(Original BBC News theme music)
Nick Higham: July the Fifth, Nineteen-Fifty-Four,
and the BBC's first-ever television news bulletin goes on the air.
and the BBC's first-ever television news bulletin goes on the air.
(music continues)
There was no presenter--just a disembodied voice
and there were no moving pictures
but it was a start.
("...the French union and Viet Minh representatives 
agreed on the subjects to be discussed.")
The programmes came from Alexandra Palace in north London.
From here the nation first heard news of triumphs...
and tragedies.
("...over to the news room.")
"The death of John F. Kennedy happened in Dallas
at twenty-five past twelve..."
"It's now feared that nearly two hundred lives were lost
when the coal tip at Aberfan, near Merthyr Tydfil,
slid forward today.
It engulfed an infants' school and a row of houses."
And it was at Ally Pally
that the BBC first started broadcasts in colour.
(John Thompson: "Good evening. And tonight, in France...)
("...zero hour is eight o'clock.")
Well, sort of.
Well, sort of.
But there was soon a new home for 'News.
It had started literally as an architect's squiggle on an envelope.
Built in the Nineteen-Fifties, Television Centre in west London 
was positively futuristic.
'News arrived in Nineteen-Sixty-Nine.
(background: "This BBC Television News...")
Television news in those days was
Television news in those days was
a macho business--and involved an awful lot of smoking.
"I would have thought there might have been some point 
in having him explain this..."
in having him explain this..."
There were some women--one became a star.
(Angela Rippon: "...about a car, connected with an alleged bomb plot...")
(Angela Rippon: "...about a car, connected with an alleged bomb plot...")
Revisiting the old studios, she remembered what an exciting 
place it had been to work.
"What do think of it, Angela?"
"What do think of it, Angela?"
Angela Rippon: "Television studios that're empty
look so sad, don't they? With all these pipes--they look like a sort of
(laughs) decommissioned power station, don't they? 
Of course, when I was here
Of course, when I was here
everybody was working on typewriters so 
there was a noise...there were
there was a noise...there were
banks of televisions everywhere with this...
the material was coming in on film from
the material was coming in on film from
people who were--foreign correspondents working abroad
and there was such a buzz about the place, it...
...it was I think every newsman or -woman's dream to
come and work at Television Centre in television news at that time."
The original news studios at Television Centre are still here...
reminders of a time when there was a lot less news
...just two or three programmes a day...
...just two or three programmes a day...
and it was technologically a lot simpler.
But they're a shadow of their former selves,
and the second studio just across the way...
and the second studio just across the way...
...well, that's been turned...
...into a storeroom for old furniture.
Male producer: "...it's switch five, stand by for scanner...
Female producer: "...three, two, one...
Male producer: "...go out"
Female producer: "...zero."
From these studios and their successors 
the BBC covered history as it happened:
the BBC covered history as it happened:
"...after--after an earlier confrontation down on the end
which looked at the time like a kind of
civil rights clash we knew from years ago..."
(explosion)
Brian Hanrahan: "I'm not allowed to say 
how many planes joined the raid...
but I counted them all out...
and I counted them all back."
Michael Buerk: "Dawn...
and as the sun breaks through the piercing 
chill of night on the plain outside Korem...
it lights up a biblical famine--now, in the Twentieth Century."
Fifteen years ago new, high-tech news 
studios opened at Television Centre.
By now, 'News was broadcasting twenty-four hours a day.
"Terrorists attacked the heart of America
with catastrophic loss of life..."
"Bankruptcies, bailouts, and trading bans
triggered the most tumultuous
triggered the most tumultuous
week on world markets in living memory..."
"This summer has created so many heroes--
although some stand out more than others..."
although some stand out more than others..."
Reporters risked their lives...
(explosion)
"After one hundred and fourteen days
Alan Johnston emerged wearied, but free
into the Gaza night."
Sometimes the news was trivial...
...sometimes frankly rather dull...
(Nick Higham: "...opposition to its amendments, the Home Office has...)
(Nick Higham: "...opposition to its amendments, the Home Office has...)
("...indicated it is willing to think again.")
...and sometimes the news programmes themselves made the news.
*bulb shatters* ("... thousands of acres--")
*bulb shatters* ("... thousands of acres--") 
"...get security...get security..."
"...I do apologise if you're hearing quite a lot of noise
in the studio at the moment, I'm afraid that, um...
we have rather been invaded by some people..."
(explosion)
Televison Centre was even bombed by the IRA.
(Old BBC News theme music)
Title sequences have come and gone, along with generations
of presenters, reporters, and off-screen staff.
(Recent BBC News theme music)
Now, Television News is joining Radio and the World Service
(Background: current BBC News theme)
in a new home in central London.
(Background: current BBC News theme)
Nick Higham, BBC News...
(Background: current BBC News theme)
...for the last time...
(Background: current BBC News theme)
...at Television Centre.
