1970s
Look North Manchester1970s
The Holme Moss transmitter was brought into service on 12th October 1951 extending the BBC Television service to the North of England. The regional news magazine was originally Look North. Early presenters and reporters included Stuart Hall, Charles Farmer, Nick Clarke and David Davies.
1980s
Some behind the scenes shots of the Look North set in Studio N, Broadcasting House, Piccadilly, Manchester.
1981
Look North West1.5.1981
By 1981 Look North was renamed Look North West to avoid confusion for neighbouring viewers in Yorkshire. Here are the opening titles from 1st May 1981, and on the soundtrack is production talkback from the local studio (Studio N, Manchester) and in the background programme sound.
The order of events on BBC1 was: 17.40 early Evening News and weather from London, 18.00 Nationwide brief intro (i.e. teaser), 18.00.45 Regions optout of London for local news, 18.25 Regions opt back in to Nationwide, 18.59 Regions optout for local trailer, 19.00 Regions opt back in to London (these timings may be out by a minute or two....). So what you see here is the end of the brief Nationwide intro, then the optout to Look North West, the titles and the start of the lead story.
The last main edition of Look North West broadcast from the BBC's Piccadilly studio N was on Friday 15th May 1981. David Davies and John Mundy presented the very last programme "Sports North West" the following day on Saturday 16th 1981.
1981 - 1983
The first Look North West to come from the BBC's Oxford Road Studio B was Monday 18th May 1981.
Look North West1981
In 1981 BBC regional news said goodbye to Broadcasting House and joined their network production colleagues in New Broadcasting House on Oxford Road. They were the first programme to move into a brand new studio - Studio B which was finished in 1981. As the studio was considered so big, it was shared with other programmes such as Open Air and Russell Harty.
A big thanks to BBC North West for supplying us with these clips.
right clip - is a clean version of "News North West"
News North West1982
The shortened version of the above "Look Northwest" titles from 1981. Doesn't John look young in this?
Unlike many other BBC Regions at the time BBC North West used an actual title sequence for it's lunchtime bulletins and not a slide or straight in after the globe.
Right clip - Bulletin end with a nice weather slide too!
These behind the scenes pictures show the Look North West set in it's new home of Studio B, New Broadcasting House, Manchester.
1983 - 1984
Look North West1983
Short but snappy titles from BBC North West. Superb piece of music. Look North West presenters included Stuart Hall, David Davies, Martin Henfield and John Mundy.
News North West1983
The short news sting.
The look of all these airbrushed logos and graphic sequences were designed by Peter Phillips
1984 - 1988
North West Tonight1985
3rd September 1984 and Look North West was no more. In came North West Tonight, complete with a map of the North West in the titles, so no change there!
This look ran from 1984 - 1988
North West Tonight Trail1986
The face of John Mundy in 1986 with a trail for the programme before The Six O'clock News
North West Tonight1987 Here is Phil Sayer with a special edition of North West Tonight.
right clip - Phil with a late bulletin.
1988 - 1991
North West Tonight - with Stuart Hall and John Mundy. Like Morcambe and Wise or Laurel and Hardy, BBC North West had Stuart and John (The North West "Dream Team")! The duo presented North West Tonight for many years, broken only when Stuart left for Granada. Stuart Hall is now presenting "Hall's Heroes" for Manchester's local channel - Channel M.
Around this time North West Tonight was the most watched local programme outside of London and was voted 'Europes best regional news programme' partly due to it's extensive populated region, serving over 7 million viewers in Lancashire, Merseyside, Greater Manchester, Cheshire, South Cumbria and North Derbyshire.
North West Tonight1988 Left clip - NWT moves to early computer graphics for the titles. Featuring a neon 'NW' which also became the logo for BBC North West as a whole and adorned the front of Broadcasting House in Manchester. It became known as the 'bonking worms'
As a treat, the right clip displays Stuart's closing line on every programme, wishing us "a fond farewell"!
Examples of content graphics...
Open Air1987
Open Air takes a behind the scenes look at the newsroom in BBC Manchester.
Back in the 1980s North West Tonight used to share Studio B in Manchester with Open Air and 'People Today'. Open Air utilised one half of the studio from early morning till afternoons.
1991 - 1992
North West Tonight1991 North West Tonight with John Mundy and Cathy Smith from 1991, now minus Stuart Hall. I Don't quite know what to say about this one. Hmm, I know, very colourful! Let's leave it at that. Mind you, could the background to the titles be a ceiling tile?!
Winifred Robinson would also co-anchor with Cathy when John Mundy was off
North West Tonight1991 Here is John Mundy and Cathy Smith again from 1991... It's the night of Children In Need, and Cathy takes us throught to Studio A to see the preparations.
North West Tonight1991 Cathy Smith and Winifred Robinson with and opening and closing sequence of North West Tonight from 1991.
