About Anglia
| About Anglia | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Regional News |
| Country of origin | England |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Anglia Television |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Release | |
| Original network | Anglia Television |
| Original release | 1960 – 1990 |
| Chronology | |
| Related shows | ITV News Anglia |
About Anglia was a regional news magazine programme produced by Anglia Television in the east of England. One of the first in the ITV network, it began in May 1960 as a twice-weekly programme accompanying the 10-minute early evening news on weekdays. Its success prompted it to be extended to four nights a week and then every weeknight.[1] Its original presenter was Dick Joice.
Early regular features included gardening, Police Call and weather forecasts for the region provided by Anglia's weather department. Some early elements featured on the short-lived Midday Show, which aired during the first few months of the station and featured Susan Hampshire among its cast.
The programme was transmitted throughout the Anglia region: Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Lincolnshire and south and east Yorkshire. From 1 January 1974, Lincolnshire and parts of Yorkshire and North Norfolk transferred to Yorkshire Television.
About Anglia was given a new look on Monday 21 March 1988 when Anglia Television abandoned its original identification, a small silver statue of a knight on horseback.
Two years later, on Monday 9 July 1990, About Anglia was replaced by Anglia News, which transmitted two programmes, Anglia News East for Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and parts of Cambridgeshire, and Anglia News West for Northants, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, most of Cambridgeshire and areas of South Lincolnshire.
Both were produced and broadcast from studios at Anglia House in Norwich, long before this became standard across ITV regional news services, with reporters in Cambridge, Ipswich, Chelmsford, Peterborough, Northampton, Milton Keynes and Luton, along with a political base at Westminster. Cutbacks in 2009 led to the reintroduction of a pan-regional programme (known as Anglia Tonight) with shorter sub-regional opt outs - which have since been extended under ITV News Anglia.
Former presenters
Many About Anglia personalities moved on to national prominence.
- Judy Finnigan came to Anglia in the mid-1970s from Granada Television as a reporter and presenter. She married and settled in Norwich, making her name in 1977 when she gave birth to twin sons and, the following day, showed the babies on About Anglia. She left to return to Granada as co-host of Granada Reports.
- Bob Wellings, covering offbeat stories, became a presenter of BBC Television’s current affairs Nationwide programme during 1971-79.
- Alastair Yates joined About Anglia in 1987 following a period with Grampian Television's North Tonight, but left two years later to become the first presenter on Sky News in Britain.
Other presenters and journalists who appeared regularly include:
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