Last 55 Years of ITN’s News at Ten analysed under the microscope

One of News at Tens early news presenters Sandy Gall (above) with his most distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George (photo: Getty Images)

‘It gets to heart of stories and tells them in an eyewitness way, taking viewers to the centre of the action but also giving human accounts of the experiences.’

Some 55 years ago a national institution was born.

At 10pm on July 3 1967 the bongs of Big Ben heralded a new format in the delivery of news for the UK and ITN’s News at Ten made its debut.

Steve Cain takes a nostalgic look back at Britain’s favourite news programme.

The sight of the Elizabeth Tower clock-face, followed by the sound of Big Ben’s bongs and the rousing, dramatic theme The Awakening has been inextricably associated with News at Ten for generations.

ITV’s flagship nightly news programme has a reputation for an award-winning combination of in-depth, analytical news coverage and populist stories, and it is a staple of the television schedules.

However, when it began, its future was far from assured.

The bosses at ITV disagreed with Geoffrey Cox (ITN’s editor) that the channel should be broadcasting a thirty-minute nightly news bulletin, but the Independent Television Authority overruled them.

Reluctantly, News at Ten was given a 13-week Monday-to-Friday trial run.

The first programme was broadcast on what had been a hot July day and the rooftop studio, which didn’t have any air-conditioning, was filled with electric fans and ice trays in an attempt to keep newscasters Alastair Burnet and Andrew Gardner cool.

Alastair Burnett (above) one of the original News at Ten broadcast presenters (photo: Getty Images)

It was a slow news week and the programme had little to cover in its first few editions. At the end of the first week, there were those among the moguls at ITV who wanted to pull the programme off the air by the following Monday.

Steadily, though, audiences grew to seven million every night and, after only ten weeks, they were at ten million. ITV conceded to make News at Ten a permanent feature.

By the summer of 1969, all five editions of the programme were rating in the top ten most watched programmes of the week, with twelve million viewers regularly tuning in.

“The ratings were very high in those early days,” said former reporter and newscaster Sandy Gall.