Unlucky break on first TV news show
Jan 5 2009 by Sam Wood, The Journal
TODAY is the 50th anniversary of BBC news broadcasts from the North East. On January 5, 1959, News of the North was first shown, filmed in a studio in Newcastle’s New Bridge Street which was formerly a Victorian lying-in hospital, a maternity unit.
Focusing on current affairs in the North East, it was the first news programme on television solely to cover the region. It would become Look North a few years later.
The first 10-minute News of the North went out at 6.10pm, but that was soon extended to 20 minutes.
The show got off to a dramatic start as the crew covered a three-day visit to the region by then Prime Minister Harold Macmillan.
Arthur Nicholson, the cameraman that day, broke a leg in a fall right in front of the PM after filming the story.
Later that night Mr Macmillan phoned the BBC to check on the health of the cameraman.
Other stories covered by the show in its first week included deep snow drifts across the region and a big fire in the centre of Newcastle which trapped the city’s fire chief.
The first show was presented by Newcastle-born George House.
Mr House, now 81 and living in Northallerton, North Yorkshire, recalled: “I was selected for the role because of my background. I started off as a junior reporter on the Chronicle and I also worked for a while at The Journal. During that time I had helped out the BBC on a couple of radio shows and they asked me to do the television news.
“Things were completely different in broadcasting back then. We were called news readers, not presenters, and we were very much modelled on the way that national news readers did their jobs. It was all done in the Queen’s English.
“I had a slight accent which showed I was from the region, but nothing like you hear today with all kinds of accents on the news. Then there was no free licence for regional accents. It was also in the days when television closed completely after 11pm.
“The technology was totally different too. We had no ear pieces, so the floor manager had to write us messages on a big board.
“All the pictures were captured on film and had to be processed before they could be worked on. It took at least 45 minutes to process before we could edit it.
“There was nothing like today where you can film live from an event or story. I envy the technology which is around these days.”
Tonight’s Look North will include a report celebrating the landmark, including an interview with Mr House.
