Tonight was a BBC television current affairs programme shown on weekday nights from
1 September 1975 until 5 July 1979 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, p ...
.
It was initially presented by
Sue Lawley
Susan Lawley (born 14 July 1946) is a retired English television and radio broadcaster. Her main broadcasting background involved television news and current affairs. From 1988–2006, Lawley was the presenter of ''Desert Island Discs'' on BBC R ...
,
Denis Tuohy
Denis Tuohy (born 2 April 1937, Belfast, Northern Ireland) is a television broadcaster, newsreader and journalist and actor.
Tuohy attended Queen's University, Belfast, where he learned to debate and acquired an interest in acting. In 1960, he a ...
and
Donald MacCormick
Donald MacCormick (16 April 1939 – 12 July 2009)[Veteran BBC newsman dies aged 70](_blank)
...
and reporters included
John Pitman,
Richard Kershaw
Richard Ruegg Kershaw (16 April 1934 – 28 April 2014) was a British television reporter and interviewer.
Born in London, he was educated at Cheltenham College (an independent school for boys) in England. He was then called up for National ...
,
David Lomax
David Walter Lomax (born 21 September 1970) is a New Zealand rugby league coach and former player who represented New Zealand. He is the brother of another international, John Lomax.
Early years
Lomax grew up playing rugby league for the Wainu ...
,
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 ...
and Michael Delahaye. Michael Bunce was the programme's first editor.
Unlike its predecessor also called ''
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 ...
'' which was shown in the early evening, this programme was generally the last BBC One programme each evening and appeared at variable times. It took over from the
''24 Hours'' programme, also on BBC One in late evenings, and ran in the same years as the BBC's ''
Nationwide'' which was shown early evening.
In 1976 under editor Chris Capron,
John Timpson
John Harry Robert Timpson, (2 July 1928 – 19 November 2005) was a British journalist, best known as a radio presenter.
Early life
Born at Ridgeholme, 53 The Ridgeway, Kenton, Middlesex, he was educated at Merchant Taylors' School, a boys' ...
alternated with Tuohy and MacCormick presented occasional topics. Lawley took maternity leave and
Ludovic Kennedy
Sir Ludovic Henry Coverley Kennedy (3 November 191918 October 2009) was a Scottish journalist, broadcaster, humanist and author best known for re-examining cases such as the Lindbergh kidnapping and the murder convictions of Timothy Evans and ...
and
Robin Day
Sir Robin Day (24 October 1923 – 6 August 2000) was an English political journalist and television and radio broadcaster.
Day's obituary in ''The Guardian'' by Dick Taverne stated that he was "the most outstanding television journalist of ...
, from BBC Two's ''Newsday'' current affairs series, became new presenters, supported by
Melvin Bragg and
Barry Norman
Barry Leslie Norman (21 August 1933 – 30 June 2017) was a British film critic, television presenter and journalist. He presented the BBC's cinema review programme, '' Film...'', from 1972 to 1998.
Early life
Born at St Thomas’s Hospital ...
for arts and cinema topics.
Jeremy Paxman
Jeremy Dickson Paxman (born 11 May 1950) is an English broadcaster, journalist, author, and television presenter. Born in Leeds, Paxman was educated at Malvern College and St Catharine's College, Cambridge, where he edited the undergraduate ne ...
became a new presenter.
Valerie Singleton
Valerie Singleton (born 9 April 1937) is an English television and radio presenter best known as a regular presenter of the popular children's series ''Blue Peter'' from 1962 to 1972. She also presented the BBC Radio 4 '' PM'' programme for t ...
had become a presenter and
Roger Bolton the editor by the time the programme ended in July 1979,
BBC Programme Index - BBC1 listings 5 July 1979
/ref> making way for ''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 ...
'' on BBC Two
BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...
.
References
{{reflist
Current affairs shows
BBC television news shows
1975 British television series debuts
1979 British television series endings