News programmes

• Increase image
• View all images

Bulletins such as Granada Reports - produced out of ITV’s Manchester base - are enjoying unprecedented success.

It’s ironic that as ITV prepares to further reduce its commitment to regional news, bulletins such as Granada Reports - produced out of ITV’s Manchester base - are enjoying unprecedented success.

ITV’s north-west regional news strand made television history when it won the Bafta for best news coverage for its special report on the Morecambe Bay cockling tragedy ahead of entries from BBC’s Ten O’Clock News, ITV Evening News and Channel 4 News - and became the first regional news programme ever to win a Bafta.

Programme editor Richard Frediani said: “For us, just to get nominated was historic regional news had never been recognised since Bafta began.”

The programme, which also won a Broadcast Award and an RTS Journalism Award, notched up 14 points, making it the standout news programme of the year. “A brilliant and ambitious piece of journalism, strong reporting, packaging and interviewing combined to bring home the full impact of the tragedy,” said the RTS judges.

Frediani used the programme’s success as a platform to call for broadcasters to support regional bulletins with funding and airtime. News teams such as Granada’s “have got a role to play and that role is very, very important”, he insisted.

Channel 4 News From Iran - Live from Qom was also rewarded for its bold decision to present a week of live programmes from Iran, winning an RTS award for specialist journalism and being shortlisted by Broadcast and Bafta, earning 10 points and second place in our best news poll.

The RTS jury was particularly impressed by “the depth, range and ambition of the coverage” which included hard-hitting reports from Channel 4 News’ Jon Snow, Lindsey Hilsum and Julian Rush.
“To offer a full week of live programming from Iran was a brave logistical gamble that most definitely paid off,” was the RTS verdict.

ITN continued a strong year of journalism with Selly Oak - a Soldier’s Story, in which ITV News journalist Emma Murphy landed an exclusive about the poor medical treatment of war wounded. “Genuinely shockingÉ it was timely, well shot, very well told and a major embarrassment to the Ministry of Defence,” said judges at the RTS -Journalism Awards, who handed Murphy the award for best home news programme.

Channels and producers

It was a great year for ITN and the ITV Evening News, whose exclusive on Charles Kennedy’s drink problem was the RTS scoop of the year.

This, together with the awards for the Morecambe Bay and Selly Oak stories, earned ITV1 47 points, leaving BBC1 trailing with 17, just ahead of C4. ITN was the standard bearer of news production for the second year running with 51 points.

Most creative news channels

Most creative in-house producers
1 BBC 24
2 Sky News (for Sky News) 12

Most creativeproducers
1 ITN  51
2 Granada 14
3 Sky News (for Five) 4

Granada Reports: The Morecombe Bay Tragedy

“Local news at its boldest and best.” That was the verdict of judges at the Broadcast Awards, who had little hesitation in making Granada Reports’ outstanding special edition coverage of the Morecambe Bay cockling tragedy the best news programme of the year. When the show went on to win a Bafta it underlined the impact that local news can bring to a story of national importance.

Granada Reports’ team of journalists took hold of the story and made it their own, producing a programme that was described as “compelling, ambitious, relevant”. Crucially it also managed
to humanise the story of the 23 illegal immigrant workers who died in Morecambe Bay, Lancashire in
February 2004, cut off by rising tides.

In an 18-month investigation, journalist Elaine Willcox went to China’s Fujian province to interview 17 of the bereaved families and the mother of the cockle pickers’ gangmaster, who was convicted of the manslaughter of 21 of the immigrants.

Having been refused a journalist visa, Willcox travelled as a tourist, risking arrest and deportation. Her efforts succeeded in getting Granada Reports exclusive access and her report became the cornerstone of a multifaceted programme which also included a court report from Ann O’Connor, a reconstruction of the events in February 2004 and an investigation by Ashley Derricott into the government’s reluctance to act on information about illegal cockling.

Most creative news programmes

 The creative report is sponsored by Autodesk