History
Prior to the start of Look North, the BBC television region for the North East and Cumbria launched in 1959 from studios at 54 New Bridge Street in Newcastle City Centre. The region began receiving its own nightly news bulletins, originally presented by George House and Tom Kilgour. Previously, the area was served by a pan-regional bulletin from Manchester entitled News from the North, broadcast across the whole of Northern England from 30 September 1957 onwards.
Three years after the launch of the television service, the bulletins were expanded to 20 minutes and relaunched as a daily magazine programme, Home at Six, presented by Frank Bough. After Bough left to join BBC Sport in 1964, Home at Six was relaunched with a new name and a new presenter - Mike Neville, an actor & continuity announcer for Tyne Tees Television who had been anchor of North East Newsview, a nightly regional news programme, for only a few months. Neville soon became a household name and spent the next thirty two years at the BBC in Newcastle, presenting Look North as well as making regular appearances on Nationwide.
For a short period in the late 1980s, Cumbria was switched to the BBC North West region and began receiving North West Tonight instead of Look North, along with a short lunchtime news opt-out. The North East and Cumbria region was reformed after campaigning by viewers in Cumbria that they were being overlooked in favour of news from the more populous areas of the north west, such as Greater Manchester and Merseyside. It was during this time that on 16 January 1988, BBC North East moved to brand new purpose built studios nicknamed 'The Pink Palace' on Barrack Road (A189) in Spital Tongues, along with Radio Newcastle.
In 1996, Mike Neville left the BBC after 32 years to re-join Tyne Tees Television to present their flagship evening news programme North East Tonight. Look North underwent major changes with new presenters Carol Malia and John Lawrence (both former reporters for Tyne Tees) introduced to the programme. Malia is now the sole presenter.
Read more about this topic: BBC Look North (North East And Cumbria)
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