| London Tonight | |
|---|---|
London Tonight opening sequence |
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| Also known as | London Today |
| Format | Regional News |
| Presented by | Nina Hossain (Maternity leave); Natasha Kaplinsky (Maternity cover) |
| Country of origin | England, UK |
| Language(s) | English |
| Production | |
| Editor(s) | Faye Nickolds |
| Location(s) | ITN Studios, London, England, UK |
| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | 30 minutes (main 6pm show) |
| Production company(s) | LNN (1993-2004); ITN (2004-present) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | ITV1 London |
| Picture format | 576i (SDTV 16:9) |
| Original run | 1993 – present |
| Chronology | |
| Preceded by | Thames News (1978-1992), LWT News (1982-1993) |
| Related shows | ITV News, BBC London News |
| External links | |
| Website | |
London Tonight (in other editions London Today) is a regional news programme broadcast on ITV London (previously Carlton/LWT). Produced by ITN, the programme is broadcast at 6pm every weeknight, also including local sports news and local features of interest.
Like all regional news programmes on ITV in England and Wales and Channel Television, it uses the generic ITV plc font and idents.
Contents |
London Tonight began on 4 January 1993 after Carlton Television won the London weekday franchise from previous holder Thames. The programme was originally produced by London News Network in association with LWT and Carlton. LNN was established to provide a united, seven day, ITV (Channel 3) news service for London. Its creation established a continuity between the once different brands of weekend and weekday news, weather and sport in the region.
On screen, the only difference between the Weekday and Weekend programmes became the endcap. This continued after the onscreen identities of Carlton London and LWT were scrapped by owners Carlton and Granada in anticipation of a merger. Instead of being referred to as LWT and Carlton, ITV London (weekend) and ITV London (weekday) became the respective names and all onscreen idents referred to ITV1 London.
ITV London (weekday) and ITV London (weekend) owners Carlton and Granada merged, forming ITV plc and LNN was dissolved soon after this. Production for all ITV London News programming remained at The London Studios (formerly known as the LWT South Bank Centre) until 29 February 2004. Production is now conducted by the national Channel 3 news franchisee ITN at their headquarters in Central London, making the region unique as it holds the only franchise operation not to produce its own in-house news programmes.
London Tonight was unaffected by the ITV regional news cuts in late 2008 to early 2009.[1]
Alastair Stewart, who presented London Tonight for over 16 years, left the programme in September 2009 to be replaced temporarily by Matt Teale.[2] Teale was replaced by Donal MacIntyre in April 2010,[3] and now presents weekend bulletins.
Katie Derham left London Tonight on 23 June 2010 to join the BBC[4] and was replaced by Nina Hossain.[5] MacIntyre left the programme in September 2010,[6] with London Life correspondent Ben Scotchbrook taking over his duties.
Entertainment correspondent Lucy Cotter and weather presenter Robin McCallum presented the last double headed programme for the capital on 29 October 2010, with Cotter also departing on this date to join Sky News.[7] From 1 November 2010 the programme has been presented solely by Nina Hossain.[7]
On 3 August 2011, it was announced that Natasha Kaplinsky will provide maternity leave cover for Nina Hossain, the main presenter of London Tonight and relief presenter of ITV News programmes from mid-September until Spring 2012.[8] She tookover from Hossain in mid November 2011 after two months as a relief presenter.
London Today/Tonight airs on ITV1 London seven days a week.
ITV London provides three news bulletins during Daybreak. The lunchtime bulletin follows on from the ITV News at 1:30, giving a seven minute round-up of the days developments from 1:54pm. The main evening edition of London Tonight begins at 6.00pm, and ends at 6.29pm. The late edition follows the ITV News at Ten, airing between 10.28pm and 10.37pm, Monday to Friday.
London Today/Tonight airs two bulletins at weekends, late afternoon on Saturday, and early evening on Sunday.
Journalists who are employed for ITV London may also work with ITV News, in the same position or various, as both operations are produced by ITN. The ITV News at 1:30 newsreader is utilised to present the following London Today bulletin for ITV1 London.
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Non-newsreaders marked with a * are also newsreaders.
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