''The World Tonight'' is a British current affairs radio programme broadcast on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

, every weekday evening, which started out as an extension of the 10 pm news. It is produced by

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...

and features news, analysis and comment on domestic and world issues. Ritula Shah is currently the main presenter, usually presenting the first three days of the week. The programme utilises other BBC broadcasters including

David Eades David Eades is a journalist and newsreader working for BBC News. He presents ''The World Today'' (05:00–08:00) among other BBC news outlets, and has a long track record in presenting on both domestic and international outlets for the BBC, incl ...

Carolyn Quinn Carolyn Quinn (born 22 July 1961 in Camberwell, London) is a British journalist best known for her work on BBC Radio 4 as a political correspondent and for presenting the ''Today'' programme and '' PM''. Early life Quinn attended St Joseph's RC ...

James Coomarasamy James Coomarasamy is a British presenter of the BBC Radio 4 evening programme ''The World Tonight'' and the flagship '' Newshour'' programme on the BBC World Service. Before joining ''Newshour'' in 2010, Coomarasamy spent a year presenting th ...

Roger Hearing Roger Hearing is a journalist and former news presenter. Previously Hearing worked as a presenter on the BBC World Service and at Bloomberg Radio. Early life Hearing was born in London and brought up in west Dorset. Education Hearing was edu ...

Samira Ahmed Samira Ahmed (born 15 June 1968) is a British journalist, writer and broadcaster at the BBC, where she has presented Radio 3's ''Night Waves'' and Radio 4's '' PM'', ''The World Tonight'', '' Sunday'' and '' Front Row'' and has presented the ...

and Felicity Evans to regularly present on Thursdays, Fridays and in Shah's absence. Between 1989 and 2012, the main presenter was

Robin Lustig Robin Francis Lustig (born 30 August 1948, London) is a British journalist and radio broadcaster, who has presented programmes for the BBC World Service and BBC Radio 4. Family Lustig was born in Stoke Newington, London, to Jewish refugees ...

History

''The World Tonight'' was first broadcast on 6 April 1970, starting on the same day as the PM Programme. It was introduced following the changes at

Broadcasting House Broadcasting House is the headquarters of the BBC, in Portland Place and Langham Place, London. The first radio broadcast from the building was made on 15 March 1932, and the building was officially opened two months later, on 15 May. The main ...

which ushered in

Radio 1 Radio 1 or Radio One most commonly refers to: *BBC Radio 1, a music radio station from the BBC ** BBC Radio 1Xtra, a digital radio station broadcasting black music *CBC Radio One, a talk radio station operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporatio ...

, to create "the serious current affairs programme of the day" on the new Radio 4, as one survivor recalls. Broadcast live at 10 pm, initially for only thirty minutes, its tone was set by presenter Douglas Stuart, a former

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

and

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...

correspondent for the BBC. The first edition contained interviews on

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

and relations between

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Later that week, ideas for better government in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

and peace in the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

were featured. Its focus on international news was set early on by events in Washington surrounding

Watergate The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974 that led to Nixon's resignation. The scandal stemmed from the Nixon administration's continual ...

. The US time zone (five hours behind the UK) meant that the programme could bring up to the minute developments at 10 pm. Its first reporters came from within the ranks of the programme's own producers, which meant that packages or features were cut from a different cloth than standard news reports. Today's ''World Tonight'' reporters may not have come from the same stable but the emphasis on perceptive, contextual reporting has remained. Presenters with strong journalistic credentials, including

John Tusa Sir John Tusa (born 2 March 1936) is a British arts administrator, and radio and television journalist. He is co-chairman of the European Union Youth Orchestra from 2014. chairman, British Architecture Trust Board, RIBA, from 2014. From 1980 to ...

, Anthony Howard,

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 ...

Isabel Hilton Isabel Nancy Hilton OBE (born 25 November 1949) is a Scottish journalist and broadcaster based in London. Early life Hilton was educated at Edinburgh University, where she studied Chinese to post-graduate level. As Secretary of the entirel ...

and

, have secured and maintained the programme's reputation for authoritative coverage. Other notable former staffers include

Dominic Lawson Dominic Ralph Campden Lawson (born 17 December 1956) is a British journalist. Background Lawson was born to a Jewish family, the elder son of Conservative politician Nigel Lawson and his first wife socialite Vanessa Salmon. Lawson was educated ...

, former editor of ''

The Sunday Telegraph ''The Sunday Telegraph'' is a British broadsheet newspaper, founded in February 1961 and published by the Telegraph Media Group, a division of Press Holdings. It is the sister paper of ''The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', kn ...

'', Jim Gray, former editor of ''

Channel 4 News ''Channel 4 News'' is the main news programme on British television broadcaster Channel 4. It is produced by ITN, and has been in operation since Channel 4's launch in November 1982. Current productions ''Channel 4 News'' ''Channel 4 News'' ...

'',

Jonathan Freedland Jonathan Saul Freedland (born 25 February 1967) is a British journalist who writes a weekly column for ''The Guardian''. He presents BBC Radio 4's contemporary history series ''The Long View''. Freedland also writes thrillers, mainly under the ...

of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', and Henry Kelly. Veterans recall the traditionally 'relaxed' figure of the editor. The ''laissez faire'' approach of the boss over the years created a culture in which Output Editors, responsible for daily editions, were able to take risks, some of which have led to notable scoops, such as the predicted arrest on war crimes charges of General Augusto Pinochet in 1998. A staple of the Radio 4 schedule for over four decades, 2013 figures showed ''The World Tonight'' has retained 1.75 million listeners, representing 17.8% of the national radio audience at 10 pm.

In popular culture

* In the 1968 science fiction film '' 2001: A Space Odyssey'', ''The World Tonight'' is depicted as a television news programme on channel "BBC-12". During the programme, a reporter named Martin Amer (played by actor Mike Lovell) interviews the crew of ''Discovery-1'' on a voyage to

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but ...

. The overall host of the show, who leads into the interview segment, is played by

Kenneth Kendall Kenneth Kendall (7 August 1924 – 14 December 2012) was a British broadcaster. He worked for many years as a newsreader for the BBC, where he was a contemporary of fellow newsreaders Richard Baker and Robert Dougall. He is also remembered as ...

. * In the first ever episode of

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

History

In popular culture

Presenters

Current

Past

Editors

Reporters

Current

Past

Awards

See also

Footnotes

External links