London Tonight

Infobox Television
show_name = London Tonight


caption =
show_name_2 = "London Today"
genre = Regional News
runtime = London Tonight: 30 Minutes
London Today: Varies
creator =
presenter = Alastair Stewart,
Katie Derham
(Main anchors)
network = ITV1 London
country = UK
first_aired = January 4, 1993
last_aired = present
producer = ITN (from 2004)
London News Network (1993-2004)
related =

"London Tonight" is the flagship news programme broadcast to the Carlton/LWT region of the ITV Network. Produced by ITN, it broadcasts at 6pm every weeknight. Like all regional news programmes on ITV in England and Wales and Channel Television, it uses the generic ITV plc font and idents.

The current editor of the programme is Stuart Thomas.

London News Network

London Tonight began on January 4 1993 shortly after Carlton Television won the London weekday franchise from previous holder Thames. The programme was originally produced by London News Network in association with LWT and Carlton. LNN was established to provide a united, seven day, Channel 3 news service for London. Its creation established a continuity between the once different brands of weekend and weekday news, weather and sport.

On screen, the only difference between the Weekday and Weekend programmes became the endcap. Programmes featured the Carlton or LWT Logo beside the London News Network Logo. This continued after the onscreen identities of Carlton London and LWT were scrapped by owners Carlton and Granada in anticipation of a merger. Instead of being referred to as LWT and Carlton, ITV London (weekend) and ITV London (weekday) became the respective names and all onscreen idents referred to ITV1 London.

ITV London (weekday) and ITV London (weekend) owners Carlton and Granada merged, forming ITV plc and LNN was dissolved soon after this. Production for all "ITV London News" Programmes remained at The London Studios (formerly known as the LWT South Bank Centre) until 2004. Production is now conducted by the national Channel 3 news franchisee ITN at their headquarters in Central London, making the region unique as it holds the only franchise operation not to produce its own in-house news programmes.

On air

"London Today/Tonight" airs on ITV1 London seven days a week.

London Today

ITV London provides three news bulletins during GMTV. The 7-minute mid-morning bulletin airs at 11:15am immediately after an ITV News Summary, during "This Morning". The lunchtime bulletin follows on from the "ITV Lunchtime News", giving a five minute round-up of the days developments from 1:55pm.

London Tonight

The main evening edition of "London Tonight" begins at 6.00pm, and ends at 6.30pm. The late edition follows the "News at Ten", airing between 10.30pm and 10.45pm, Mondays to Thursdays, and between 11.30pm and 11.45pm on Fridays, after "The Late News". The late bulletins run for around fifteen minutes.

Weekend bulletins

"London Today/Tonight" airs four bulletins at weekends: two on Saturday, at lunchtime, and late afternoon, and two on Sunday: at lunchtime and the evening edition at 6.25pm.

Online

All bulletins and extended features, as well as weather and entertainment news, are available through ITV Local.

The team

Currently, the "London Today/Tonight" on-air team consists of the following:

Main anchors

*Katie Derham
*Alastair Stewart

Weekday bulletin presenters

*Phil Gayle
*Jon Gilbert
*Jackie Kabler
*Sangeeta Kandola
*Chris Rogers

Weekend presenters

*Steve Gaisford
*Jasmine Lowson

Relief/freelance presenters

*Faye Barker
*Salma Siraj
*Romilly Weeks
*Ben Scotchbrook

Weather presenters

*Chrissie Reidy
*Robin McCallum
*Manali Lukha
*Philippa Drew (Occasional Cover)

Reporters

Specialist correspondents
*Simon Harris (Political)
*Ben Scotchbrook ("London Life")
*Lucy Cotter (Entertainment)General reporters
*Glen Goodman
*Phil Bayles
*Liz Wickham
*Lewis Vaughan Jones
*Paul Larsmon
*Marcus Powle
*Ronke Phillips

Past presenters

*Anna Maria Ashe
*Lucy Alexander
*Ashley Blake
*Lindsay Charlton
*Nick Clark
*Fiona Foster (now with "The Tonight Programme")
*Sally Gilbert
*Paul Green
*Nina Hossain (on maternity leave)
*Natasha Kaplinsky (now with Five News)
*Mike Liggins
*Graham Miller
*Mary Nightingale (now with ITV News)
*Angus Scott (now with Setanta)
*Tamzin Sylvester
*Owen Thomas (now with CNN)
*Jonathan Wills (now with Anglia Tonight)

External links

* [http://www.itvlocal.com/london/news/ ITV London News] at itvlocal.com
* [http://www.itn.co.uk/itv_london_news ITV London News] at ITN.co.uk
* [http://londontonighttonight.blogspot.com "London Tonight" Blog]