BBC National News

The 6 'O Clock news was one of the major evening bulletins for BBC1, designed to be the one the whole family can gather round first thing in the evening. This CGI look was introduced to the 6 O' Clock news in the mid eighties, and lasted through until 1993, when another computer generated look was introduced. At the time, each bulletin had it's own unique visual style. Thanks to Darren for this.

From 1992, the ending to the 1 'O Clock news, and a completely different look to this bulletin vs the 6 above.

And now at 9.05, it's time for the 9'O Clock News, hosted here by Martyn Lewis and Michael Buerk. Introduced to the BBC in 1985, this set of titles for the 9pm bulletin lasted through until 1988. Headlines in this edition include continuing talks between Reagan and Gorbachev and an escaped prisoner at Gartree Prison.

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A late bulletin from the BBC in 1990, now under the 'transmitting tower' era of titles, with Martyn Lewis presenting.

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Introduced in 1988, and lasting through until 1993, this set of titles for the Nine O' Clock bulletin saw a much punchier sequence brought in than its predecessor with a transmitting tower blasting out the news for the nation. Headlines from this bulletin in August 1991 presented by Martyn Lewis include Middle East peace talks, Bush warnings against the Soviets in the Ukraine, and the continuing fallout surrounding the BCCI bank raids of the previous month.

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The BBC Nine O' Clock... ish... news from 1992. Although taken from a NICAM recording so with much clearer audio, stereo facilities don't appear to have filtered through to the news by early 1992.

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In 1993, a more consistent look was introduced across the various news bulletins. This opening comes from the BBC's main late bulletin at the time, the 9 'O Clock news. The studio itself was mostly virtual, with most of the illusion of space being created by computer. This setup also made it very easy to alter colours throughout the day. Only a small desk with a background existed in real life, which could often lead to an amusing cockup when, at the end of the news, the computer generated studio moved as the camera panned, but the actual desk shot didn't, hovering eerily over the top in the middle of the screen.

The accompanying ending to the 1996 look. Unlike the 6 'O Clock, the 9 'O Clock news no longer exists today. During the debacle of ITV moving their bulletin to 11pm, the BBC took advantage of the situation to move things to 10 themselves, creating a larger gap for running documentaries, comedy and films in primetime.

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The opening to a short daytime BBC News Bulletin, showing how the 1993-1998 opening looked, after the BBC corporate logo change.

A BBC1 bulletin dating from 2000 during the yellow 'thunderclap' era. Devoid of any specific time mentions due to the weekend slot, and still in 4:3 at this early point, it is introduced here by the national version of the BBC1 balloon clock. Headlines include Tony Blair's 'slight policy shift but not a U-Turn' on GM Crops and flooding in Mozambique.

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In the late 90s, this new corporate look was introduced across the whole of the BBC, even extending to the regional look for the first time, and using the change as an opportunity to integrate the regional and national news headlines seamlessly. Something ITV took several years to catch up on. The BBC were one of the earliest to switch news production to widescreen too, despite the fact that most of the internationally sourced material and their feeds remained in 4:3 for some years so had to be cropped to fit.

2004, and the look of the National News package was updated to match that of the recently changed BBC News 24 and BBC World.

A report from the BBC News at 10 on the day before the big move of news from Television Centre to New Broadcasting House. Taking a look back at some of the reports that have come from TVC over the years, and how things have changed over the past 4 decades of news presentation. The ending to the news ended up a little clunkier than was probably intended due to the regional opt.

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The opening to the News at 10 on the eve of the 2017 General Election, and we're already in the special studio as we look over headlines on the final day of campaigning both nationally and at the local (North West in this case) level.

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Closing the BBC News At 10 on the eve of the critical election of 2017.

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Now for a few oddities from the BBC News stable. First up are the Special opening titles from the BBC's Coverage of the Election in 2001.

The BBC report on the government giving the greenlight in October 2003 for the merger of Granada and Carlton to form ITV plc, with shots from behind the scenes on This Morning at The London Studios. At this point, it still hadn't quite been decided that the Carlton top brass would be forced out as part of the merger, although this power decision that would come up to is alluded to at the end of the report.

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Throughout the afternoon on BBC1, this special set of titles were used to introduce short bulletins which must come from the worst CSO set I have ever seen.

On Easter Saturday 2002, news broke of the sad death of the Queen Mother. In keeping with a plan for such an event, the BBC dropped out of schedules on both BBC One and BBC Two, as well as their international channels, to join a simulcast news special from the BBC National studio. This file shows the cut from the scheduled programme 'Steptoe and Son' on BBC Two which was done a little too early, resulting in several minutes of padding being needed for the second station.

This edition of BBC Four news was shown during the first night simulcast on BBC Two... only they left the ident audio up a little bit too long! This is a programme normally scheduled during weekdays, which is played out on both the domestic BBC Four, and the non-domestic BBC World.