''Thames Valley Tonight'' was a regional news programme broadcast to part of the ITV Network in the

Thames Valley The Thames Valley is an informally-defined sub-region of South East England, centred on the River Thames west of London, with Oxford as a major centre. Its boundaries vary with context. The area is a major tourist destination and economic hub, ...

area of southern England. The

news region was launched on Monday 4 December 2006 and ceased to exist on 8 February 2009. Like all regional news programmes on ITV in England and Wales and

ITV Channel Television ITV Channel Television, previously Channel Television, is a British television station which has served as the ITV contractor for the Channel Islands since 1962. It is based in Jersey and broadcasts regional programme for insertion into the ...

, it used the generic ITV font and idents.

History

The region was created by a merger between Meridian West and Central South's regional news services, and broadcast to the Meridian West sub-region from the Hannington transmitter, and the Central South sub-region from the

Oxford transmitter The Oxford transmitting station (sometimes known as the Beckley transmitter) is a broadcasting and telecommunications facility, situated on land above Ordnance Datum (mean sea level) to the north east of the city of Oxford, in Oxfordshire, Eng ...

. The Thames Valley operation covered Berkshire, Buckinghamshire (west including Aylesbury), Hampshire (north of and including Winchester), Oxfordshire, Surrey (west and including Camberley) and Wiltshire (east and including Swindon). In all the population of the patch was around 3 million people. The main presenters were Mary Green and Wesley Smith (with Hannah Shellswell co-presenting with Smith on Fridays). Chris Maughan, Victoria Bennett and David Reilly presented the Sports News, either in the studio or from the newsroom. While the newsgathering arm of the operation was based at the old Central South location at Abingdon in Oxfordshire, the presentation studio (formerly used for Meridian West) was based at Meridian's headquarters in Whiteley, Hampshire. Bureaux offices were located at Swindon, Reading and Westminster. The view projected on to the screen behind the newsreaders was of the Oracle Shopping Centre in Reading, chosen presumably as the town lay in the heart of the new region – previously it sat in an overlap of the now replaced Central South and Meridian West sub-regions – therefore avoiding accusations of favouritism towards one side or the other. In just over two years on air, ''Thames Valley Tonight'' won a number of awards, including the RTS Southern Centre 'Programme of the Year' Award in 2007 for coverage of the summer floods and the 2008 EDF News Programme of the Year Award for its coverage of the opening of Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport.

Merger

On 12 September 2007, it was reported that

ITV plc ITV plc is a British media company that holds 13 of the 15 regional television licences that make up the ITV network (Channel 3), the oldest and largest commercial terrestrial television network in the United Kingdom. ITV plc is listed on the ...

boss

Michael Grade Michael Ian Grade, Baron Grade of Yarmouth, (born 8 March 1943) is an English television executive and businessman. He has held a number of senior roles in television, including controller of BBC1 (1984–1986), chief executive of Channel 4 ( ...

wanted to cut down its number of regional newsrooms from seventeen to nine by merging some services, which could save between £35m and £40m per year. This would involve combining the Meridian and Thames Valley regions. In the Thames Valley, the merger would signal the end of ''Thames Valley Tonight''/''Thames Valley Today'' and would be replaced by a pan-regional edition of ''

Meridian Tonight ''ITV News Meridian'' is a British television news service broadcast and produced by ITV Meridian. Overview The news service is produced and broadcast from ITV Meridian's studios in Whiteley, near Fareham with reporters also based at bureaux i ...

''. The current Thames Valley region would be merged with the ''Meridian South'' sub-region for opt-outs within the main weekday programme, a late night bulletin and localised weather forecasts. Robin Britton, previously Head of News for ITV Thames Valley and Regional Editor for Meridian West, was subsequently appointed Head of News for the new operation. The final main edition of ''Thames Valley Tonight'' was broadcast on Friday 6 February 2009. The last Thames Valley news bulletin was broadcast at 6.10 pm on Sunday 8 February 2009. In September 2013, a Thames Valley service was reintroduced by ''

ITV News Meridian ''ITV News Meridian'' is a British television news service broadcast and produced by ITV Meridian. Overview The news service is produced and broadcast from ITV Meridian's studios in Whiteley, near Fareham with reporters also based at bureaux i ...

'' in the form of a ten-minute opt out during the 6 pm programme and a full late night bulletin after ''

ITV News at Ten ''ITV News at Ten'' (or more commonly ''News at Ten'') is the flagship evening news programme on British television network ITV, produced by ITN and founded by news editor Geoffrey Cox in July 1967. The bulletin was the first permanent 30-min ...

'' on weekdays.

Former on air team

*Victoria Bennett * Sally Biddulph (née Mules, now with ''

ITV News ITV News is the branding of news programmes on the British television network ITV. ITV has a long tradition of television news. Independent Television News (ITN) was founded to provide news bulletins for the network in 1955, and has since cont ...

'') * Andrea Byrne (now with ''ITV News'' and '' ITV News Cymru Wales'') *Martyn Davies (emigrated to Australia) *Juliette Fletcher (

freelance ''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance w ...

with ''

'') * Mary Green (now with

BBC Radio Berkshire BBC Radio Berkshire is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Berkshire. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds studios at Thames Valley Park near Reading. According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audienc ...

) * Gemma Humphries *Gillian Kelly *Mark Lipscomb *Chris Maughan (continues with ''ITV News Meridian'') *Simon Parkin (continues with ''ITV News Meridian'') *David Reilly *Reshma Rumsey *Hannah Shellswell (née Stewart-Jones) *Wesley Smith (freelance journalist)

Production Team

Head of News
Robin Britton Producer
Kim Hewitt Output Producers
Caroline Asker
Caroline Ferguson
Natalie Kenny
Emma Pyne Assistant Producer
Janet Hayman News Editor
Jim Stevens Features Producer
Reshma Rumsey Forward Planning Editor
Kate Taylor Studio Directors
Keith Peries
James Tee Technical Co-ordinator
Steve Atkey Graphic Designer
Amanda Hall

References

{{ITV Local News 2006 British television series debuts 2009 British television series endings ITV regional news shows Mass media in Berkshire Mass media in Buckinghamshire Mass media in Hampshire Mass media in Oxford Mass media in Wiltshire Television news in England English-language television shows