Breakfast Bulletin1991 North West Update - Nigel Jay
1991 North West Update - Phil Sayer
1991 Trail - Cathy Smith
1991
Late - Charles Lambert1991 Trail - Phil Sayer
1991 Trail - Felicity Goodey
1992 Breakfast - Nigel Jay
1992
examples of content graphics
1992 - 1993
In February 1990 BBC North West, BBC North and BBC North East, became BBC North, to release managerial and administrative savings. The new region became the biggest programnme making operation outside London, making more than 600 hours of network tv for BBC 1&2 and over 600 hours of regional tv mostly for BBC1. The headquarters were based in Manchester.
The new BBC North now had a new logo based on an original concept by in-house BBC designer Andy Frith. It's 3 interlocking rectangles symbolise the three regions (North East, North West, Yorkshire and Humberside) and also the three 'lozenges' of the BBC logo. The logo was incorporated across vehicles, stationery and regional programmes including the region's newly formed current affairs programme 'Close up North'
North West Tonight1993 North West Tonight - with John Mundy and Felicity Goodey, other regular presenters included Christine Talbot, Merryn Myatt and Charles Lambert and Peter Stevenson with Sport. From 1993, the newly designed BBC North 'N' logo features prominently in this title sequence and on the set itself.
Right clips shows the programme closing.
North West Tonight1993 a couple of clips here featuring Merryn Myatt co-anchor of North West Tonight with John Mundy.
North West Tonight News and Sport1993
left clip - Stuart Flinders with the weekend news and sports bulletin
right clip - Nigel Jay with a North West Tonight news bulletin.
Examples of content graphics...
1993 - 1995
In 1993 Philip Hayton was brought in from the national news to replace John Mundy as main anchor.
Philip left the BBC in September 2005 after 30 years of reading the news.
North West Tonight1993 A new set and set of titles as Philip Hayton joins the region . Not a map of the North West in sight. Instead we have a rather classy set of titles featuring glass letters spelling out North West Tonight, oddly. This look was created by inhouse BBC designer Ian Bate.
North West Tonight - Late Bulletin1993
Another late news bulletin here with Christine Talbot. Christine is now the main presenter for Calendar on ITV Yorkshire.Examples of content graphics..
1995 - 2000
On the 25th September 1995 any sign of the BBC News 'serious' blue was no longer in sight. It was dropped in favour of a bright and bold colourful new look.
Philip Hayton leaves, and Martin Henfield and Merryn Myatt take over the hotseat. A brand new weather slot was created and Dianne Oxberry was brought in to present (she'd previously worked on air at Radio 1, and before that on The 8.15 from Manchester) The radical new 'spaceage' set was designed by Christopher George, production designer of many entertainment programmes, whilst the graphics were designed by BBC inhouse designer Gareth Price.
BBC North West's regional output was given a cohesive look with it's three programmes branded with glossy logos and identified through 'colour branding' . Warm reds and yellows for North West Tonight, blues and purples for Close Up North and turqouise and greens for Northwestminster.
North West Today / NWT Trail1995
The first glimpse of the new look was in the lunchtime North West Today. Here's that first airing of the new titles presented by Julia Sharp, sadly Julia is no longer with us.
The right hand clip is the trail for the main programme presented by Martin Henfield shown before the Six Oc'lock News
North West Tonight1995 North West Tonight with Martin Henfield
Here's the first programme featuring the new look on Monday 25th September 1995
The right hand clip is the closing featuring Dianne's first weather broadcast
North West Tonight1997
Gordon Burns is hired as the new anchor. He's best known as host of the 1980's Granada quiz show The Krypton Factor, which he presented for 18 years.
The titles are also situably changed to reflect the introduction of the new logo BBC logo in October 1997
Various bulletins here.. with presenters self-opting a mid morning and breakfast bulletins, just out of camera shot, their fingers press all the buttons to cut between her camera and the network, they did it all without looking down because all the buttons were different shapes, round, square, and triangular. Presenters do not self-op anymore.
Breakfast - Martin Henfield1999 Late - Martin Henfield
1996 Late - Samali Khan
1999 Late - Martin Henfield
1997
Examples of content graphics..
2000 - 2002
The BBC News corporate look was introduced in the North West on Monday 8th May 2000 A new set of yellow and blue and graphics designed by Lambie Nairn
North West Today2000 Monday 8th May 200 and the inevitable happened. Gone were the colourful titles, replaced by the BBC corporate look.
The first glimpse was in this lunchtime North West Today bulletin.
North West Tonight2000 The main programme with the new look.
In the right clip Dianne and Gordon have 'happy talk' and discuss the new window overlooking Oxford Road
Some examples of content graphics...
2002 Commonwealth Games
North West Tonight Commonwealth Games2002
In 2002 The Commonwealth Games were hosted in Manchester. North West Tonight introduced special 'gold' titles as broadcast partner to celebrate the occassion.2002 - 2005
North West Tonight2002 A new variation of the familiar corporate look was introduced across the BBC English Regions on Monday 16th September 2002. This is how it looked in the North West.
Titles now feature shots from around the region featuring a mix of people, young and old.
North West Today2002
Tina Bangs with a lunchtime North West Today.
Tina no longer works at BBC North West, but can be seen occassionaly presenting 60 Seconds - the BBC News bulletin on BBC Three.
