BBC Look North (North East and Cumbria)

BBC Look North
Presented by Carol Malia
Country of origin United Kingdom
Original language(s) English
Production
Producer(s) BBC North East and Cumbria
Location(s) Broadcasting Centre,
Newcastle upon Tyne, England[1]
Camera setup Multi-camera
Running time 30 minutes
(main 6.30pm programme)
Release
Original network BBC One North East and Cumbria
Picture format 576i (SDTV 16:9)
Original release 1959 (1959) – present
Chronology
Related shows ITV News Tyne Tees
ITV News Lookaround
Tyne and Wear News

BBC Look North is the BBC's regional television news service for North East England, Cumbria and North Yorkshire. The service is produced and broadcast from the BBC Broadcasting Centre on Barrack Road in Newcastle upon Tyne with district newsrooms based in Carlisle, Durham, Middlesbrough and York.

Reception

The programme can be watched in any part of the UK (and Europe) from Astra 2E on Freesat channel 956 and Sky channel 955. It no longer broadcasts on analogue, since the digital switchover in September 2012, and digital terrestrial from the Bilsdale, Caldbeck, Chatton and the Pontop Pike transmitters. The latest edition of Look North is also available to watch on the BBC iPlayer.

History

The "Pink Palace" - the studio and office complex of BBC Look North and BBC Newcastle

Prior to the start of Look North, the BBC television region for the North East and Cumbria launched in 1959 from studios at 54 New Bridge Street in Newcastle City Centre. The region began receiving its own nightly news bulletins, originally presented by George House and Tom Kilgour. Previously, the area was served by a pan-regional bulletin from Manchester entitled News from the North, broadcast across the whole of Northern England from 30 September 1957 onwards.

Three years after the launch of the television service, the bulletins were expanded to 20 minutes and relaunched as a daily magazine programme, Home at Six, presented by Frank Bough. After Bough left to join BBC Sport in 1964, Home at Six was relaunched with a new name and a new presenter - Mike Neville, an actor & continuity announcer for Tyne Tees Television who had been anchor of North East Newsview, a nightly regional news programme, for only a few months. Neville soon became a household name and spent the next thirty two years at the BBC in Newcastle, presenting Look North as well as making regular appearances on Nationwide.

For a short period in the late 1980s, Cumbria was switched to the BBC North West region and began receiving North West Tonight instead of Look North, along with a short lunchtime news opt-out. The North East and Cumbria region was reformed after campaigning by viewers in Cumbria that they were being overlooked in favour of news from the more populous areas of the north west, such as Greater Manchester and Merseyside. It was during this time that on 16 January 1988, BBC North East moved to brand new purpose built studios nicknamed 'The Pink Palace' on Barrack Road (A189) in Spital Tongues, along with Radio Newcastle.

In 1996, Mike Neville left the BBC after 32 years to re-join Tyne Tees Television to present their flagship evening news programme North East Tonight. Look North underwent major changes with new presenters Carol Malia and John Lawrence (both former reporters for Tyne Tees) introduced to the programme. Malia is now the sole presenter.

Broadcast times

On weekdays, Look North broadcasts six three-minute opt-outs during BBC Breakfast at 27 minutes past and 57 minutes to each hour. A fifteen-minute lunchtime programme follows at 1:30pm with the main half-hour edition at 6:30pm. A short 30-second headlines update during the 8pm BBC News update and a fifteen-minute late update is shown at 10:30pm, following the BBC News at Ten.

Look North also airs 3 bulletins during the weekend: early evening bulletins on Saturday & Sunday and a late night bulletin on Sundays, following the BBC News at Ten. The times of these bulletins usually vary.

Presenters

News

  • Carol Malia - Main presenter (Tue-Fri)
  • Jeff Brown - Main presenter (Mon) and Sport Presenter
  • Dawn Thewlis - Cover and Sport Presenter
  • Colin Briggs - BBC Breakfast opts/lunchtime newsreader

Weather

Reporters

District

News

  • Stephanie Cleasby (newsreader)
  • Gerry Jackson (newsreader)
  • Damian O'Neil
  • Adrian Pitches
  • Chris Stewart - Chief Correspondent
  • Richard Thomas (newsreader)

Specialist

  • Sharon Barbour - Health (newsreader)
  • Jeff Brown - Sport (relief presenter/newsreader)
  • Mark Denten - Political
  • Richard Moss - Political Editor (Sunday Politics presenter)
  • Ian Reeves - Business
  • Dawn Thewlis - Sports Editor (relief presenter/newsreader)
  • Sharuna Sagar - Arts and Entertainment (newsreader)
  • Mark Tulip - Sport

Former on air team

Person BBC Look North position(s) Current position(s)
Mike Neville Newsreader Retired, after moving to Tyne Tees in 1996
Tom Kilgour Newsreader Tom died in 2006
Simon Willis Newsreader News Correspondent and newsreader for Newsnight Scotland on BBC Scotland
John Lawrence Newsreader
Chris Jackson Newsreader Presenter of Inside Out on BBC North East and Cumbria
George House Newsreader George died in 2012
Chris Eakin Newsreader Became a newsreader on the BBC News channel until he left the BBC in 2015
Riz Lateef Newsreader Main presenter for BBC London News on BBC London
Beverley Thompson Newsreader
Tony Baker Newsreader
John Clapham Weather pesenter
Paddy MacDee Newsreader Presenter on BBC Radio Newcastle
Steve Sutton Newsreader/sport presenter Reporter for Final Score on BBC One
Sara Thornton Weather Presenter (temporary) Cover presenter for BBC Weather across BBC regions
Wendy Gibson News Correspondent/newsreader
Olivia Richwald News Correspondent News Correspondent on BBC Yorkshire
Lara Rostron News Correspondent/newsreader
Katie Gornall Sports Correspondent/presenter Sports presenter on BBC News Channel
Trai Anfield Weather presenter
Peter Grant Weather presenter (temporary) Presenter on BBC Radio Newcastle

See also

BBC North East and Cumbria's rival regional news programmes.

References

  1. Tyne Tees move to Watermark Gateshead Government

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/14/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.