BBC London News

"For other uses of the BBC London brand, see BBC London (disambiguation)."Infobox Television
show_name = BBC London News


caption = BBC London titles
format = Regional News
picture_format = | 720x576 anamorphic 16:9
runtime = Main bulletin:
30 minutes
presenter = Riz Lateef
(Main presenter)
channel = BBC One London
first_aired = 2001
last_aired =
present
producer = BBC London
related = "Newsroom South East"

"BBC London News" (referred to onscreen as "BBC London") is the BBC's regional television news programme for the English region encompassing London and surrounding suburbs.

History

The programme launched on 1 October 2001 after a major reorganisation of the BBC's South East region, with the London area splitting away to form its own separate region. The previous programme, "Newsroom South East", had gradually decreased in its coverage as certain areas were switched to receive over regional news programmes. A brand new programme for the new South East region, "South East Today" launched shortly before Newsroom South East, effectively broadcasting solely to the London area, became "BBC London News".

During planning, the programme for London had been named "London Live", also at the time the name of the region's BBC Local Radio station; titles were produced by the Lambie-Nairn design agency but never shown onscreen. [cite web|url=http://www.tvradiobits.co.uk/news/london.htm|title=TV & Radio Bits - BBC South East - BBC London News|accessdate=2007-05-07]

The eventual title became "BBC London", though the programme is always referred to by presenters as "BBC London News", while programme titles were originally "BBC LDN": an abbreviation of 'London'.

The area created for the BBC London programme to broadcast to now covers a much more tightly-defined area, chiefly Greater London but still including parts of Bedfordshire, Essex, and Hertfordshire in the East of England region and parts of Buckinghamshire, Kent, Berkshire, Surrey and Sussex in the South East England region. There is also some overlap with the editorial areas of other BBC regions in this part of England. Parts of Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Wiltshire, Northamptonshire, Berkshire and Gloucestershire now take an opt-out of South Today [cite web|url=http://www.tvradiobits.co.uk/news/southeast3.htm|title=TV & Radio Bits - BBC South East - South Today|accessdate=2007-04-03] , while most of Kent and East Sussex is now covered by the new BBC South East region based in Tunbridge Wells, which produces "South East Today". [cite web|url=http://www.tvradiobits.co.uk/news/southeast2.htm|title=TV & Radio Bits - BBC South East - South East Today|accessdate=2007-04-03]

Content

The "BBC London News" programme broadcasts daily on BBC One, appearing with short bulletins during "BBC Breakfast", after the "BBC News at One" and after the "BBC News at Ten". The flagship programme is broadcast between 18:30 and 18:55 each weekday evening, following the end of the "BBC News at Six" and is presented by Riz Lateef.

Lateef superseded Emily Maitlis who had been the main presenter of the flagship programme from launch until March 2006 when she left to join BBC News and BBC Two's "Newsnight".

Weather forecasts are normally provided by former BBC national forecaster Peter Cockroft, as the region's dedicated weather forecaster, though in Cockroft's absence, a national BBC Weather forecaster presents from the BBC's Weather studio at Television Centre. The forecast is normally presented from the roof of the programme's production base at 35c Marylebone High Street, London W1, which is also the home of BBC London 94.9, but Peter Cockcroft is also regularly seen from some of the events or outside broadcasts on the programme, a practice common in regional programming.

An update to the programme's set on 1 March 2004 saw the addition of a desk and the slight alteration of the programme titles to read 'BBC London' rather than 'BBC LDN'. Until this time, BBC London News was the only one out of all the other regional news programmes to not have a desk within the studio. The presentational style now included a bar-like counter for interviews with guests in the studio, with both presenters and guests shown seated though the camera angles used meant presenters were normally shown full body, while guests seated on the other side of the counter were the traditional "talking heads". The original style of set has since been copied by other national and regional programmes including "Reporting Scotland".

BBC London refreshed its brand identity completely on 12 December 2005, with a new title sequence designed by Red Bee Media and theme music composed by David Lowe. The titles now involve a series of videos showing different parts of London life, separated by a white translucent band which crosses the screen until the BBC London logo appears. The title shots change every single night to reflect landmarks and activities that symbolise home for a potential audience of more than 11 million people - bigger than Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland combined.

Comparisons are inevitably made to the commercial TV regional competition, in this case ITV1's "London Tonight", which is produced for ITV by ITN. The title sequence of the latter programme also incorporates shots of London; it has to be said the landmarks in the ITV titles are perhaps rather more familiar than the somewhat vague visual representations of London life chosen for the BBC programme. However, criticism of the rebranding was very limited.

A major update to the studio on 26 March 2007 saw the whole studio move to the [presenter's] right, a new small red table in the centre, with "LONDON" printed on the front, and a new screen added. The most noticeable change, however, was the fact that the presenter was now given a chair on which to sit rather than stand for the duration of the programme. The screen is very similar to the type used by BBC News until 2006 in their national studios, and the travel presenters present the travel news standing next to the screen. Reporters occasionally make their reports from the screen, similar to BBC News.

The programme can be viewed in any part of the UK (and Europe) on digital satellite channel 974 on the BBC UK regional TV on satellite service.

References

ee also

*List of BBC London presenters and reporters

External links

*bbc.co.uk|id=london/news|title=BBC London