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

(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. Histor ...

(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 Grampian Police was, between 1975 and 2013 (replaced by Police Scotland), the territorial police force of the northeast region of Scotland, covering the council areas of Aberdeenshire, the City of Aberdeen, and Moray (the former Grampian region ...

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,

Fife Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross ...

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 Cairn Gorm ( gd, An Càrn Gorm) is a mountain in the Scottish Highlands. It is part of the Cairngorms range and wider Grampian Mountains. With a summit elevation of above sea level, Cairn Gorm is classed as a Munro and is the seventh-hi ...

. 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 Queen's Cross is an area in the West End of Aberdeen, Scotland. It is located just west of the main thoroughfare of Union Street and about from the geographical town centre at Mercat Cross. Queen's Cross itself is the intersection of Fountai ...

in Aberdeen until the station moved to new, smaller studios in the

West Tullos Tullos is an area of Aberdeen, Scotland. The area takes its name from the Vale of Tullos, which lies between Tullos Hill and Torry Hill. Tullos derived its name from a corruption of the Gaelic ‘Tulach’ meaning a hill. In this extract from ...

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 of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

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 ...

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, B ...

. 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 ...

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 Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...

. On 8 January 2007, viewers of ''North Tonight'' began to receive two different programmes - those in the

, Angus,

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 nort ...

and north-east

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 The Highlands and Islands is an area of Scotland broadly covering the Scottish Highlands, plus Orkney, Shetland and Outer Hebrides (Western Isles). The Highlands and Islands are sometimes defined as the area to which the Crofters' Act of 1 ...

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 Macmillan Media is a multimedia company covering the UK and Ireland, working in Glasgow, Belfast, Dublin, Manchester and London, and owned by former BBC and ITN foreign correspondent Michael Macmillan. ''Daybreak'' regional news Until January 2 ...

, 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 STV is a Scottish free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the STV Group. It is made up of the Central Scotland and Northern Scotland Channel 3 public broadcaster licences, formerly known as Scottish Television (n ...

. 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 ''STV News'' is a Scottish news service produced by STV. The news department produces two regional services covering STV's Channel 3 franchise areas of Northern and Central Scotland. STV's news programmes are produced from studios in Glasgo ...

''. 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) Alan Fisher is a Scottish broadcast journalist and war correspondent. For many years he worked at GMTV, but now works for international news channel Al Jazeera English, where he is ...

(1986 - 1990) * Pauline Fraser (2000 - 2007) *

Frank Gilfeather Frank Gilfeather (born 30 December 1945, Lochee, Dundee, Scotland) is a Scottish journalist and broadcaster. Gilfeather, a former Scottish amateur boxing champion from Dundee, moved to Aberdeen in April 1969 and began work on the Press & Journa ...

(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 ag ...

(1996 - 2009) *Chris Harvey (2000 - 2009) * Joan Ingram (1983 - 1997) *

Sarah Mack Sarah Mack (born circa 1973) is a Scottish television presenter and journalist. Mack started her career at the now-defunct Edinburgh Live cable TV station as a runner and production journalist. Within two months of working for the station, she m ...

(1998 - 2003) * Anne MacKenzie (1981 - 1995) * Norman Macleod (c. 1990 - 2009) * Anne Scott (mid - late 1990s) * Selina Scott (1978 - 1980) * Tyrone Smith (1998 - 2009) * Anna Soubry (1981 - 1984) *

Isla Traquair Isla Traquair (born 1 January 1980) is a Scottish television host, producer and journalist. She has worked with STV, Channel 5, and ITN. She is currently based between the UK and North America where she is the host of the TV show ''Buy.o.logic ...

(2001 - 2006) * Ron Thomson (1966 - 1991) * Mark White (1993 - 1999) *

Alastair Yates Alastair Kenneth Yates (3 September 1952 – 26 July 2018) was an English news anchor, for over 20 years with the BBC, on BBC World News and BBC News. Born 3 September 1952 and brought up in Burton upon Trent, Yates was educated at Manor Hou ...

(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