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''On the Record'' was a
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
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political
Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that stud ...
television series
A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed be ...
, aired on
BBC One
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, ...
in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
from 18 September 1988 to 15 December 2002, usually at a Sunday lunchtime. It was the successor to the earlier BBC political television series ''This Week, Next Week'', which had aired on BBC 1 from 18 November 1984 until 12 June 1988, and been presented by
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 ...
. A total of 492 editions were produced over fifteen series, which apart from two special ones were all sixty minutes long.
The programme was initially presented by David Dimbleby's younger brother,
Jonathan Dimbleby
Jonathan Dimbleby (born 31 July 1944) is a British presenter of current affairs and political radio and television programmes, author and historian. He is the son of Richard Dimbleby and younger brother of television presenter David Dimbleby.
...
, from its first episode on 18 September 1988 until its 178th one on 18 July 1993. It was later presented by
John Humphrys
Desmond John Humphrys (born 17 August 1943) is a Welsh broadcaster. From 1981 to 1987 he was the main presenter for the '' Nine O'Clock News'', the flagship BBC News television programme, and from 1987 until 2019 he presented on the BBC Radio 4 ...
from its 179th episode on 19 September 1993 until its last one on 15 December 2002. With the exceptions of the two special ones on 12 April 1992 and 18 November 2001, each edition ran for sixty minutes, most of them starting with a filmed piece about a major issue of the day before returning to the studio in which the presenter would "grill" a leading politician on the same issue. A long-running segment of the programme was a political sketch that would be presented by the late
John Cole (1927-2013), and for its sixth series in 1993, its theme song (which had been composed by George Fenton, but he was not credited) was revised in order to incorporate Cole's section within the programme with his own jingles.
The programme's mascot was an enormous mutant
crocodile, based on a
British House of Commons gargoyle
In architecture, and specifically Gothic architecture, a gargoyle () is a carved or formed grotesque with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building, thereby preventing it from running down masonry walls ...
and the
Great Westminster Clock, and fashioned from plastic, glue and leather. For the opening titles of the first five series, the crocodile marched across the United Kingdom, but for those of the sixth to fifteenth series, it marched across Europe (and from 5 October 1997, the then-new BBC logo, which had replaced the previous underlined one from 1988 only the day before, was faded in at the start of the titles). Both sequences were shot in
stop-motion animation by 3 Peach Animation, and at the end of most of the episodes from the sixth to fifteenth series, the credits "flew" into the crocodile's open mouth as it occasionally blinked, before it closed its mouth and lowered its head as the BBC logo of the time, the copyright notice and the editor's credit (along with the programme's website address as of 27 April 1997), appeared.
During 2000, the then-current
Director-General of the BBC
The director-general of the British Broadcasting Corporation is chief executive and (from 1994) editor-in-chief of the BBC.
The position was formerly appointed by the Board of Governors of the BBC (for the period of 1927 to 2007) and then t ...
Greg Dyke
Gregory Dyke (born 20 May 1947) is a British media executive, football administrator, journalist, and broadcaster. Since the 1960s, Dyke has had a long career in the UK in print and then broadcast journalism. He is credited with introducing ' ...
ordered a review of political output from the BBC, which was carried out by
Fran Unsworth
Francesca Mary Unsworth (born 29 December 1957) is a British journalist and media executive. Since January 2018 she has been Director, News & Current Affairs for BBC News. She was appointed in succession to James Harding. Before then she ser ...
. This led to a major overhaul of their political output in 2002, resulting in ''On the Record'' being axed and replaced by ''
The Politics Show
''Politics Show'' is an hour-long BBC One television political programme which was broadcast in the United Kingdom on Sundays between 2003 and 2011, broadcasting usually at midday.
''Politics Show'' was superseded by ''Sunday Politics'', a weeke ...
''.
The fifteenth series only comprised 12 episodes, and the final one was aired on 15 December 2002.
References
External links
*{{BBC Online, otr, ''On the Record''
1980s British political television series
1988 British television series debuts
1990s British political television series
2000s British political television series
2002 British television series endings
BBC Television shows
British political television series
English-language television shows