Coast to Coast (UK TV series)
Encyclopedia
Coast to Coast was the flagship regional news programme produced by Television South
, covering the south and southeast of England with separate news services for both parts of the dual-region between January 1982 and December 1992.
had produced Day by Day for over 20 years alongside separate news bulletins for both sub-regions and Scene South East, a weekly magazine programme for the South East (supplemented in later years by Scene Midweek).
The first edition of Coast to Coast was broadcast on New Year's Day 1982 at 9:25am with a pan-regional special entitled Bring in the New (TVS' first programme), introducing the new station and featuring TVS' first news bulletins. The first sub-regional editions of the programme were aired at 5:15pm on the same evening - reportedly watched by nearly a million viewers.
Originally, the programme aired between 5:30pm & 6:30pm, consisting of two sub-regional segments at 5:30pm & 6:20pm, ITN's News at 545 bulletin and a pan-regional segment at 6:00pm. Within several months of launch, the main evening edition was cut to 30 minutes at 6pm and became a fully separate programme. Former ITN reporter and newsreader Robert Southgate was the first head of news and current affairs for TVS.
The programme was originally presented by Khalid Aziz
and utilised many former Southern Television
staff including sports presenter Fred Dinenage
and weatherman Trevor Baker. Dinenage was promoted to become main anchor when Aziz left Coast to Coast a year later to concentrate on business programming for TVS. After a period presenting alongside Christopher Peacock, Dinenage was joined by Fern Britton
in 1985 - a partnership which continued for much of the programme's run until Britton's departure shortly before TVS went off air in December 1992. Other presenters for the South edition included newsreaders James Montgomery, John Doyle, Debbie Thrower
, Jane Wyatt, Keith Akehurst, Mai Davies
and Debbie Middleton, sports presenters David Bobin
& Gareth Evans and weather presenters Anne Purvis and Carl Tyler.
and, by October 1982, from the purpose-built TVS Television Centre
in Maidstone
- a district newsroom was located in Brighton to cover East Sussex. An ultra-local opt-out for viewers in Brighton and the surrounding areas was later developed, produced from the Brighton newsroom but broadcast from a small continuity studio in Maidstone.
Originally presented by Vyvyan Mackeson, the programme's launch team also included a number of former Southern TV presenters and reporters including sports presenter Mike Field (who presented the programme's predecessor, Scene South East), Mike Fuller, Arnie Wilson and weatherman Ron Lobeck. Mackeson left Coast to Coast after several months and was replaced by former BBC News
reporter Mike Debens as main anchor. Debens went on to become the programme's longest serving main presenter, partnered on-screen by a number of co-anchors including Merrill Harries, Mike Fuller, Cheryl Armitage, Anna Maria Ashe
and Liz Wickham. Other key reporters and presenters on the Coast to Coast team included Cathy Alexander, Jackie Bird
, Paul Davies, Anne Dawson
and Kerry Swain.
The South East news team covered a number of major news stories during the programme's eleven years on air including the sinking of the Herald of Free Enterprise, the construction of the Channel Tunnel
, the IRA bombings of the Brighton Grand Hotel & the Royal Marines base in Deal, and the Great Storm of 1987. The programme won the Royal Television Society Award for Britain's best regional news programme in 1983.
equipped with remote control camera and facilities to receive live pictures beamed up to it from two Land Rover Discovery
mobile up-link units. This system was brought into use in 1990 and relayed live news coverage from anywhere in the South and South East to reception dishes located on the region's main transmitter masts.
Both the South and the South East editions of Coast to Coast also utilised a newsroom at the QE2 Conference Centre in London - particularly for Parliamentary coverage.
The programme also spawned a spin-off lunchtime chat show entitled Coast to Coast People, broadcast as two separate programmes for the South and South East. For one week in 1990, TVS also piloted a 30-minute late night edition of the programme entitled Coast to Coast Late.
, signalling the end for Coast to Coast.
The final editions of the programme were aired as an hour-long special on 31 December 1992. In the South, Fred Dinenage and Mai Davies presented a regular edition featuring the last part of a feature series looking back at the past eleven years of news coverage provided by TVS. Meanwhile in the South East, Mike Debens and Liz Wickham presented a more retrospective programme featuring an invited studio audience. The last South edition closed with a montage of presenters and reporters while the last South East edition closed with a live performance of the programme's signature tune by the Band of the Royal Marines in Deal, Kent.
Television South
Television South was the ITV franchise holder in the south and south east of England between 1 January 1982 and 31 December 1992. The company operated under various names, initially as Television South plc and then following reorganisation in 1989 as TVS Entertainment plc, with its UK...
, covering the south and southeast of England with separate news services for both parts of the dual-region between January 1982 and December 1992.
