Coast to Coast (UK TV series)
| Coast to Coast | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Genre | News, South and South East England (regional) |
| Presented by | Khalid Aziz Fred Dinenage Christopher Peacock Fern Britton Debbie Thrower (South main anchors) Vyvyan Mackeson Mike Fuller Mike Debens Anna Maria Ashe Liz Wickham (South East main anchors) |
| Country of origin | England |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Television South |
| Running time | Main bulletin: 30 minutes Other bulletins: Times vary |
| Release | |
| Original release | 1 January 1982 – 31 December 1992 |
Coast to Coast was the flagship regional news programme produced by Television South, covering the south and southeast of England with separate news services for both parts of the dual-region between January 1982 and December 1992.
Coast to Coast was launched in January 1982 as TVS' nightly regional news magazine with two distinct editions for both the South and the South East. Previously, TVS's predecessors Southern Television had produced Day by Day for over 20 years alongside separate news bulletins for both sub-regions and Scene South East, a weekly magazine programme for the South East (supplemented in later years by Scene Midweek).
The first edition of Coast to Coast was broadcast on New Year's Day 1982 at 9:25 am with a pan-regional special entitled Bring in the New (TVS's first programme), introducing the new station and featuring TVS' first news bulletins. The first sub-regional editions of the programme were aired at 5:15 pm on the same evening - reportedly watched by nearly a million viewers.
Originally, the programme aired between 5:30 pm & 6:30 pm, consisting of two sub-regional segments at 5:30 pm & 6:20 pm, ITN's News at 545 bulletin and a pan-regional segment at 6:00 pm. Within several months of launch, the main evening edition was cut to 30 minutes at 6 pm and became a fully separate programme. Former ITN reporter and newsreader Robert Southgate was the first head of news and current affairs for TVS.
The programme also spawned a spin-off lunchtime chat show entitled Coast to Coast People, broadcast as two separate programmes for the South and South East. For one week in November 1989, TVS also piloted a 30-minute late night edition of the programme entitled Coast to Coast Late.
The expanded news service for the two-halves of the region led to TVS increasing Southern's news staff from 37 and 94 with the company investing in computer facilities for its newsrooms.
TVS was also the first television station in Britain to have its own dedicated live-link news helicopter - an Aerospatiale Twin Squirrel equipped with remote control camera and facilities to receive live pictures beamed up to it from two Land Rover Discovery mobile up-link units. This system was brought into use in 1990 and relayed live news coverage from anywhere in the South and South East to reception dishes located on the region's main transmitter masts.
Both the South and the South East editions of Coast to Coast also utilised a newsroom at the QE2 Conference Centre in London - particularly for Parliamentary coverage.
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