Tonight (1957 TV series)
Encyclopedia
Tonight was a BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 television current affairs programme presented by Cliff Michelmore
Cliff Michelmore
Arthur Clifford "Cliff" Michelmore CBE is a British television presenter and producer. He is best known for the BBC television programme Tonight, which he presented from 1957 to 1965....

 and broadcast in Britain live on weekday evenings from February 1957 to 1965. The producers were the future Controller of BBC1 Donald Baverstock
Donald Baverstock
Donald Baverstock was a British television producer and executive, born in Cardiff, Wales. He initially worked for BBC Television in their Talks Department, where he was the Editor of the topical magazine programme Highlight and then co-devised and edited its more ambitious and better-remembered...

 and the future Director-General of the BBC
Director-General of the BBC
The Director-General of the British Broadcasting Corporation is chief executive and editor-in-chief of the BBC.The position was formerly appointed by the Board of Governors of the BBC and is now appointed by the BBC Trust....

 Alasdair Milne
Alasdair Milne
Alasdair David Gordon Milne is a former BBC producer who became Controller of BBC Scotland, the BBC's Director of Programmes and then Director-General of the BBC in July 1982. His resignation was forced by the BBC Governors in January 1987, following pressure from the Thatcher government...

. The audience was typically seven million.

BBC TV background

Tonight was, like Six-Five Special
Six-Five Special
The Six-Five Special is a British television programme launched in February 1957 when both television and rock and roll were in their infancy in Britain.-Description:...

, created by the BBC to fill in the 'Toddlers' Truce
Toddlers' Truce
The Toddlers' Truce was a piece of early British television scheduling policy that required transmissions to terminate for an hour each weekday between 6pm and 7pm. This was from the end of Children's TV to the start of the evening schedule, so that young children could be put to bed.-Background:It...

' closed period between 6.00pm and 7.00pm (the 'Truce' was officially abolished only a few days before Tonight was first broadcast). Tonight began broadcasting from the Viking studio in Kensington, known by the BBC as 'studio M'. It eventually transferred to one of the main studios in Lime Grove, Shepherd's Bush
Shepherd's Bush
-Commerce:Commercial activity in Shepherd's Bush is now focused on the Westfield shopping centre next to Shepherd's Bush Central line station and on the many small shops which run along the northern side of the Green....

, west London.

Content and style

The programme covered the arts and sciences as well as topical matters and current affairs. There was a mixture of incisive and light-hearted items: unscripted studio interviews, by Derek Hart
Derek Hart
Derek Osborne Hart was a British actor, journalist and broadcaster best known for his appearances on the BBC's current affairs programme of the 1950s and 1960s, Tonight....

, Geoffrey Johnson-Smith and Michelmore himself; and filmed reports. Reporters included Alan Whicker
Alan Whicker
Alan Donald Whicker, CBE is a British journalist and broadcaster. His career has spanned over 50 years.-Background:Whicker was born to British parents in Cairo, Egypt...

, Fyfe Robertson
Fyfe Robertson
Fyfe Robertson was a Scottish television journalist.He was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and christened James. He was one of six children of Jane Dunlop and James Robertson, a miner, who became a minister in the United Free Church of Scotland. He grew up in poverty but attended the High School of...

, Kenneth Allsop
Kenneth Allsop
Kenneth Allsop was a British broadcaster, author and naturalist. He was a regular reporter on the BBC current affairs programme "Tonight" during the 1960s. He also was Rector of Edinburgh University and won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize...

, Chris Brasher
Chris Brasher
Christopher William "Chris" Brasher CBE was a British athlete, sports journalist and co-founder of the London Marathon.-History:...

, Julian Pettifer
Julian Pettifer
Julian Pettifer OBE is a British television journalist. He was President of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and is Vice President of the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts...

, Brian Redhead
Brian Redhead
Brian Leonard Redhead was a British author, journalist and broadcaster. He was probably best known as a co-presenter of the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 which he worked on from 1975 until 1993, shortly before his death...

 and Polly Elwes
Polly Elwes
Polly Elwes, born Mary Freya Elwes , was a BBC Television in-vision announcer from 1957 to 1960. She attended the Central School of Speech and Drama, now a part of the University of London.-Television career:...

.

The programme received the Guild of Television Producers and Directors (now BAFTA
British Academy Television Awards
The British Academy Television Awards are presented in an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts . They have been awarded annually since 1954, and are analogous to the Emmy Awards in the United States.-Background:...

) award for best factual programme in 1957 and 1958. The style was informal with no attempt to hide studio equipment. Michelmore gave a very relaxed performance, sometimes perching on the edge of his desk, seemingly unfazed by the ringing of his desk telephone letting him know about technical problems. There were regular appearances by Cy Grant
Cy Grant
Cy Grant was a Guyanese actor, singer, writer and poet, who in the 1950s became the first black person to appear regularly on British television...

, singing a "topical calypso
Calypso music
Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago from African and European roots. The roots of the genre lay in the arrival of enslaved Africans, who, not being allowed to speak with each other, communicated through song...

", and folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

 singers Robin Hall
Robin Hall
Robin Hall was a Scottish folksinger.He was born in Edinburgh but spent his childhood years in Glasgow. After studying at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, he briefly became an actor....

 and Jimmie MacGregor
Jimmie MacGregor
Jimmie Macgregor is a Scottish folksinger and broadcaster.He was born in Glasgow and studied at Glasgow School of Art, becoming a potter and teacher....

. Michelmore became known for his catchphrase when closing the show, "That's all for tonight, the next 'Tonight' will be tomorrow night. Until then, good night!"

It was during an edition of Tonight broadcast on the evening of Friday 22 November 1963 that BBC television broke the news of the assassination
John F. Kennedy assassination
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States, was assassinated at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas...

 of United States President John F. Kennedy to UK viewers, although Granada Television
Granada Television
Granada Television is the ITV contractor for North West England. Based in Manchester since its inception, it is the only surviving original ITA franchisee from 1954 and is ITV's most successful....

 had already broadcast the news in its northern ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...

 region.

A new programme under the name, presented by Sue Lawley
Sue Lawley
- Early life and education:Born in Sedgley, Staffordshire, England and brought up in the Black Country, she was educated at Dudley Girls High School and graduated in modern languages from the University of Bristol and some time later started her career at the BBC in Plymouth...

, Denis Tuohy
Denis Tuohy
Denis Tuohy, , is a television broadcaster, actor, newsreader, and journalist who was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland and now lives in County Down. He participated in several of the BBC's current affairs programmes of the 1970s, including the long-running Panorama and also presented ITV's This Week...

 and Donald MacCormick
Donald MacCormick
Donald MacCormick was a Scottish broadcast journalist.MacCormick's father was a Glasgow teacher who died when Donald was six...

, was launched on BBC1 in September 1975, in a late evening slot. When Lawley left to have a baby, Valerie Singleton replaced her on the show, which continued until 1979. Newsnight
Newsnight
Newsnight is a BBC Television current affairs programme noted for its in-depth analysis and often robust cross-examination of senior politicians. Jeremy Paxman has been its main presenter for over two decades....

, on BBC2, was its replacement.

External links

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