BBC North West Tonight
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| North West Tonight | |
|---|---|
 Programme titles since 2008 |
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| Also known as | North West Today |
| Format | Regional News |
| Presented by | Gordon Burns Ranvir Singh |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | BBC North West |
| Running time | Main edition: 30 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | BBC One North West |
| Original airing | 3 September 1984 - |
BBC North West Tonight is a nightly regional news programme covering the North West of England and the Isle of Man. Produced by BBC North West, the programme airs at 6.30pm every weekday evening and also at 10:25pm following the BBC News at Ten and at the weekend. There are also breakfast, lunchtime and mid-afternoon bulletins on weekdays, known as North West Today.
North West Tonight is broadcast from the BBC's Manchester studios at the New Broadcasting House on Oxford Road with reporters also based at newsrooms in Liverpool, Blackburn and Chester.
The main signal for the programme comes from the Winter Hill transmitter near Horwich. North West Tonight has ratings of around 550,000 for the 6:30 bulletin. The programme's editor is Jim Clarke.
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[edit] BBC North West region
The BBC North West region covers Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Lancashire, Cheshire, southern parts of Cumbria, the Yorkshire Dales, the Peak District, northern Staffordshire and the Isle of Man. It is also the preferred region on Deeside and in Flintshire. Transmitters in the extremes of West Yorkshire, covering towns like Todmorden previously broadcast this regional version but now now are covered by BBC Look North, Calendar. The programme can be watched in any part of the UK (and Europe) on digital satellite channel 978 on the BBC UK regional TV on satellite service.
Between 1986 and 1989, North West Tonight covered the whole of Cumbria but after campaigning by viewers, the area was returned to a reformed BBC North East and Cumbria region.
[edit] History
BBC television news from Manchester began on 30th September 1957 with a nightly programme entitled News from the North, broadcast to the whole of Northern England (incorporating the current BBC North West, Yorkshire & North Midlands, East Yorkshire & Lincolnshire and North East & Cumbria regions).
The programme was relaunched in 1962 as North at 6 (latterly Look North), extended to 20 minutes and re-focused to cover the North West and Yorkshire areas following the launch of a separate North East & Cumbria programme entitled Home at 6.
On 28th March 1968, the Manchester edition of Look North was again re-focused to cover the North West area only following the launch of a second Look North programme from Leeds. The programme was renamed in 1980 as Look North West with News Northwest introduced for shorter bulletins a year later.
North West Tonight was introduced on 3rd September 1984 to co-incide with the launch of the BBC Six O'Clock News.
[edit] Broadcast times
[edit] North West Today
On weekdays, breakfast bulletins air as part of BBC Breakfast at 27 and 57 minutes past the hour, between 6:27am and 9:00am. The 15-minute lunchtime programme airs at 1:30pm, following the BBC News at One. A three-minute mid-afternoon update is broadcast just after 3pm. An short lunchtime bulletin is also broadcast on Saturdays.
[edit] North West Tonight
The main edition of North West Tonight is broadcast every weeknight between 6.30pm and 7.00pm. A short 30-second headline updates airs at 8pm and the six-minute late bulletin is broadcast each weeknight at 10:25pm, following the BBC News at Ten. North West Tonight also airs short early evening bulletins on Saturday and Sunday evenings, although times usually vary. A late night bulletin is also broadcast on Sundays, following the BBC News at Ten.
[edit] Current team
Currently, the North West Tonight/Today on-air team consists of:
[edit] Main newscasters
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[edit] Bulletin newscasters
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[edit] Sports team
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[edit] Weather presenters
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[edit] Reporters
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District correspondents
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Specialist correspondents
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General reporters
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[edit] Former presenters/reporters
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[edit] September 2007 Relaunch
The programme was relaunched on Monday 10 September 2007. Ranvir Singh joined Gordon Burns as co-presenter on the main evening edition and a new set was revealed along with new titles and on-screen graphics. The webcam view of Oxford Road which was shown on a large screen ('window') behind Gordon since 2000 did not feature in the new set.
North West Tonight used it own in-house title sequences and graphics featuring images from across the region, Town and City names and 'data streams' flowing throughout the North West and resolving on a map of the region, which symbolises this web of News.
Coinciding with the relaunch, Gordon launched a newsletter which viewers can subscribe to receive by email.
In line with a re-branding of BBC News national, international & regional programmes, North West Tonight's distinctive titles & graphics were axed after only seven months and replaced on Monday 21 April 2008 by the standard BBC News English regional titles.[1] The new titles featured the images of the North West used in the previous titles and was combined with a reworked version of the music used in the 2000 opening titles. The re-brand has attracted criticism as a waste of licence-fee money, only seven months after a much-hyped new look was launched.[2]
[edit] North West Today weather game
Every weekday, the presenter of the lunchtime BBC North West Today (usually Gordon Burns) played a word game with the weather presenter standing next to his desk. The weather presenter at lunchtime was usually Nichola Dixon, who presented her report and included in it a secret word. The secret word was an anagram of the first letters of placenames shown on the map. After the report finished, Gordon Burns had to guess what the word was. The weather game was said to increase interest in watching the local weather. It has not been continued since Dixon's departure from the programme.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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