The BBC News at One is the BBC's afternoon news programme on British television channels BBC One and BBC News (UK feed), broadcast weekdays at 1:00pm and produced by BBC News. It is normally broadcast for 30minutes, except on bank holidays when it may be shorter and only shown on BBC One. On the weekends, it is replaced by a shorter bulletin branded as BBC Weekend News. The programme is currently presented by Ben Brown and Jane Hill.
The BBC News at One achieved an average reach of 2.7million viewers per bulletin in 2007, making it the most watched programme on UK daytime television. During the COVID-19 pandemic, audiences reached 4.2 million viewers in 2020.
History
The One O'Clock News launched on 27 October 1986 as part of the new daytime television service on BBC1. It replaced News After Noon programme, which had a two-person presentation team of Richard Whitmore and either Moira Stuart or Frances Coverdale. Martyn Lewis, who had joined the BBC from rival ITN, was the original presenter of the new One O'Clock News, in a single-presenter format. Michael Buerk took over as main presenter in October 1987 when Martyn Lewis left to present the Nine O'Clock News. Philip Hayton acted as main relief presenter from when the programme began, and took over as main anchor in October 1988 when Michael Buerk left to present the Nine O'Clock News along with Martyn Lewis in a single-presenter format. Martyn Lewis and Michael Buerk, the main anchors of the Nine, along with Anna Ford, acted as relief presenters during this period.
A unified look across BBC news output was introduced on 13 April 1993 from N2, and the programme, while retaining the One O'Clock News title, adopted the Silicone graphics computer look, which distorted the image into Virtual Reality, a real studio did exist with changeable panels behind the newsreaders, dependent upon the bulletins, made up of three one metre, three 1.5-metre, and three x three-metre panels, these being kept in storage racks in N2. The programme still kept some of its individuality, such as a reworked version of the theme music, again by George Fenton, with the newer version being performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra at Abbey Road studios. John Tusa and Edward Stourton took over as main presenters at this time. Tusa left the bulletin in 1996, with Stourton taking over as main presenter, and Justin Webb becoming deputy presenter a year later. Anna Ford, who would later become lead anchor of the programme, would also occasionally stand in as presenter.
According to the TV studio history website, N1, was the former World Service studio next door to N2, were both closed around 1998/1999 when the new News Centre opened in Stage 6, understanding – becoming the "property" of BBC Resources, which renamed N1 to TC10 and N2 to TC11, and that Recourses could not afford to refurbish them. Both studios were unused for a couple of years.
A new look across all of BBC News television output on 10 May 1999 meant that for the first time all the main bulletins on BBC One had the same look, the only exception being the title of the programme. At this time Anna Ford took over as the main presenter of the bulletin in 1999, staying until her retirement from newsreading in April 2006. George Alagiah became deputy presenter at the same time until early 2002 when he became the presenter of BBC Four News. Darren Jordon took over from George Alagiah as deputy presenter until late 2006. Following Ford's retirement, Sophie Raworth became lead anchor.
On 22 January 2007, the programme titles were relaunched, along with the rest of the BBC television output, to give an identical series of titles across news programming on all BBC channels.
Between February and August 2008, Kate Silverton took over as main presenter while Sophie Raworth was on maternity leave. After this Kate Silverton became deputy presenter.
On 4 February 2008, the programme temporarily moved studios, from N6 to N8 (the former BBC News 24 studio), as part of restructuring across BBC News. On 21 April 2008 the programme underwent a graphical refresh and returned to the refurbished N6, and was now known as the BBC News at One.
On 5 November 2010, during the National Union of Journalists strike action, former Sky News and GMTV presenter Emma Crosby presented the programme whilst the regular presenters were absent. Further strike dates occurred on 15 July 2011 and 1 August 2011 plus on 28 March 2013. Gavin Grey presented on these days in addition to BBC News Channel.