News Bulletins 1993 - 1999
London TonightDecember 1992 Launch Promo
During the last days of Thames News & LWT News, viewers were treated to this promo. Alastair Stewart, Fiona Foster, Matthew Lorenzo and Fern Britton are among the presenters who nearly wet themselves as they trail their new daily news service. It's bigger, brighter and bolder than anything that's gone before, reflecting London's importance as a world capital. The backing music is by The Police, with the lyrics of the song 'Every Breath You Take' timed to coincide with climax of the promo: "I'll be watching you..."
London Today - GMTV01/01/1993
Paul Green introduces the very first bulletin from London News Network, shown on the morning of January 1st 1993. It is a regional opt-out from within GMTV, hosted by Michael Wilson. This complete bulletin includes a traffic update hosted by Fiona Farrell at Scotland Yard, using a network of highway surveillance cameras.
London Today01/01/1993
A brief clip of the first mid-morning bulletin. The punchy music, powerful graphics and the newscaster's authoritative tone give us a taste of the punch this company was about to pack.
Newscaster: Paul Green
London Tonight04/01/1993 6pm - First Edition
The premiere edition of LNN's flagship show. As the music and graphics suggest, local news is presented as dynamic and exciting. The hour-long format allows a good mixture of news, issue-based features, sport and entertainment. The newscasters display a fine sense of humour, particularly when signing off. There is nothing stilted or poe-faced about this enterprise.
Newscasters: Fiona Foster & Alastair Stewart, with Lindsay Charlton, Fern Britton, Matthew Lorenzo, Jonathan Coleman.
London TonightJanuary 1993 - 6pm
A few days into the new run, and a main evening edition of London Tonight seems to have technical problems. A crash slide and simple music sting open the show, before Alastair Stewart and Fiona Foster read out the headlines. Their hesitancy suggests they can't hear gallery talkback.
The second clip includes a VT package rounding up local stories... from as far afield as Hampshire!
London Tonight28/03/1993 Trail
This trailer followed an edition of The South Bank Show about Sergei Rachmaninov, on the evening of Sunday 28th March 1993. Voiced by Alastair Stewart, it looks ahead to a human interest story in the coming week's news, that of Louisa, a 15 year-old girl recovering from life-threatening anorexia. This clip includes LWT continuity voiced by Peter Lewis.
London Weekend Tonight1997
Lots of LWT continuity at the start of this Sunday afternoon bulletin from 1997, hosted by Anna Maria Ashe.
London Weekend TonightJuly 1998
Two bulletins from the weekend of LWT's 30th birthday. The first clip is a short Friday bulletin hosted by Anna Maria Ashe, bringing the top headline that the M25 at Heathrow is to be turned into a 12-lane super-highway.
The second clip features a main Saturday evening bulletin, hosted by Ashe with Johnathan Wills. The main news concerns the murder of two brothers at a Walthamstowe snooker club.
London Tonight1998
Newscaster: Katy Haswell
Headline: A senior detective admits that police had enough information to make arrests within three days of the murder of Stephen Lawrence in Eltham, south east London.
ITV News / LNN Promo05/03/1999
In 1999, ITV bosses knocked News at Ten out of its traditional time slot, to make way for feature-length movies and TV dramas that would hopefully grab them higher ratings, if shown in full without a break for the news. ITV national and regional news bulletins were shuffled around the schedule accordingly. ITV sold this to viewers with the slogan "TV Gets Better!" This is a London-specific version of the network promo, featuring Alastair Stewart and Mary Nightingale intercut with Trevor McDonald and Dermot Murnaghan.
London Tonight05/03/1999 - includes News Hour plug
Following the last edition of the original News at Ten, on Friday 5th March 1999, this was the last weeknight edition of London Tonight to use the original version of its theme tune and title graphics. From Monday 8th March, with ITN and LNN bulletins changing to different times, LNN revised the opening graphics for London Today & Tonight, and gave the music a remix.
Newscaster: Anna Maria Ashe
1999 - 2000
London TonightMay 1999
Alastair Stewart and Anna Maria Ashe host a main weekday evening bulletin from May 1999, with help from Johnathan Wills. The bulletin leads with news of a serious crash on the M4 motorway, which left one dead and eight injured. The ensuing chaos lead to a day of gridlock for traffic all over west London. Plus, racist leaflets were discovered near the spot where Stephen Lawrence was murdered in south east London.
London Today18/06/1999
Paul Green hosts the mid-morning and lunchtime bulletins on Friday 18th June 1999. The news was dominated by the build up to Prince Edward's wedding to Sophie Rhys-Jones, due to take place in Windsor the next day.
In the first bulletin, Christopher Peacock reports live from the castle grounds; in the second, Green is joined in studio by Angus Scott, for an exclusive interview with Doreen Wise.
2000 - 2004
London Today10/09/1999
Newscaster: Paul Green
Headline: The massive task of raising the giant ferris wheel on South Bank has begun. Phil Bayles reports from the still-horizontal London Eye.
