Thames News

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Thames News
Genre	News, London (regional)
Presented by	Various, including: Andrew Gardner, Tricia Ingrams, Rita Carter, Penny Smith, Robin Houston, Steve Clarke, Graham Miller
Country of origin	England
Production
Producer(s)	Thames Television
Running time	Main bulletin: 30 minutes Other bulletins: Times vary
Broadcast
Original run	1979 – December 31, 1992

Thames News was the flagship news programme of Thames Television, serving the Greater London region. It was broadcast between 1979 & December 1992 and produced from Thames TV's headquarters at Euston Road in North West London and during its last few years in operation, from newsrooms in Guildford, Surrey & Dartford, Kent.

Prior to Thames News, the station had produced Today, a local magazine show presented chiefly by Eamonn Andrews and Bill Grundy. The programme was axed in 1977 not long after an infamous on-air interview with The Sex Pistols. Originally, it was replaced by Thames at Six, presented by former ITN newsreader Andrew Gardner) yet within two years, Thames at Six was replaced in favour of a more news-based nightly programme in the form of Thames News.

1 Thames Weekend News
2 Goodbye from Thames News
3 Thames News on-air team
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Thames Weekend News

On Friday January 1, 1982, Thames and its weekend counterpart London Weekend Television (LWT) began new franchise periods. As opposed to handing over to LWT at 7:00pm on Friday nights, Thames would now handover to LWT at the earlier time of 5:15pm. Prior to the change, Thames produced a full Friday evening edition of Thames News. However, after the franchise renewals, LWT were reluctant to start a weekend news service, despite pressure from the Independent Broadcasting Authority.

Therefore, Thames produced special Thames Weekend News bulletins for broadcast on Friday night during LWT's light-hearted magazine programme The Six O' Clock Show. The arrangement ended in 1988 when LWT began their own full local news service.^[1]

[edit] Goodbye from Thames News

On October 16, 1991, Thames Television lost its ITV franchise to serve London on weekday to Carlton Television, who joined up with LWT to form London News Network, a new seven-day news service for the capital.

Thames News produced its final full-length programme on 23 December 1992, presented by Steve Clarke (a former presenter of the BBC's rival London Plus programme) and Gytha Hutton (a reporter based in Thames' Guildford newsroom). The last edition of Thames News was broadcast on Thursday 31 December 1992 and presented by regular sports anchor Graham Miller. The programme closed with the Town Cryer of London, Peter Moore, announcing the end of Thames News after 13 years.