''24 Hours'' or ''Twenty-Four Hours'' is a long-running, late evening, daily news magazine programme that aired on

BBC1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

. It focused on analysis and criticism of current affairs and featured in-depth short documentary films that set the style for current affairs magazine programmes. ''24 Hours'' launched on 4 October 1965 and focused on

investigative journalism Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, such as serious crimes, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend months or years res ...

. The programme's main presenter was

Cliff Michelmore Arthur Clifford Michelmore (11 December 1919 – 16 March 2016) was an English television presenter and producer. He is best known for the BBC television programme '' Tonight'', which he presented from 1957 to 1965. He also hosted the BBC's t ...

History

The programme brought together the production teams from two BBC

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

programmes: ''Gallery'', a weekly political programme, and ''

Tonight Tonight may refer to: Television * ''Tonight'' (1957 TV programme), a 1957–1965 British current events television programme hosted by Cliff Michelmore that was broadcast on BBC * ''Tonight'' (1975 TV programme), a 1975–1979 British current ...

'' the early evening magazine programme. The original editors were Tony Whitby from ''Tonight'' and Derrick Amoore from ''Gallery'' but it later came to be led by Anthony Smith. The presenter

was the first lead anchor for ''24 Hours''."Cliff Michelmore, television presenter - obituary", ''The Telegraph'', 18 March 2016
/ref> With him in the studio were Kenneth Allsop, Michael Barratt and Robert McKenzie, a professor of politics at the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is a public university, public research university located in London, England and a constituent college of the federal University of London. Founded in 1895 by Fabian Society members Sidn ...

(LSE). Towards the end of its run

David Dimbleby David Dimbleby (born 28 October 1938) is an English journalist and former presenter of current affairs and political programmes, best known for having presented the BBC topical debate programme ''Question Time''. He is the son of broadcaster ...

became the main presenter.

Style

''24 Hours'' was conceived with the intention of being very different from other current affairs programmes at the time. Critical to the point of confrontational, it abandoned the orthodox reverential rules of engagement with politicians and took a tougher, more modern approach to interviews. ''24 Hours'' used a combination of panel discussions and studio debates, usually with an invited "expert" audience. The programme also featured filmed items or "packages" presented by its reporters

Michael Parkinson Sir Michael Parkinson (born 28 March 1935) is an English broadcaster, journalist and author. He presented his television talk show '' Parkinson'' from 1971 to 1982 and from 1998 to 2007, as well as other talk shows and programmes both in the U ...

Fyfe Robertson James Fyfe Robertson (19 August 1902 – 4 February 1987) was a Scottish television journalist and broadcaster. Biography Robertson was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was one of six children of Jane Dunlop and James Robertson, a miner w ...

Michael Aspel Michael Terence Aspel (born 12 January 1933) is an English retired television newsreader and host of programmes such as '' Crackerjack'', ''Aspel & Company'', '' Give Us a Clue'', ''This is Your Life'', '' Strange but True?'' and ''Antiques Ro ...

Julian Pettifer Julian Pettifer OBE (born 21 July 1935) is an English television journalist. He was president of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and is vice president of the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts and the RSPB. He was voted BAFTA 'Repor ...

, Bernard Falk and

David Jessel David Greenhalgh Jessel (born 8 November 1945) is a former British TV and radio news presenter, author, and campaigner against miscarriages of justice. From 2000 to 2010, he was also a commissioner of the Criminal Cases Review Commission. Backgro ...

, among others. It helped establish an approach to television current affairs and is in many ways the forerunner to BBC Two's present day current affairs flagship ''

Newsnight ''Newsnight'' (or ''BBC Newsnight'') is BBC Two's news and current affairs programme, providing in-depth investigation and analysis of the stories behind the day's headlines. The programme is broadcast on weekdays at 22:30. and is also availa ...

''. Production paperwork, '' Radio Times'' and BBC Archive library all list the title "Twenty-Four Hours" in words, while the programmes logo used numerals "24 Hours".

Scheduling

''24 Hours'' originally had a fluid start time somewhere after 10pm. The decision to give it a fixed start time of 9:55pm was taken in 1967 following the establishment of ITN's peak time '' News at Ten'' programme. However, on Wednesdays it would begin at 10:20pm "in order that ''

The Wednesday Play ''The Wednesday Play'' is an anthology series of British television plays which ran on BBC1 for six seasons from October 1964 to May 1970. The plays were usually original works written for television, although dramatic adaptations of fiction ...

'' may begin ... and run its full 75 minutes."''Radio Times'', 15 June 1967, p.19

Huw Wheldon Sir Huw Pyrs Wheldon, (7 May 1916 – 14 March 1986) was a Welsh broadcaster and BBC executive. Early life Wheldon was born on 7 May 1916 in Prestatyn, Flintshire, Wales. He was educated at Friars School, Bangor, at the time an all-boys g ...

, then BBC Controller of Programmes, said ''24 Hours'' "has become such a valuable part of our coverage of national and international affairs, that we feel we must give it a regular and predictable placing. David Attenborough ... who wants to put his BBC2 programmes on in such a way as to provide real choice for viewers, is driven mad by ''Twenty-Four Hours'' which has had to keep jumping about all over the place. Now we've got ''Twenty-Four Hours'' fixed at five-to-ten, we can handle all that!". ''24 Hours'' run ended on 14 July 1972.

Studio presenters

Kenneth Allsop Kenneth Allsop (29 January 1920 – 23 May 1973) was a British broadcaster, author and naturalist. Early life Allsop was born on 29 January 1920 in Holbeck, Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire. He was married in St Peter's Church, Ealing, i ...

* Michael Barratt *

* Robert McKenzie *

Reporters

Footnotes

External links

* {{BBC News 1965 British television series debuts 1972 British television series endings 1960s British documentary television series 1970s British documentary television series BBC television documentaries English-language television shows