BBC Six O'Clock News
| BBC News at Six | |
|---|---|
Current programme titles
|
|
| Also known as | BBC Six O'Clock News (1984–2008) BBC News at Six O'Clock (1999-2004) |
| Created by | BBC News |
| Presented by |
George Alagiah Fiona Bruce Sophie Raworth |
| Theme music composer | David Lowe |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| Production | |
| Location(s) |
BBC Television Centre (1984–2013) Studio E, Broadcasting House, London (2013–) |
| Running time | 28 minutes |
| Release | |
| Original network |
BBC One BBC News |
| Picture format |
576i (16:9 SDTV) 1080i (HDTV) |
| Original release | 3 September 1984 – present |
| Chronology | |
| Preceded by | Sixty Minutes |
| Related shows |
BBC Breakfast BBC News at One BBC News at Five BBC News at Ten BBC Weekend News |
The BBC News at Six is the evening news programme broadcast each night on British television channel BBC One and the BBC News channel at 18:00. For a long period the News at Six was the most watched news programme in the UK but since 2006 it has been over taken by the BBC News at Ten. On average it pulls in 4 million viewers.
George Alagiah is the programme's main presenter, presenting Mondays to Thursdays, with Fiona Bruce presenting on Fridays. Other BBC News presenters, including Sophie Raworth, Reeta Chakrabarti and Jane Hill, occasionally present the programme.
In late 2007 the length of the programme was shortened from 30 minutes to 28 minutes to allow for a news summary being shown on BBC One at 7:58pm.
The programme launched on 3 September 1984, replacing early evening news magazine Sixty Minutes and was originally presented by Sue Lawley and Nicholas Witchell. Both presenters have since moved on to other positions within BBC News and the BBC itself. Jeremy Paxman, who went on to present Newsnight in 1989, was relief newsreader from 10 September.
In 1988, the Six O'Clock News studio was famously invaded during a live broadcast by a female group protesting against Britain's Section 28 (a law against the promotion of homosexuality in schools). Witchell famously grappled with the protesters and is said to have sat on one woman, provoking the memorable front-page headline in the Daily Mirror, Beeb man sits on lesbian.
In April 1993, the bulletin was relaunched with a more coherent look that was adopted across all BBC newscasts on the same day.
On 10 May 1999, the bulletin was relaunched again, along with the rest of the BBC News programme and the new presenter was Huw Edwards with Fiona Bruce as the deputy presenter. Both Edwards and Bruce left the Six O'Clock News on 19 January 2003.
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