North West Tonight
Programme titles
Format	Regional News
Presented by	Gordon Burns and Ranvir Singh
Production
Producer(s)	BBC North West
Running time	Main bulletin: 30 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	BBC One North West
Original run	3 September 1993 – present

BBC North West Tonight is the news programme for the BBC North West English region. Produced by BBC North West, it broadcasts at 6.30pm every weeknight and also at 10:25pm following the BBC News at Ten and at the weekend. There are also breakfast and lunchtime bulletins on weekdays, known as North West Today. Image File history File links BBCnorthwesttonight. ... For other uses, see News (disambiguation). ... Gordon Burns (born 10 June 1942 in Belfast) is a British journalist and television presenter who shot to fame as host of ITVs popular game show The Krypton Factor, presenting it from 1977 for eighteen years. ... Ranvir Singh is a news presenter and reporter for the regional BBC news programme, North West Tonight. ... BBC North West is the BBC English Region covering Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Merseyside, the northern parts of Cheshire, the north-western portion of Derbyshire and southern Cumbria. ... For the BBC radio station, see BBC Radio 1. ... is the 246th day of the year (247th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1993 Gregorian calendar). ... A news program or news programme or news show is a regularly scheduled radio or television program that reports current events. ... BBC English Regions is the division of the BBC responsible for the corporations local television, radio, web and teletext services in England. ...

North West Tonight broadcasts on BBC One from its studio at the New Broadcasting House, Oxford Road, Manchester with reporters also based at newsrooms in Liverpool, Blackburn and Chester. The programme began as Look North, but was changed to Look North West in 1980 with News Northwest introduced for shorter bulletins in 1981. Then, on September 3 1984, North West Tonight began. The main signal for the programme comes from the Winter Hill transmitter near Horwich. For the BBC radio station, see BBC Radio 1. ... This article is about the City of Manchester in England. ... For other uses, see Liverpool (disambiguation). ... This article is about the town in Lancashire, England. ... For the larger local government district, see Chester (district). ... Look North is the BBC local television news programme that covers Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. ... Click to view the hi-res version and see the supporting cables The Winter Hill transmitting station is a broadcasting and telecommunications site situated on Winter Hill between Chorley and Bolton, in Lancashire, England. ... Horwich (pronounced Horrich) is a town and civil parish of the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton in Greater Manchester, England. ...

North West Tonight is the most popular regional news programme in the North West with ratings of around 600,000 for the 6:30 bulletin. It is one of the BBC's most watched regional news programmes.

BBC North West region

The North West region comprises Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Lancashire, Cheshire, South Cumbria and North West Derbyshire. The programme also serves the Isle of Man. Transmitters in the extremes of West Yorkshire, covering towns like Todmorden broadcast this regional version but broadcast the ITV Yorkshire news show, Calendar. The programme can be watched in any part of the UK (and Europe) on digital satellite channel 978 on the BBC UK regional TV on satellite service. Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county in North West England which has a population of 2. ... Merseyside is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 1,365,900. ... Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England, bounded to the west by the Irish Sea. ... For other uses, see Cheshire (disambiguation). ... Cumbria (IPA: ), is a shire county in the extreme North West of England. ... Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. ... Coat of Arms of South Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England, that has a population of 2. ... , Todmorden is a town and civil parish,[1] within the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale, in West Yorkshire, England. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Calendar is the local news programme for Yorkshire Television. ... For a wider corporate history and profile, see British Sky Broadcasting. ... The BBC has provided on the UK digital satellite service all of the BBC One and BBC Two regional variations, which provides local news inserts and (outside England) regional presentation. ...

For a few years in the late 1980s, North West Tonight covered the whole of Cumbria but after campaigning by viewers, the area was returned to a reformed BBC North East and Cumbria region.

Presenters

Current presenters include Ranvir Singh and Gordon Burns. Burns was previously best known as presenter of ITV game show The Krypton Factor, although he did start as a local evening presenter for UTV, then Granada Television in the 1970s. When he joined the programme in 1997, it apparently experienced a large increase in ratings, becoming more popular than ITV's rival Granada Reports. Ranvir Singh is a news presenter and reporter for the regional BBC news programme, North West Tonight. ... Gordon Burns (born 10 June 1942 in Belfast) is a British journalist and television presenter who shot to fame as host of ITVs popular game show The Krypton Factor, presenting it from 1977 for eighteen years. ... For other uses, see ITV (disambiguation). ... The Krypton Factor was a British game show, produced by Granada Television and hosted by Gordon Burns, broadcast on ITV from 1977 to 1995. ... For other uses of the UTV acronym, see UTV (disambiguation) UTV (formerly Ulster Television) is the ITV franchise for Northern Ireland. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Granada Reports is the flagship news programme of ITV franchisee Granada, presented by Tony Morris (formerly of BBC North West) and Lucy Meacock, and transmitting to the North West of England. ...