Beginnings
Coast to Coast was launched in January 1982 as TVS' nightly regional news magazine with two distinct editions for both the South and the South East. Previously, TVS's successors Southern TelevisionSouthern Television
Southern Television was the first ITV broadcasting licence holder for the south and south-east of England from 30 August 1958 until the night of 31 December 1981. The company was launched as Southern Television Limited and the title Southern Television was consistently used on-air throughout its life...
had produced Day by Day for over 20 years alongside separate news bulletins for both sub-regions and Scene South East, a weekly magazine programme for the South East (supplemented in later years by Scene Midweek).
The first edition of Coast to Coast was broadcast on New Year's Day 1982 at 9:25am with a pan-regional special entitled Bring in the New (TVS' first programme), introducing the new station and featuring TVS' first news bulletins. The first sub-regional editions of the programme were aired at 5:15pm on the same evening - reportedly watched by nearly a million viewers.
Originally, the programme aired between 5:30pm & 6:30pm, consisting of two sub-regional segments at 5:30pm & 6:20pm, ITN's News at 545 bulletin and a pan-regional segment at 6:00pm. Within several months of launch, the main evening edition was cut to 30 minutes at 6pm and became a fully separate programme. Former ITN reporter and newsreader Robert Southgate was the first head of news and current affairs for TVS.
South edition
The South edition of Coast to Coast was produced and broadcast from TVS' main studios in Southampton with district newsrooms latterly opened in Reading (covering the Thames Valley) and Poole (covering Dorset). From 12 December 1988 to 31 December 1992, an opt-out for viewers served by the Hannington transmitter was broadcast during the main 6pm programme - produced from TVS' Reading newsroom and broadcast from a small continuity studio in Southampton. The South edition won the Royal Television Society's Best News Programme of the Year award in 1989 and 1991.The programme was originally presented by Khalid Aziz
Khalid Aziz
Khalid Aziz LVO DL started his career as a journalist, becoming the youngest producer in the BBC at Radio Leicester. And at the age of 24, the youngest presenter of a 6 o'clock BBC TV regional news programme, Look North from Leeds...
and utilised many former Southern Television
Southern Television
Southern Television was the first ITV broadcasting licence holder for the south and south-east of England from 30 August 1958 until the night of 31 December 1981. The company was launched as Southern Television Limited and the title Southern Television was consistently used on-air throughout its life...
staff including sports presenter Fred Dinenage
Fred Dinenage
Frederick Edgar Dinenage, MBE is an English television host and newsreader, based in the south of England.Dinenage has appeared as presenter of many British television programmes , such as Gambit , Tell The Truth, How and its successor How...
and weatherman Trevor Baker. Dinenage was promoted to become main anchor when Aziz left Coast to Coast a year later to concentrate on business programming for TVS. After a period presenting alongside Christopher Peacock, Dinenage was joined by Fern Britton
Fern Britton
Fern Britton is an English television presenter, known as the former main co-presenter on the ITV magazine programme This Morning alongside Phillip Schofield. She left the show on 17 July 2009, her 52nd birthday.- Early life :...
in 1985 - a partnership which continued for much of the programme's run until Britton's departure shortly before TVS went off air in December 1992. Other presenters for the South edition included newsreaders James Montgomery, John Doyle, Debbie Thrower
Debbie Thrower
Debbie Thrower is a British television presenter who anchored for ITV Meridian's flagship news programme Meridian Tonight from its inception in 1993 to 2009...
, Jane Wyatt, Keith Akehurst, Mai Davies
Mai Davies
Mai Davies is a Welsh journalist and television presenter.Born in Carmarthen, South Wales, she started her career at HTV Wales in Cardiff as a reporter and presenter on Wales at 6,'...
and Debbie Middleton, sports presenters David Bobin
David Bobin
David Bobin is an English sports journalist mainly known for his work on television. Bobin currently broadcasts for Sky Sports.Bobin began his career as newspaper journalist in Oxford during the 1960s before graduating to television with Southern Television in 1975. He continued to appear on ITV...
& Gareth Evans and weather presenters Anne Purvis and Carl Tyler.
South East edition
The South East edition of Coast to Coast was produced and broadcast originally from a small studio in Dover previously used by Southern TelevisionSouthern Television
Southern Television was the first ITV broadcasting licence holder for the south and south-east of England from 30 August 1958 until the night of 31 December 1981. The company was launched as Southern Television Limited and the title Southern Television was consistently used on-air throughout its life...
and, by October 1982, from the purpose-built TVS Television Centre
The Maidstone Studios
The Maidstone Studios, formerly called TVS Television Centre is a television studio complex with radio studio facilities based at Vinters Park in Maidstone, Kent UK...
in Maidstone
Maidstone
Maidstone is the county town of Kent, England, south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town linking Maidstone to Rochester and the Thames Estuary. Historically, the river was a source and route for much of the town's trade. Maidstone was the centre of the agricultural...
