''North Tonight'' is a Scottish nightly regional news programme covering the North of Scotland, produced by

STV North Grampian Television was the original name of the Channel 3 service for the north of Scotland founded in 1961 and now named STV. The northern region's coverage area includes the Northern Isles, Western Isles, Highlands (except Fort William and ...

(formerly Grampian Television).

History

During the late 1960s and 1970s, Grampian's regional news service consisted of daily 10-minute evening bulletins. By 1978, the bulletins had developed into a magazine programme entitled ''Grampian Today'', initially broadcast from Wednesday - Friday before expanding to every weeknight. The programme was relaunched as ''North Tonight'' on Monday 7 January 1980 in an effort to reflect the Northern Scotland region as a whole - its first presenters were John Duncanson and

Selina Scott Selina Mary Scott (born 13 May 1951) is an English television presenter who co-hosted the first dedicated breakfast television programme in the UK before crossing the Atlantic to join '' West 57th'', a prime-time current-affairs show broadcast f ...

. The launch of ''North Tonight'' coincided with the opening of a new remote-controlled studio at Albany House in

Dundee Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...

(an event broadcast live on the first programme) and an expansion into Grampian's use of

Electronic News Gathering Electronic news-gathering (ENG) or electronic journalism (EJ) is usage of electronic video and audio technologies by reporters to gather and present news instead of using film cameras. The term was coined during the rise of videotape techn ...

(ENG) cameras. ''Grampian Today'' had pioneered the use of such cameras in 1978, allowing the company to extend its flagship news programme to five nights a week. By 1983, a third studio at

Inverness Inverness (; from the gd, Inbhir Nis , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness"; sco, Innerness) is a city in the Scottish Highlands. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands. Histori ...

(modelled on the Dundee studio) was opened, allowing greater coverage of the Highlands and Islands area. The early years of ''North Tonight'' also coincided with the launch of regular news bulletins at lunchtime (''North News'') and before station closedown (''North Headlines'') on weekdays, read by Grampian's team of continuity announcers. Regional news at weekends would not be introduced until 1988, when the bulletins were renamed ''Grampian Headlines''. Up until the early 1990s, ''North Tonight'' was taken off air during the summer months and replaced by a nightly magazine show entitled ''Summer at Six'' (later ''North Tonight: Summer Edition''), which also included a short news bulletin. Significant points in the history of the programme included extensive coverage of the

Piper Alpha Piper Alpha was an oil platform located in the North Sea approximately north-east of Aberdeen, Scotland. It was operated by Occidental Petroleum (Caledonia) Limited (OPCAL) and began production in 1976, initially as an oil-only platform but la ...

disaster in 1988 and the resignation of Grampian Police chief constable Dr. Ian Oliver in 1998. ''North Tonight'' also covered the murder of Aberdeen schoolboy Scott Simpson in the mid-1990s and the bird flu incident in

Cellardyke Cellardyke is a village in the East Neuk of Fife, Scotland. The village is to the immediate east of Anstruther (the two effectively being conjoined) and is to the south of Kilrenny. History Cellardyke was formerly known as Nether Kilrenny ( ...

, Fife in April 2006. Its predecessor, ''Grampian Today'', had the first live broadcast from an oil platform in the North Sea, as well as the first live broadcast from the summit of Cairn Gorm. During the mid 1990s, ''North Tonight'' twice won the BAFTA Scotland award for Best News Programme. ''North Tonight'' live aired from Grampian's main studios at Queens Cross in Aberdeen until the station moved to new, smaller studios in the West Tullos area of the city in 2003. News studios were retained in

and

with political correspondents based at bureaux in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

and

Millbank Millbank is an area of central London in the City of Westminster. Millbank is located by the River Thames, east of Pimlico and south of Westminster. Millbank is known as the location of major government offices, Burberry headquarters, the Millb ...

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bucki ...

. There was a studio in

Stornoway Stornoway (; gd, Steòrnabhagh; sco, Stornowa) is the main town of the Western Isles and the capital of Lewis and Harris in Scotland. The town's population is around 6,953, making it by far the largest town in the Outer Hebrides, as well a ...

but this closed in 2001. Contracted freelance correspondents and cameramen provided news coverage from the outer regions of Shetland, Orkney, Caithness and Sutherland. The programme also had the distinction of reporting from the largest geographical region in the ITV network, covering an area the size of Belgium. On 8 January 2007, viewers of ''North Tonight'' began to receive two different programmes - those in the

Angus Angus may refer to: Media * ''Angus'' (film), a 1995 film * ''Angus Og'' (comics), in the ''Daily Record'' Places Australia * Angus, New South Wales Canada * Angus, Ontario, a community in Essa, Ontario * East Angus, Quebec Scotland * An ...

