ARCHIVE: The TV Room, YouTube: emitron36
Something of a back to basics revamp of BBC News took place exactly 50 years ago this week.
Changes to the Nine o’Clock News made in 1972 were abandoned.
It was goodbye to the use of two presenters and a superimposed newsroom background which, to modern eyes at least, looks both cluttered and quite amateurish.
The same newsreader was scheduled for all three main BBC One bulletins each day to try to give a greater sense of continuity.
A conscious effort was made to keep the visual style as simple as possible – both in terms of storytelling technique and the avoidance of visual gimmicks.
There were also a few purely cosmetic changes. These included a new background behind the newsreader – a warmer wooden brown replaced the grey panels seen on shorter bulletins since 1970.
There were also changes to the names of programmes but these should not be overstated.
The lunchtime news, which had been extended to 15 minutes a few weeks earlier, became known as the Midday News. Previously it had no programme title.
The 5.45pm bulletin, billed in Radio Times as the National News to distinguish it from the regional news which followed but not branded with this title on air, took up the name Evening News. It was brought forward to 5.40pm six months later when ITN launched the News at 5.45.
The interesting thing about these changes was that they seemed to be flowing against the tide.
Was too much attention being paid to the pictures themselves at the expense of clear storytelling?
Remember this was an era before Electronic News Gathering (ENG) was in use and years before computer graphics.
Film had to be processed and developed.
The changes split Radio Times readers. Some welcomed them, others saw them as a step backwards.
Today lightweight equipment, advanced computer graphics, satellite and the internet make it immeasurably easier to try to make the news visually interesting.
But these tools can never be a replacement for clear writing, accuracy and good storytelling.
Fashions come and go. Individual editors have preferences.
But the building blocks of the best TV packaging are timeless.
Modern technology should make it easier to harness the power of a visual medium to tell the day’s news clearly without either resorting to gimmickry or ruling out important material because it could be dull TV.
Acknowledgements
PICTURED: >em>BBC News opening titles (1976 - 1979). COURTESY: YouTube Channel - emitron36. COPYRIGHT: BBC.
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