The team

Currently, the North West Tonight/Today on-air team consists of:

Main presenters

• Gordon Burns (1:30pm and 6:30pm bulletins)
• Ranvir Singh (6:30pm and 10:25pm bulletins)
• Annabel Tiffin (10:25pm bulletin and 6:30pm stand-in)
• Jane Cheater (Breakfast bulletins, also stand-in for weather forecasts)
• Carol Lowe (Breakfast bulletins)
• Mark Edwardson (weekend)

Gordon Burns (born June 10th 1942 in Belfast) is a British journalist and link man who shot to fame as host of ITV1s popular game show The Krypton Factor, presenting it from 1977 for eighteen years. ... Ranvir Singh is a news presenter and reporter for the regional BBC news programme, North West Tonight. ...

Sports presenters

• Tony Livesey (also 6:30pm stand-in)
• Richard Askam

Tony Livesey is editor of the Daily Sport newspaper, in the United Kingdom. ...

Weather presenters

• Dianne Oxberry
• Heather Stott

Dianne Oxberry is an English Weather forecaster and co-presents BBC North West Tonight with Gordon Burns. ...

Reporters

• Jayne Barrett (Capital of Culture Correspondent, Liverpool)
• Naomi Cornwell (also occasional presenter)
• Stuart Flinders (also presenter)
• Andy Gill (Merseyside Correspondent)
• Dave Guest (Chief Reporter)
• Abbie Jones (Investigative Reporter)
• Peter Marshall (Lancashire/South Lakes Correspondent)
• Eleanor Moritz
• Kate Simms (Cheshire Correspondent)
• Colin Sykes (Environment/Transport Correspondent)
• David Woodthorpe (Political Editor)

Former presenters

Former presenters include Stuart Hall, John Mundy, Martin Henfield, David Davies and Philip Hayton. Stuart Hall left in 1990, though can be heard often on BBC Radio Manchester waxing lyrical about Manchester City and he appears on Greater Manchester's local television station, Channel M, presenting the segment Hall's Heroes on Channel M News. Stuart Hall (born December 25, 1929) in Hyde, Greater Manchester is a BBC radio and television presenter. ... John Mundy (born September 27, 1953 in Manchester, England) is a British news presenter who was a co-host of BBC North West Tonight and its previous incarnations from the early 1980s until 1993. ... Martin Henfield is an British TV and radio presenter and media specialist. ... David Davies is the current head of the English Football Association. ... Philip Hayton presenting on BBC News 24. ... BBC Radio Manchester is a BBC Local Radio station broadcasting to the city of Manchester and surrounding areas. ... Manchester City Football Club is an English professional football club based in the city of Manchester. ... Channel M is a television station which is based in Manchester. ...

September 2007 Relaunch

The programme was relaunched on Monday 10th September 2007. Ranvir Singh joined Gordon Burns as co-presenter on the main evening edition and a new set was revealed along with new titles and on-screen graphics. The webcam view of Oxford Road which was shown on a large screen ('window') behind Gordon since 2000 did not feature in the new set. Ranvir Singh is a news presenter and reporter for the regional BBC news programme, North West Tonight. ... Gordon Burns (born June 10th 1942 in Belfast) is a British journalist and link man who shot to fame as host of ITV1s popular game show The Krypton Factor, presenting it from 1977 for eighteen years. ...

North West Tonight now uses it own in-house title sequences and graphics featuring images from across the region, Town and City names and 'data streams' flowing throughout the North West and resolving on a map of the region, which symbolises this web of News.

Coinciding with the relaunch, Gordon launched a newsletter which viewers can subscribe to receive by email.

In line with a re-branding of BBC News national, international & regional programmes, North West Tonight's distinctive titles & graphics were axed after only seven months and replaced on Monday 21st April 2008 by the standard BBC News English regional titles.^[1] The new titles feature the images of the North West used in the previous titles and was be combined with a reworked version of the music used in the 2000 opening titles. The re-brand has attracted criticism as a waste of licence-fee money, only seven months after a much-hyped new look was launched.^[2]

BBC North West Today weather game

Every weekday, the presenter of the lunchtime BBC North West Today (usually Gordon Burns) played a word game with the weather presenter standing next to his desk. The weather presenter at lunchtime was usually Nichola Dixon, who presented her report and included in it a secret word. The secret word was an anagram of the first letters of placenames shown on the map. After the report finished, Gordon Burns had to guess what the word was. The weather game was said to increase interest in watching the local weather. It has not been continued since Dixon's departure from the show. Gordon Burns (born 10 June 1942 in Belfast) is a British journalist and television presenter who shot to fame as host of ITVs popular game show The Krypton Factor, presenting it from 1977 for eighteen years. ... If youre looking for the revolutionary communist Weather Underground Organization, see Weathermen BBCs Alex Deakin presenting a weather report. ...

References

External links

• BBC North West Tonight at bbc.co.uk
• Latest programme