on the BBC with Breakfast and then bulletins at One, Six, and Nine or Ten. Nevertheless, I'm also old enough to remember when this wasn't the case when at least at tea time, the news seemed to happen at around six o'clock in various guises and the emphasis was on current affairs and local news, rather than a strict, half-hour format with a running order of the day's "top stories". How did we get here?
The shakeup really began on Friday 5th August 1983 with the final episode of Nationwide, which had been running continuously since 1969 broadcasting its final edition. The Radio Times listing calls it "Britain's most popular current affairs programme" and says this last broadcast looked "back over 14 years on your screen with some guest presenters" and remarkably a chunk of the episode is available on YouTube. TV Cream has a record of its final shambolic months although I'm still in the process of tracking down why the axe was dropped and I'll update this paragraph if I find anything.
What replaced it? On the 24th of October, a new format Sixty Minutes launched, a mongrel of a show that began with 15 minutes of national news, then twenty minutes of regional news followed by 25 minutes of current affairs material (apparently news and current affairs were separate departments back then and staunchly independent). This new show was not well received, with the ratings only really improving in its final weeks, with the final edition going out on 27 July 1984, not even reaching its one-year anniversary.
But its what happened in between Nationwide and Sixty Minutes and after which is of interest to us because the slot was otherwise filled with twenty minutes of national news with Moira Stewart followed by twenty minutes of regional, sandwiched between coverage of "The First World Athletics Championships", which I'm assuming was the first edition of the competition rather than a description of the countries participating, the timeslot fluctuating depending on the events being covered, but nevertheless, it's the format which has now become commonplace, give or take the duration and transmission times.
It must have proved popular enough because, on the 3rd September 1984, the Six O'Clock News (from the BBC) launched with Sue Lawley and Nicholas Witchell for half an hour, followed by a whole set of new twenty-five-minute regional programmes, which is how it's been ever since. Why did it stick? My guess? For some types of programmes, people like simplicity and routine. Unlike Nationwide and Sixty Minutes, the title says what's in the programme and what time it's on. Popular programmes rarely have complicated titles.
Breakfast Time
"The BBC is first first first with breakfast television, not at all in a spoiler attempt for TV-am (due in May, launched in February in response) that was entirely successful and crushed the commercial opposition utterly."
[Transdiffusion]
"Originally published on 18 January 1983: You can quite see why Frank Bough was chosen as the anchor man of Breakfast Time (BBC-1) in the face of chaps with more hair and charisma."
[The Guardian]
"Rise and shine with ‘Breakfast Time’! Britain’s first television breakfast show dawns bright and early on Monday morning. And, as editor Ron Neil tells Gay Search, the team will have many ways to get you out of bed and switched on…"
[Radio Times & Transdiffusion]
"Green Goddess Diana Moran, BBC Breakfast Time's energetic aerobics instructor, is interviewed outside Belfast City Hall."
[BBC Rewind]
"Donny Macleod presents a special edition of Pebble Mill At One, focusing on the launch of BBC Breakfast Time."
[BBC Archive]
"‘Frank Bough describes the first few weeks establishing Breakfast Time as like having jet lag without going anywhere,’ but adds, ‘it’s not half as tiring when you are winning.’"
[Transdiffusion]
"Stars from ITV and the BBC tell Adrian Chiles about the heady days of 1983 when Breakfast TV first started broadcasting on British TV."
[BBC Sounds]
Archive
This series went into much more practical detail about how to use home computers for a range of purposes. Each programme looked at examples of computing in the wider world as well as at-home micro applications. The BBC micro itself was used for demonstrations and to display explanatory graphics as well as producing in-vision name superimpositions and the end credits.
[BBC Computer Literacy Project Archive]
"The massive interest after the first two series led the production team to produce Making the Most of the Micro - Live! - a two-hour BBC1 special where viewers' questions were answered and demonstrations of new things were shown live on air. During the programme hackers broke into the live demonstration of electronic mail. There was also a demonstration of the BBC's Telesoftware Service."
[BBC Computer Literacy Project Archive]
Places
"BBC Radio York is a new radio station broadcasting from York City centre across North Yorkshire."
[BBC Rewind]
Programmes
"To mark the 57th anniversary of the discovery of television, a new museum has opened in Swindon. It houses examples of early creations by the Scottish inventor John Logie Baird."[BBC Rewind]
"Lord Winston and Maggie Aderin-Pocock celebrate a century of the BBC Archives and what they have to tell us about our national relationship with science and scientists."[BBC Sounds]
"Julian Barnes reviews two very different interpretations of Cymbeline in the same TV cycle."[The Guardian]
"John Craven visits Ian McNaught-Davis in Studio 4, where preparations for the BBC's ambitious new live computer programme, Micro Live, are well underway."[BBC Archive]
"Two BBC presenters are caught off guard as they try to explain email to viewers at home."[Vice]
""It was much more moving than I thought it was." The author Raymond Briggs discusses BBC Radio 4's adaptation of his apocalyptic graphic novel."[BBC Archive]
"Marshall Lee reports on the 25th anniversary of BBC Radiophonic Workshop in Maida Vale."[BBC Archive]
"TV veterans Peter Fincham and Jon Plowman talk to the writers, producers, and performers behind Britain’s biggest TV comedy hits, and hear the inside story of how they brought their programmes to the screen."[BBC Sounds]
Politics
"To mark the 57th anniversary of the discovery of television, a new museum has opened in Swindon. It houses examples of early creations by the Scottish inventor John Logie Baird."
[BBC Rewind]
"Lord Winston and Maggie Aderin-Pocock celebrate a century of the BBC Archives and what they have to tell us about our national relationship with science and scientists."
[BBC Sounds]
"Julian Barnes reviews two very different interpretations of Cymbeline in the same TV cycle."
[The Guardian]
"John Craven visits Ian McNaught-Davis in Studio 4, where preparations for the BBC's ambitious new live computer programme, Micro Live, are well underway."
[BBC Archive]
"Two BBC presenters are caught off guard as they try to explain email to viewers at home."
[Vice]
""It was much more moving than I thought it was." The author Raymond Briggs discusses BBC Radio 4's adaptation of his apocalyptic graphic novel."
[BBC Archive]
"Marshall Lee reports on the 25th anniversary of BBC Radiophonic Workshop in Maida Vale."
[BBC Archive]
"TV veterans Peter Fincham and Jon Plowman talk to the writers, producers, and performers behind Britain’s biggest TV comedy hits, and hear the inside story of how they brought their programmes to the screen."
[BBC Sounds]
"This Report covers the period April 1982 - March 1983. That this year marked our 60th Anniversary might have led some to expect a period of tranquil reflection on past achievements. those who knew the BBC expected differently and their expectations were more than fulfilled."
[World Radio History]
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