Perthshire Perthshire (locally: ; gd, Siorrachd Pheairt), officially the County of Perth, is a historic county and registration county in central Scotland. Geographically it extends from Strathmore in the east, to the Pass of Drumochter in the north, ...

and north-east Fife area received a dedicated bulletin within the main ''North Tonight'' programme featuring the day's news from the sub-region, presented & produced from STV's studios in

and directed from a technical gallery in Aberdeen. Originally, the Tayside bulletins were produced from Harbour Chambers in City Quay. As of 28 April 2008, STV News's Tayside operation is now based at upgraded, larger studios at Seabraes. Whilst the Tayside bulletin was broadcast, viewers further north saw more news from the north-east, Highlands and Islands areas, broadcast from the headquarters of STV North in Aberdeen. On 7 April 2007, it was announced that

GMTV GMTV (an acronym for Good Morning Television), now legally known as ITV Breakfast Broadcasting Limited, was the name of the national Channel 3 breakfast television contractor/licensee, broadcasting in the United Kingdom from 1 January 1993 ...

had replaced STV as the supplier of early morning regional news bulletins in Scotland. The contract was awarded to the Belfast-based Macmillan Media, which has offices in London and Glasgow. GMTV Scotland (Grampian) began on 3 December 2007. STV, and its northern predecessor Grampian Television had supplied GMTV with its news since the breakfast channel took over from TV-am in 1993. The newsroom produced three bulletins of about three minutes each at 06.35, 07.05 and 08.05. The decision also affected ''North Today's'' sister programme, ''Scotland Today''. The contract to provide regional

ITV Breakfast ITV Breakfast Broadcasting Limited (previously known as GMTV Limited) is the national ITV breakfast television licensee, broadcasting in the United Kingdom. It became a wholly owned subsidiary of ITV plc in November 2009. The breakfast license ...

in North of Scotland (as well as the STV Central region) returned to STV in 2013. On 19 June 2007, STV North began producing ''Northern Exposure'', a supplementary video blog, presented and produced by the ''North Tonight'' team for the station's website, stv.tv. The blogs, which spawned a spin-off series entitled ''Ask Kirstin'', continued to be produced on a regular basis until June 2009. On 18 March 2009, it was announced that the ''North Tonight'' branding would be phased out as part of a major station revamp. On Monday 23 March 2009, the nightly news programme was relaunched and renamed as '' STV News at Six''. The name is also used in the STV Central region as a replacement for ''

Scotland Today ''Scotland Today'' is a Scottish regional news programme covering Central Scotland, produced by STV Central (formerly Scottish Television). Despite its name suggesting a national remit, the programme was actually limited to stories around STV's C ...

''. The last main edition of ''North Tonight'' was aired on Friday 20 March 2009.

Presenters

* Andrew Anderson (1988 - 1992) * Andrea Brymer (2003 - 2009) * John Duncanson (1980 - 1998) *

Alan Fisher Alan Fisher may refer to: * Alan Fisher (broadcast journalist), Scottish broadcast journalist * Alan Fisher (trade unionist) (1922–1988), British trade unionist * Alan Fisher (architect) (1905–1978), American architect * Allan George Barnar ...

(1986 - 1990) * Pauline Fraser (2000 - 2007) * Frank Gilfeather (1980 - mid 1990s) *

Kirstin Gove Kirstin Gove (formerly Haggarty, born 1973) is a Scottish PR & media consultant, who previously worked as a broadcast journalist and presenter for STV North (formerly Grampian Television). Gove was born in Glasgow but moved to Aberdeen at the age ...

(1996 - 2009) *Chris Harvey (2000 - 2009) * Joan Ingram (1983 - 1997) * Sarah Mack (1998 - 2003) * Anne MacKenzie (1981 - 1995) * Norman Macleod (c. 1990 - 2009) * Anne Scott (mid - late 1990s) *

(1978 - 1980) * Tyrone Smith (1998 - 2009) *

Anna Soubry Anna Mary Soubry (; born 7 December 1956) is a British barrister, journalist and former politician who was Member of Parliament (MP) for Broxtowe from 2010 to 2019. Known for her support of pro-European policies, she was originally elected as ...

(1981 - 1984) * Isla Traquair (2001 - 2006) * Ron Thomson (1966 - 1991) * Mark White (1993 - 1999) * Alastair Yates (1980 - 1986)

References

External links

* {{STV Group 1980 Scottish television series debuts 1980s Scottish television series 1990s Scottish television series 2000s Scottish television series 2009 Scottish television series endings ITV regional news shows Scottish television news shows Television shows produced by Grampian Television STV News