London Tonight18/02/2000
Newscasters: Anna Maria Ashe and Alastair Stewart
Headlines: Ford axes 1500 jobs at its Dagenham car manufacturing plant. Plus Connex train drivers vote to proceed with strike action, and Peter O'Toole wins an Olivier award for a lifetime of achievements on stage.
London Tonight27/11/2001 - Late bulletin
Newscaster: Keir Simmons
Headline: A crowd of hundreds turns out to honour murdered south London schoolboy Damilola Taylor, on the first anniversary of his murder.
London Tonight13/09/2002 - Late bulletin
Newscaster: Emma Walden
Headline: The race to be next Mayor of London has officially started. Nominations to be Labour candidate in the 2004 elections closed on this day. Ken Livingstone will have to stand as an independent, while his deputy Nicky Gavron will stand as a rival, alongside Tony Banks and Bob Shannon.
London Tonight26/09/2002 - Trail
Newscasters: Anna Maria Ashe and Alastair Stewart
Headlines: Is the new Wembley really on the way? Plus, Whitehall recruitment drive as Ken Livingstone says no to War, and the new restaurant for the real high flyers.
London Tonight26/09/2002
Newscasters: Anna Maria Ashe & Alastair Stewart
Headline: Bulldozers are set to roll into Wembley Stadium after an embarrassing seven-year delay, with building costs now expected to reach £352million. The video includes Marcus Powell's live two-way conversation with Alastair Stewart, from the old Wembley stadium.
London Tonight25/10/2002
Newscaster: Lucy Alexander
Headline: Protesters opposed to a third runway at Heathrow Airport took an open-top bus ride along the route of the new flightpath.
Recorded on LWT's last day of transmission, before its sublimation into the ITV1 Network branding.
London TonightOctober 2002
Newscasters: Alastair Stewart & Lucy Alexander
Headline: London Police chiefs warn the public to "be calm but vigilant". As party chiefs discuss the War on Terror in Downing
London Tonight28/10/2002 & Trail
Newscasters: Alastair Stewart & Anna Maria Ashe
Headline: IVF scandal as two women desperate to start families are implanted with wrong embryos in a south London clinic.
ITV1 Relaunch - 02/02/2004
Monday 2nd February 2004 was the date on which Granada and Carlton, the two biggest ITV companies, merged to form ITV plc. A re-design of the ITV national and regional news bulletins was timed to take place on the same day, based on the network's colours of yellow and blue. Each region adopted the same graphic look and generic ITV News music, along with a new generic set design. All except for the London bulletins. With ITN set to absorb the local news operation, why have LNN change the set in February and then change it again a month later, when the operation was due to switch studios to ITN's Gray's Inn Road premises? So, for one extra month, London Today and London Tonight were hosted from the original London Studios set, with its familiar black and red desk, and iconic city skyline seen through the studio windows...
The big story on this particular day was the court appearance and eventual fining of George Best, for drunk driving. Plus, traffic protests on major routes by divorced fathers seeking to influence a change in divorce laws, and the arrival of Jack Nicholson and Mel Brooks on promotional visits.
London Today - GMTV02/02/2004 - 8.08am
Penny Smith finishes the national news on GMTV and hands to Paul Green at London Today. The only visible differences are a change in astons and a new clock. There's a great blooper when they cut to Paul by mistake during a traffic report, mid-swig.
London Today02/02/2004 - 11am
Closing the morning news, Nicholas Owen throws to the regions, and we have our first glimpse of the new London Today titles, albeit a short version. The outro includes a great clip with Bill Nighy receiving an award for his role in Love Actually.
London Today02/02/2004 - 12.50pm
Near the end of the national lunchtime news, Nicholas Owen again throws to regions for a short bulletin. More on the traffic protests and George Best, and a plug for London Tonight at 6pm.
London Today02/02/2004 - 3.05pm
The mid-afternoon edition of London Today, introduced by the network continuity announcer, was hosted by Anna Maria Ashe via a brief title sequence. Anna's looking forward to Mel and Jack later on.
London Tonight02/02/2004 - 6.00pm
The main edition, London Tonight, with a continuity intro and full title sequence, which manages to squeeze in a tube escalator, a bus, a taxi and a police boat. Lead story is George Best, fined for drunk driving... just like Alastair Stewart!
London Tonight02/02/2004
More of an afterthought than a concerted effort, the late edition is hosted by Carrie Frais, via a throw from Sir Trev. All stories are simple recaps, with recut B-roll, of the day's main stories.
London Tonight29/02/2004 - Last South Bank Bulletin
The final edition of London Tonight to be transmitted from the LNN studio on the South Bank took place at 5.30pm on Sunday 29th February. Anna Maria Ashe announced the forthcoming launch of the new ITN studio look and new editorial team, and her lower lip trembled as she bid her own "firm goodbye". She had been hosting London local news bulletins on LWT and LNN since the 1980s and this was a poignant moment indeed.
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