Television Newsreel

Television Newsreel was a British television programme, the first regular news programme to be made in the UK. Produced by the BBC and screened on the BBC Television Service from 1948 to 1954 at 7.30pm, it adapted the traditional cinema newsreel form for the television audience, covering news and current affairs stories as well as quirkier 'human interest' items, sports and cultural events. The programme's opening title sequence, featuring a graphic of the transmission mast at Alexandra Palace with the title revolving around it, became a well-known image of the time. The theme tune was "Girls in Grey" by Charles Williams and played by the Queen's Hall Light Orchestra. It was published by Chappell on one of its mood music records - it was not specifically written for the newsreel but composed during World War Two for the Women's Junior Air Corps.

Previously, the BBC had screened cinema newsreels from British Movietone News as well as sound-only news bulletins from BBC Radio. Following the resumption of the television service in 1946, after its World War II hiatus, a BBC Film Unit was set up to produce items on film, as opposed to the vast majority of the BBC's output of the time which was transmitted live via the electronic cameras of the Alexandra Palace studios.

The first Television Newsreel was shown on Monday 5 January 1948. Each edition was fifteen minutes long, and would consist of a number of different items, tending to be fewer and longer in length than in cinema newsreels, most of which ran for only ten minutes in total. The items would have different presenters, and would be linked by a narrated voiceover. The producer was Harold Cox, D. A. Smith was the editor, the chief cameraman was Alan Lawson and J. K. Byer was head of sound recordists. Editions would initially be broadcast on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday evenings. From April 1950 a special Children's Newsreel edition would be shown on Saturday afternoons, for the benefit of the younger audience.

Items from the United States produced by the NBC network there would often be used, as the BBC had a film exchange deal with the American broadcaster where they would swap film reports they had produced. From 1951, a weekly Newsreel Review of the Week was produced to open programming on Sunday evenings, compiling highlights from the previous week's newsreel features. These weekly editions would be presented by Edward Halliday, who sometimes appeared on-screen to link the various items.

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