Tonight (1957 TV programme)

Last updated

Tonight
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Production
Producers
Original release
Release18 February 1957 (1957-02-18) –
18 June 1965 (1965-06-18)

Tonight was a British current affairs television programme, presented by Cliff Michelmore, that was broadcast on BBC live on weekday evenings from 18 February 1957 to 18 June 1965. The producers were the future Controller of BBC1 Donald Baverstock and the future Director-General of the BBC Alasdair Milne. The audience was typically seven million viewers.

Contents

Background

Tonight like Six-Five Special , was created by the BBC to fill in the "Toddlers' Truce" closed period between 6.00pm and 7.00pm (the "Truce" was officially abolished only a few days before Tonight was first broadcast). Tonight began broadcasting from the Viking studio in Kensington, known by the BBC as "studio M". It eventually transferred to one of the main studios in Lime Grove, Shepherd's Bush, west London. [1]

Content and style

The programme covered the arts and sciences as well as topical matters and current affairs. There was a mixture of incisive and light-hearted items: unscripted studio interviews, by Derek Hart, Geoffrey Johnson-Smith and Michelmore himself; and filmed reports. Reporters included Alan Whicker, Fyfe Robertson, Kenneth Allsop, Chris Brasher, Julian Pettifer, Brian Redhead and Polly Elwes.

The style was informal with no attempt to hide studio equipment. Michelmore gave a very relaxed performance, sometimes perching on the edge of his desk, seemingly unfazed by the ringing of his desk telephone letting him know about technical problems. There were regular appearances by Rory McEwen, Cy Grant, singing a "topical calypso", and folk singers Robin Hall and Jimmie Macgregor. Michelmore became known for his catchphrase when closing the show, "That's all for tonight, the next 'Tonight' will be tomorrow night. Until then, good night!" [2]

It was during an edition of Tonight broadcast on the evening of Friday 22 November 1963 that BBC television broke the news of the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy to UK viewers, although Granada Television had already broadcast the news in its northern ITV region.

In 1964, Bob Dylan appeared on the programme and sang With God on Our Side. [3]

Accolades

The programme received the Guild of Television Producers and Directors Awards (now BAFTA) for Best Factual Programme in 1957 and 1958. [4] [5]

Tonight (1975 TV programme)

A new programme under the name, presented by Sue Lawley, Denis Tuohy and Donald MacCormick, was launched on BBC1 in September 1975, in a late evening slot. When Lawley left to have a baby, Valerie Singleton replaced her on the show, which continued until July 1979. [6] Newsnight , which was intended to launch two months later but ended up launching six months later in January 1980 on BBC2, was its replacement.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BBC Two</span> Television channel operated by the BBC

BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream and popular BBC One.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lime Grove Studios</span> Former film studios located in London

Lime Grove Studios was a film, and later television, studio complex in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sue Lawley</span> British broadcaster

Susan Lawley is a retired English television and radio broadcaster. Her main broadcasting background involved television news and current affairs. From 1988–2006, Lawley was the presenter of Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio 4.

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

BBC Birmingham is one of the oldest regional arms of the BBC, located in Birmingham. It was the first region outside London to start broadcasting both the corporation's radio and television transmissions, the latter from the Sutton Coldfield television transmitter.

<i>BBC North West Tonight</i> BBC television news programme for North West England

BBC North West Tonight is the BBC's regional television news programme covering North West England and the Isle of Man. Produced by BBC North West, the programme broadcasts from the BBC's MediaCityUK studios at Salford Quays, with district newsrooms based in Liverpool, Blackburn and Chester.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cliff Michelmore</span> English television presenter (1919–2016)

Arthur Clifford Michelmore was an English television presenter and producer.

<i>Wogan</i> 1982–1992 British television chat show

Wogan is a British television talk show which was broadcast on BBC1 from 1982 to 1992 and presented by Terry Wogan. It was usually broadcast live from the BBC Television Theatre in Shepherd's Bush, London, until 1991. It was then broadcast from the BBC Television Centre (TVC). Some shows were pre-recorded and then broadcast unedited "as live". Wogan ended its run in July 1992 and was replaced in the schedule by the soap opera Eldorado.

<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 BBC 1 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 News at Six</i> British TV series or 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> (North East and Cumbria) BBC television news programme

BBC Look North is the BBC's regional television news service for North East England, Cumbria and parts of North Yorkshire. The service is produced and broadcast from the BBC Broadcasting Centre on Barrack Road in Newcastle upon Tyne with district newsrooms based in Carlisle, Durham, Middlesbrough and York.

<i>Breakfast Time</i> (British TV programme) Television series

Breakfast Time is British television's first national breakfast television programme. It was broadcast from 17 January 1983 until 29 September 1989 on BBC1 across the United Kingdom. It was broadcast for the first time just over two weeks before TV-am, the commercial breakfast television station.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BBC North West</span> Region of the British Broadcasting Corporation

BBC North West is the BBC English Region serving Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside, North Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Staffordshire, Cumbria and the Isle of Man.

The Toddlers' Truce was an early British television scheduling policy that required transmissions to terminate for an hour each weekday between 6.00pm and 7.00pm – after the end of children's broadcasting and the start of the evening programmes – so that young children could be put to bed. The policy lasted throughout the post-war period until 16 February 1957. It was named after toddlers, children aged between 12 and 36 months.

24 Hours or Twenty-Four Hours was a long-running, late-evening, weekdaily news magazine programme that aired on BBC1. It focused on analysis and criticism of current affairs, and featured in-depth short documentary films that set the style for current-affairs magazine programmes. 24 Hours launched on 4 October 1965 and focused on investigative journalism. The programme's main presenter was Cliff Michelmore.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British television Apollo 11 coverage</span> British TV series or programme

British television coverage of the Apollo 11 mission, humanity's first to land on the Moon, lasted from 16 to 24 July 1969. All three UK television channels, BBC1, BBC2 and ITV, provided extensive coverage. Most of the footage covering the event from a British perspective has now been wiped or lost.

This is a list of British television related events from 1991.

<i>Whirligig</i> (TV series) British TV programme for children

Whirligig was a BBC television programme for children broadcast from November 1950 until 1956. It was the first children's programme to be broadcast live from the BBC's Lime Grove Studios, at 5:00 pm on alternate Saturdays.

This is a timeline of television in Northern Ireland.

A timeline of notable events relating to BBC Television News.

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

References

  1. ↑ History of TV Studios - Lime Grove, retrieved 18 February 2010.
  2. ↑ Tonight, whirligig-tv.co.uk. Retrieved 25 May 2009.
  3. ↑ TheRoute19. Bob Dylan- BBC Tonight Show- With God on Our Side (1964). Archived from the original on 19 June 2012 – via YouTube.{{cite AV media}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  4. ↑ "BAFTA Awards".
  5. ↑ "BAFTA Awards".
  6. ↑ BBC Genome Project - BBC1 listings 5 July 1979
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.