- a district newsroom was located in Brighton to cover East Sussex. An ultra-local opt-out for viewers in Brighton and the surrounding areas was later developed, produced from the Brighton newsroom but broadcast from a small continuity studio in Maidstone.
Originally presented by Vyvyan Mackeson, the programme's launch team also included a number of former Southern TV presenters and reporters including sports presenter Mike Field (who presented the programme's predecessor, Scene South East), Mike Fuller, Arnie Wilson and weatherman Ron Lobeck. Mackeson left Coast to Coast after several months and was replaced by former BBC News
BBC News
BBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
reporter Mike Debens as main anchor. Debens went on to become the programme's longest serving main presenter, partnered on-screen by a number of co-anchors including Merrill Harries, Mike Fuller, Cheryl Armitage, Anna Maria Ashe
Anna Maria Ashe
Anna Maria Ashe is a former British television presenter, best known as a newsreader for the local news programme, London Tonight, originally produced by the now defunct London News Network.-Announcing and newsreading in Scotland:...
and Liz Wickham. Other key reporters and presenters on the Coast to Coast team included Cathy Alexander, Jackie Bird
Jackie Bird
Jackie Bird is a Scottish journalist and newsreader, working for BBC Scotland.-Career:After working as a reporter for The Sun newspaper, Bird joined Television South in Maidstone as a reporter and presenter for the South East edition of regional news programme Coast to Coast.She has been a main...
, Paul Davies, Anne Dawson
Anne Dawson (broadcaster)
Anne Dawson is a British academic, formerly a broadcast journalist and television presenter.-Journalism career:After studying English at university, Salisbury-born Dawson began her career as a trainee journalist at a local newspaper before joining BBC South Today in Southampton as a production...
and Kerry Swain.
The South East news team covered a number of major news stories during the programme's eleven years on air including the sinking of the Herald of Free Enterprise, the construction of the Channel Tunnel
Channel Tunnel
The Channel Tunnel is a undersea rail tunnel linking Folkestone, Kent in the United Kingdom with Coquelles, Pas-de-Calais near Calais in northern France beneath the English Channel at the Strait of Dover. At its lowest point, it is deep...
, the IRA bombings of the Brighton Grand Hotel & the Royal Marines base in Deal, and the Great Storm of 1987. The programme won the Royal Television Society Award for Britain's best regional news programme in 1983.
Production notes
TVS was the first television station in Britain to have its own dedicated live-link news helicopter - an Aerospatiale Twin SquirrelEurocopter AS355
The Eurocopter AS355 Ecureuil 2 is a twin-engine light helicopter originally manufactured by Aérospatiale...
equipped with remote control camera and facilities to receive live pictures beamed up to it from two Land Rover Discovery
Land Rover Discovery
The Discovery was introduced into the United Kingdom in 1989. The company code-named the vehicle "Project Jay". The new model was based on the chassis and drivetrain of the more upmarket Range Rover, but with a lower price aimed at a larger market segment and intended to compete with Japanese...
mobile up-link units. This system was brought into use in 1990 and relayed live news coverage from anywhere in the South and South East to reception dishes located on the region's main transmitter masts.
Both the South and the South East editions of Coast to Coast also utilised a newsroom at the QE2 Conference Centre in London - particularly for Parliamentary coverage.
The programme also spawned a spin-off lunchtime chat show entitled Coast to Coast People, broadcast as two separate programmes for the South and South East. For one week in 1990, TVS also piloted a 30-minute late night edition of the programme entitled Coast to Coast Late.
The End of Coast to Coast
On 16 October 1991, Television South learned it was to lose its ITV regional franchise for the South and South East of England to Meridian BroadcastingMeridian Broadcasting
Meridian Broadcasting is the holder of the ITV franchise for the South and South East of England. The station is owned and operated by ITV plc, under the licensee of ITV Broadcasting Limited....
, signalling the end for Coast to Coast.
The final editions of the programme were aired as an hour-long special on 31 December 1992. In the South, Fred Dinenage and Mai Davies presented a regular edition featuring the last part of a feature series looking back at the past eleven years of news coverage provided by TVS. Meanwhile in the South East, Mike Debens and Liz Wickham presented a more retrospective programme featuring an invited studio audience. The last South edition closed with a montage of presenters and reporters while the last South East edition closed with a live performance of the programme's signature tune by the Band of the Royal Marines in Deal, Kent.
External links
- TVS News at TV Ark