2005 - 2007
North West Tonight2006 Now NWT turns contemporary with cool greys and vibrant reds. Another corporate look is rolled out across the English Regions using the 'transmission rings' which look more like rain drops! over the distinctive flat red colour adopted by BBC News.
North West Tonight2006 Later in 2006 Tony Livesey joins as a main sports presenter along side Gordon and Dianne. Tony previously was Editor for The Sunday Sport newspaper in Manchester.
2007 - 2008
The long awaited (and much hyped) relaunch finally happened on September 10th 2007 at 6.30pm. Out went the two old blokes in their greenhouse at Jodrell Bank (their tomatoes must have ripened by now) The large lady in Liverpool has long since been to weight watchers and now resembles Twiggy plus the old dears now only visit Blackpool with walking sticks.
With the new titles and the new set comes a new co-presenter, the well respected and long-serving Gordon Burns is joined by the fresh young face of Ranvir Singh who has worked on the programme as reporter and presenter in the past.
North West Tonight (Main programme)2007 The evening programmes titles feature shots of the Manchester skyline, the World's biggest glitterball at South Shore Blackpool, The Laxey Wheel on The Isle of Man, Liverpool skyline from Wallasey and The Buxton Opera House in Derbyshire. The new look was designed and directed by Gareth Price of 422, new music composed by David Lowe, with set design by Dominic Tolfts. (Right clip - programme close)
North West Tonight (late bulletin) 2007
Annabel Tiffin here with the first late bulletin. The titles feature night time shots of Blackpool, Liverpool and Manchester
North West Today (Breakfast) 2007
Naomi Cornwell here with the first new look Breakfast bulletin on Tuesday Sept 11th
North West Today (Lunchtime)2007 Heather Stott joins Gordon Burns for her first go on the new set. Watch as the end credits roll Heather shows us her Jayne Torville impression.
The new titles use all various BBC News elements, and proves a region can have a unique look whilst still belonging to the bigger brand, without being identical.
8 O'clock bulletin2007
The first primetime bulletin with Kate Silverton and Ranvir Singh. The NWT logo used here is different and not as good as the one they use for their main programmes2008 - 2011
North West Today21.04.2008
A disappointing new look for NWT, considering how striking the short lived last look was. This is how Lambie Nairn's corporate design for BBC News looks in the North West. Overall it just feels bland, lacking in imagination as it's too similar a design from the 1999 corporate look, old elements are back, pulsating rings and geographical placed names, but on white instead of blue, would have been great to see a new and innovative design like the last one.
North West Tonight21.4.2008
Here's how the main evening programme now looks, a backdrop of Salford Quays is now used - this is where the new BBC North building is being built. The end logo also looks odd with 2 x BBC logos, branding it with BBC News is a good idea, but 'BBC' North West Tonight aswell? However if the brief from BBC News was to have no emotion and distinction between national and local news then this very generic look has succeeded.Later in 2009 the studio backdrop was changed from blue lighting to red to tie in better the BBC News corporate look.
North West Tonight Christmas Special2009
Left clip - For the last main programme of 2009, North West Tonight dedicated the whole programme with an outside broadcast live from the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital. To mark the occassion a special set of titles was produced.
Right clip - a festive snowflake theme end copyright.
North West Tonight - Gordon Burns Last Programme2011
Gordon Burns retires from the BBC after 15 years of presenting. Refered to as 'GB' by his co-host Ranvir
North West Tonight - Roger Johnson First Programme2011
Former BBC South sports reporter Roger Johnson becomes North West Tonight's new anchorman. Ranvir takes over Gordon's old seat
North West Tonight - NBH Tributes2011
As the programme enters their final week in Oxford Road, Dave Guest creates a series of reports looking back at the history of North West Tonight in New Broadcasting House.
North West Tonight - Last Oxford Road Programme25.11.2011
A fond farewell to the BBC's Oxford Road studios in Manchester as it leaves the City of Manchester to head down the road to nearby City of Salford.
North West Tonight - Last Oxford Road Broadcast27.10.2011
Kate Simms presents the very last broadcast from the BBC's old Oxford Road headquarters in Manchester. The lights go out for the last time on Sunday's late bulletin 27th November 2011.2011 - Present
North West Tonight - First Media City Broadcast28.10.2011
On November 28th 2011 the BBC North West news operation began broadcasting from their new home at Media City, Salford. Eleanor Moritz presented the very first broadcast in Breakfast at 6.30am from their smaller presentation studio. The new backdrop shows the immediate view from Media city overlooking the Manchester Ship Canal with Manchester city centre in the background and also the Pennie hills in the distance.
North West Tonight28.10.2011
As part of the move, the programme is given an updated look. The new titles have all the BBC News brand identity but now feature a glossy 3D globe, updated shots of the region now are - Coniston Water, Liverpool's 3 Graces, Whalley Viaduct, Laxey Wheel, Derwent Dam, Manchester's Beetham Tower and The Lovell Telescope in Cheshire. The new set which will be shared with the BBC Breakfast programme, the screens behind the presenters show a wide panoramic view from Media City over Salford.
North West Tonight - Late Bulletin28.10.2011
Here's Annabel Tiffin with the new look late news. The end shot gives us a glimpse of how big the studio actually is.
