Concept and creative process
CGI titles for the BBC's nightly flagship news programme. The 'Nine O’Clock News' was the first bulletin to follow the 'Six O’Clock News' into electronic graphics production. As this was to be a highly visible relaunch of its most high profile and iconic network bulletin, it drew interest from all quarters. It was therefore a pressured and fairly uncomfortable atmosphere in which to create something and this shows in the final result, which drew criticism and some teasing in satirical comedy shows. The creation of this new bulletin necessitated more electronic graphics kit and the building of another suite in which to house it. All of the content graphics were created in-house and the title sequence was produced by Cal Videographics’ lead animator Gareth Edwards. The sequence was meant to illustrate the idea of raw news material flooding into London from around the world and being formed into the 'Nine O’Clock News' bulletin. A darker overall style (compared to the 'Six O’Clock News') was used for all graphics, to reflect the later transmission time. Among the original presenters were John Humphrys and Julia Somerville, newly poached from ITN. It was to be John Humphrys’ last TV news anchorman role before he left to join the 'Today' programme on BBC Radio 4 in 1987 until his retirement from that programme in 2019.