''News After Noon'' is a news bulletin 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, ...

at lunchtimes from 7 September 1981 to 24 October 1986.

History

''News After Noon'' launched on 7 September 1981 and replaced a shorter fifteen-minute lunchtime news bulletin called ''The Midday News.'' which had been on air since 1976. Broadcast at 12:30, it was initially billed as "the first television news of the day", as when the programme started breakfast television had not launched in the UK. ''News After Noon'' was replaced by the '' One O'Clock News'' when the BBC launched its daytime television service and the final edition of ''News After Noon'' was broadcast on 24 October 1986.

Format

''News After Noon'' was the first BBC television news bulletin to last for a full thirty minutes – at the time, the '' Nine O'Clock News'' was 25 minutes in length. After 25 minutes of news there was a weather forecast, after which the regions left the programme for their lunchtime regional news bulletin. However, at this time,

BBC South East BBC South East is the BBC English region serving Kent, East Sussex, most parts of West Sussex and southern parts of Surrey. The BBC region was created in September 2001 by the joining of the Heathfield transmitter (formerly part of the BBC ...

did not broadcast regional news bulletins so the final three minutes of ''News After Noon'', which consisted of a financial report and a recap of the news headlines with in-vision subtitles, was only seen in London and the south east. This continued until

launched a regional news bulletin on 2 September 1985, after which ''News After Noon'' lasted for 25 minutes and the weather forecast followed the regional news bulletins.

Presenters

Throughout its five years on air the programme had a two-person presentation team.

Richard Whitmore Richard Whitmore (born 22 December 1933 in Hitchin, Hertfordshire) is a broadcaster, writer and actor. Whitmore is best known for his work as a BBC newsreader in the 1970s and 1980s and occasional work as a reporter. He was educated at the form ...

normally presented the programme alongside either

Moira Stuart Moira Clare Ruby Stuart, (born 2 September 1949) is a British presenter and broadcaster. She was the first female newsreader of Caribbean heritage to appear on British national television, having worked on BBC News since 1981.Frances Coverdale This is a list of newsreaders and journalists formerly employed by BBC Television and BBC Radio. The BBC has employed many journalists and newsreaders to present its news programmes as well as to provide news reports and interviews. The follo ...

, although Coverdale became the main co-presenter towards the end of the programme's run. Both Whitmore and Stuart continued as daytime newsreaders after the end of ''News After Noon'' as they shared presentational duties of the hourly '' BBC News Summaries'' that formed part of the new daytime schedule. Other presenters included Laurie Mayer,

Chris Lowe Christopher Sean Lowe (born 4 October 1959) is an English musician, singer and songwriter, and co-founder of the synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys, which he formed with Neil Tennant in 1981. Biography Lowe attended Arnold School, an independen ...

Fern Britton Fern Britton (born 17 July 1957) is an English author and television presenter. She co-presented '' Breakfast Time'' in the 1980s, coming to mainstream national attention when hosting cookery game show ''Ready Steady Cook'' between 1994 and 200 ...

Sue Carpenter Sue Carpenter (born 17 May 1956 in London, England) is a United Kingdom former newsreader and television presenter. She graduated in English Literature and Icelandic at King's College London in 1977. After presenting regional BBC news programme ...

, Michael Cole, Judith Stamper,

Anne Diamond Anne Margaret Diamond (born 8 September 1954) is a British journalist and broadcaster. She presently hosts the weekend breakfast show on GB News with Stephen Dixon as her co-presenter. She hosted '' Good Morning Britain'' for TV-am and ''Good ...

and Jane Franchi.

Broadcast times

''News After Noon'' was broadcast in two time slots. Between September and May the programme ran from 12:30 until 13:00. However ''

Pebble Mill at One ''Pebble Mill at One'' is a British television magazine programme that was broadcast live on weekdays at one o'clock on BBC1, from 2 October 1972 to 23 May 1986, and again from 14 October 1991 to 29 March 1996. It was transmitted from the Peb ...

'' did not broadcast during the summer; when it was not on the air ''News After Noon'' was shown between 13:00 and 13:30. Also, during the summer months, shorter editions of ''News After Noon'' (sometimes with one presenter instead of two) were broadcast when the BBC was broadcasting live cricket coverage. This was to ensure that viewers did not miss the end of the morning's play and the start of the afternoon's play. On these days, ''News After Noon'' would last for twenty minutes instead of the usual thirty minutes.BBC Genome Project home page
/ref>

References

{{BBC News 1981 British television series debuts 1986 British television series endings BBC television news shows British television news shows BBC News