BBC Nine O'Clock News
Encyclopedia
BBC News
BBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
programme launched on 14 September 1970, which ran until 15 October 2000, when it was controversially moved to BBC News at Ten.
The first week was presented by Robert Dougall
Robert Dougall
Robert Dougall MBE was a British broadcaster and ornithologist, mainly known as a newsreader and announcer.-Television news:...
, followed by Richard Baker
Richard Baker (broadcaster)
Richard Baker OBE is a British broadcaster best known as a newsreader for the BBC News from 1954 to 1982. He was a contemporary of Kenneth Kendall and Robert Dougall and was the first person to read the BBC Television News in 1954. At one time he lived in Barnet, North London...
and Kenneth Kendall
Kenneth Kendall
Kenneth Kendall is a retired British broadcaster. He was a contemporary of Richard Baker and Robert Dougall...
, each presenting five consecutive nightly bulletins. The choice of these three was significant as it echoed the first BBC television bulletins of 1955, which they had also presented.
Other famous presenters have included John Edmunds
John Edmunds (presenter)
Professor John Edmunds trained as an actor but is best known as an ABC TV and Associated Rediffusion continuity announcer who later presented BBC Children's TV's Top of the Form, 1966 - 1967. He was a BBC TV newsreader from September 1968 until September 1973, and then again in October 1974 and...
, Peter Woods
Peter Woods
Peter Holmes Woods was a British journalist, reporter and newsreader.-Early life and career:Born in Romford, Essex, Woods was educated at Hull Grammar School and Imperial Service College, Windsor...
, Richard Whitmore
Richard Whitmore
Richard Whitmore is a broadcaster, writer and actor. Whitmore is best known for his work as a BBC newsreader in the 1970s and 1980s...
, Angela Rippon
Angela Rippon
Angela M. Rippon, OBE, born 12 October 1944, Plymouth, Devon, England, is an English television journalist, newsreader, writer and presenter. Rippon presented radio and television news programmes in South West England before moving to BBC One's Nine O'Clock News, becoming a regular presenter in 1975...
, Jan Leeming
Jan Leeming
Jan Leeming is a British TV presenter and newsreader.-Career:Born Janet Atkins in Kent, England, and educated at the St. Joseph's Convent Grammar School, she worked as an actress and presenter in Australia and New Zealand before becoming a well-known face on British television in regional and...
, John Humphrys
John Humphrys
Desmond John Humphrys , is a Welsh-born British author, journalist and presenter of radio and television, who has won many national broadcasting awards...
, John Simpson, Sue Lawley
Sue Lawley
- Early life and education:Born in Sedgley, Staffordshire, England and brought up in the Black Country, she was educated at Dudley Girls High School and graduated in modern languages from the University of Bristol and some time later started her career at the BBC in Plymouth...
, Julia Somerville
Julia Somerville
Julia Mary Fownes Somerville is a British television news anchor and reporter, who has worked for the BBC and ITN.-Education:...
, Moira Stuart
Moira Stuart
Moira Clare Ruby Stuart OBE is a British journalist who was the first African-Caribbean female newsreader on British television...
, Nicholas Witchell
Nicholas Witchell
Nicholas Newton Henshall Witchell is an English journalist. He is the current diplomatic and royal correspondent for BBC News...
, Martyn Lewis
Martyn Lewis (journalist)
Martyn Lewis CBE is a British television news presenter and journalist.-Early life:Lewis was born in Swansea, West Glamorgan, though was educated at the co-educational Dalriada School in Northern Ireland and graduated with a BA degree from Trinity College, Dublin. He then joined BBC Northern...
, Michael Buerk
Michael Buerk
Michael Duncan Buerk is a BBC journalist and newsreader, most famous for his reporting of the Ethiopian famine on 23 October 1984, which inspired the Band Aid charity record.-Early life:...
, Peter Sissons
Peter Sissons
Peter George Sissons is a broadcast journalist in the United Kingdom. He was the presenter of the BBC Nine O'Clock News and the BBC News at Ten between 1993 and 2003, as earlier a newscaster for ITN, providing bulletins on ITV and Channel 4. He is also a former presenter of the BBC's Question Time...
, and George Alagiah
George Alagiah
George Maxwell Alagiah OBE is a British newsreader, journalist and television news presenter.Since 3 December 2007, he has been the sole presenter of the BBC News at Six and has also been the main presenter of GMT on BBC World News since its launch on 1 February 2010...
.
The first Nine O'Clock News was screened on 14 September 1970, having replaced The Main News at 8:45pm in a response to the launch by ITN of the News at Ten. It was the first bulletin to have a closing set of music, other bulletins would link to the weather at the end instead. The set used by the bulletin was designed to differentiate from the day's bulletins, for example in the 7 September 1981, the Nine O'Clock bulletin had a wooden effect whereas bulletins used a plain blue background instead.
In 13 April 1993, as part of a relaunch of all the BBC News
BBC News
BBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
bulletins which created a more uniformed look, along with others, this bulletin had some variety, having a darker set and, like the others, a stereo orchestral version of the previous mono title music. A larger relaunch of all the BBC News
BBC News
BBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
output came in 9 May 1999 when the programme once again shared a common theme and set with the daily programme.
Between 10 May 1999 – 15 October 2000, the programme would be advertised as the BBC News at Nine.
The final bulletin was presented by Peter Sissons
Peter Sissons
Peter George Sissons is a broadcast journalist in the United Kingdom. He was the presenter of the BBC Nine O'Clock News and the BBC News at Ten between 1993 and 2003, as earlier a newscaster for ITN, providing bulletins on ITV and Channel 4. He is also a former presenter of the BBC's Question Time...
.
The show was carried on BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
and inspired a BBC Two
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
comedy show running in the same timeslot to take the name Not the Nine O'Clock News
Not the Nine O'Clock News
Not the Nine O'Clock News is a television comedy sketch show which was broadcast on BBC 2 from 1979 to 1982.Originally shown as a comedy "alternative" to the BBC Nine O'Clock News on BBC 1, it featured satirical sketches on current news stories and popular culture, as well as parody songs, comedy...
.