Sixty Minutes (British TV programme)

Last updated

Sixty Minutes
Bbc-sixty-minutes-logo.jpg
Created by BBC News
Presented by Nick Ross,
Desmond Wilcox,
Sarah Kennedy,
Sally Magnusson,
Jan Leeming,
Moira Stuart,
Richard Whitmore
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
Production
Production location London
Running time60 minutes
Original release
Network BBC1
Release24 October 1983 (1983-10-24) –
27 July 1984 (1984-07-27)
Related

Sixty Minutes is a defunct news and current affairs programme which ran each weekday at 5:40 pm from 24 October 1983 to 27 July 1984 on BBC1. It replaced Nationwide , and integrated the BBC's main regional news magazines into a single programme, as per its predecessor.

However, the BBC's News department stoutly maintained its independence from their colleagues in Current Affairs, and the first 15 minutes of news was almost a separate entity, followed by around 20 minutes of regional news before the final 25 minutes of national current affairs. Accordingly, the format was unwieldy, with neither the conciseness of a bulletin nor the soft approach of the show's predecessor, Nationwide.

The editor, David Lloyd, poached Nick Ross from the highly popular Breakfast Time to front the show, along with Desmond Wilcox, Sarah Kennedy, and Sally Magnusson. Kennedy was unable to join the team at the programme's launch, but eventually began to present Sixty Minutes after Wilcox was dismissed, just seven weeks into the show's run.

The news bulletins were usually broadcast from a separate studio at BBC Television Centre and presented by either Jan Leeming, Moira Stuart or Richard Whitmore. The opening titles were designed by Terry Hylton and produced by the Computer Film Company.

As with its predecessor Nationwide, Sixty Minutes was also responsible for the evening regional news output for London and the South East. Whereas all the other BBC regions had their own dedicated news bulletins, Sixty Minutes presenters would read the latest news for London and the South East, simply titled "South East". [1] [2]

The programme was not well received, and although its ratings eventually began to improve, the final edition aired on Friday 27 July 1984. Throughout August, BBC1 reverted to placing the BBC Evening News at 5.40 pm followed by the regional news magazines, before launching a new schedule on 3 September 1984 with the Six O'clock News ; that programme remains in place as of 2022. Arguably, another legacy of Sixty Minutes was the eventual integration of the BBC News and Current Affairs departments.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BBC One</span> British television channel

BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, primetime drama and entertainment, and live BBC Sport events.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BBC London</span> BBC services in London

BBC London is the BBC English Region producing local radio, television, teletext and online services in London and parts of the surrounding area. Its output includes the daily BBC London news bulletin and weekly Sunday Politics on television, the BBC Radio London radio station and local coverage of the London area on BBC Online and BBC Red Button. The region's headquarters are situated in the new eastern extension of the BBC's Broadcasting House.

This is a timeline of the history of the British Broadcasting Corporation.

<i>1News</i> News division of TVNZ of New Zealand

1News is the news division of New Zealand television network TVNZ. The programme is broadcast live from TVNZ Centre in Auckland. The flagship news bulletin is the nightly 6 pm news hour, but 1News also has late night news bulletins, as well as current affairs shows such as Breakfast and Seven Sharp.

<i>BBC Reporting Scotland</i> BBC television news programme for Scotland

BBC Reporting Scotland is the BBC's national television news programme for Scotland, broadcast on BBC One Scotland from the headquarters of BBC Scotland in Pacific Quay, Glasgow.

<i>RTÉ News: Six One</i> Irish television news programme

RTÉ News: Six One is RTÉ's evening news programme broadcast on the Irish television channel RTÉ One and simulcast on the RTÉ News channel at 6:01pm. The bulletin airs until 7pm on Monday to Friday and until 6:30pm on Saturday and Sunday, when it is styled as RTÉ News and Sport. Six One airs after Nuacht RTÉ, which airs at 5:40pm, and The Angelus at 6pm. It is co-presented by Sharon Tobin and David McCullagh, the former co-presenter of current affairs programme Prime Time.

<i>Nationwide</i> (TV programme) British news and current affairs programme

Nationwide is a BBC current affairs television programme which ran from 9 September 1969 until 5 August 1983. Originally broadcast on BBC1 from Tuesday to Thursday, and then each weekday from 1972, it followed the early evening news, and included the regional opt-out news programmes.

<i>BBC South Today</i> British TV news programme (since 1961)

BBC South Today is the BBC's regional television news service for the south of England, covering Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, West Sussex, much of Dorset and parts of Surrey and Wiltshire. The service is produced and broadcast from the BBC South's Broadcasting House on Havelock Road in Southampton with district newsrooms based in Brighton, Dorchester, Guildford, Oxford, Reading, and Swindon.

<i>BBC News at Six</i> BBCs flagship evening news programme

The BBC News at Six is the BBC's evening news programme on British television channels BBC One and BBC News, broadcast weeknights at 6:00pm and produced by BBC News. It is normally broadcast for 30 minutes, except on bank holidays when it may be shorter and only shown on BBC One. For a long period, the BBC News at Six was the most watched news programme in the UK but since 2006 it has been overtaken by the BBC News at Ten. On average it is watched by four million viewers.

<i>BBC Look North</i> (Yorkshire and North Midlands) British TV news programme (since 1968)

BBC Look North is the BBC's regional television news service for West, South and North Yorkshire and northern parts of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. The service is produced and broadcast from the BBC Broadcasting Centre at St. Peter's Square in Leeds with district newsrooms based in Bradford, Sheffield and York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BBC South</span>

BBC South is the BBC English Region serving Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Dorset, West Sussex, Oxfordshire, Berkshire and parts of Gloucestershire, Buckinghamshire, Northamptonshire, Surrey, and Wiltshire, with geographic coverage varying between digital, television and radio services.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BBC South East</span> Region of the BBC in England

BBC South East is the BBC English region serving Kent, East Sussex, parts of West Sussex and Surrey.

<i>Coast to Coast</i> (British TV programme) 1982 English TV series or programme

Coast to Coast was the flagship regional news programme produced by TVS, covering the south and southeast of England with separate news services for both parts of the dual-region between 1 January 1982 and 31 December 1992.

This is a list of events in Scottish television from 1983.

This is a list of events in Scottish television from 1984.

This is a timeline of television in London.

A timeline of notable events relating to BBC Television News.

This is a timeline of the history of television news in the UK.

Tonight is a BBC television current affairs programme that was shown on weekday nights from 1 September 1975 until 5 July 1979 on BBC1. It was initially presented by Sue Lawley, Denis Tuohy and Donald MacCormick and reporters included John Pitman, Richard Kershaw, David Lomax, David Jessel and Michael Delahaye. Michael Bunce was the programme's first editor. Unlike its predecessor also called Tonight which was shown in the early evening, this programme was generally the last BBC1 programme each evening and appeared at variable times. It took over from the 24 Hours programme, also on BBC1 in late evenings, and ran in the same years as the BBC's Nationwide which was shown early evening.

References

  1. ↑ "TVARK | BBC South East Early Years | News". www2.tv-ark.org.uk. Archived from the original on 17 November 2011.
  2. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 23 June 2015. Retrieved 22 June 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.